Nokia Begins New N-Gage Service Trials

Officials from Finnish mobile phone company Nokia have announced that, together with local telecommunications company Elisa, they are to carry out a pilot of the new N-Gage mobile gaming service – set to run between February and mid 2007. Elisa will combine its existing mobile gaming platform with the Nokia N-Gage gaming platform and carry out testing and evaluation in a live network environment. Nokia device owners are promised improved game quality, performance and a new intuitive games interface. Additional previous reports regarding the system have revealed an array of major-publisher support for the networked service, which will allow digital downloading of custom cellphone games and a number of Xbox Live-style connectivity and community features. The service itself is due to launch in mid 2007. “The core of the Nokia games strategy is to make it easy for people to find, buy and play great quality mobile games and we’re excited to expand our relationship with Elisa to help make this possible,” said Jaakko Kaidesoja, director, games, multimedia, Nokia. “This pilot will help us further refine the N-Gage experience for our commercial launch later this year.”