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Nokia NGage 2 Press Conference
Today reminded me of the old Hebrew proverb, “Man makes plans and God laughs”. Much to my chagrin, I missed both the Microsoft and Nintendo Press Conferences. Everyone who’s everyone had planned on going to the Big 3 press conferences. After all they are the Big 3 players in the industry. Any plans to go to Nokia’s NGage press conference, however, were just afterthoughts; tiny blips on the radar screen barely noticed by most of the press. In New York, they’d call it off-Broadway. After all, Nokia did not impress last year’s crowds at its E3 NGage press conference, nor did it impress the general public in the last 7 months since the NGage’s October 7th, 2003 release. 7 hasn’t been a lucky number for Nokia. But today in LA, we looked at the number 7 and laughed.
The Lakers had been having trouble with the number 7 as well. After all only 7 teams have ever comeback from the 0-2 deficit that the Lakers had found themselves in the NBA semifinals. But today at the Staple Center, right next door to the E3 convention, the Lakers broke even. And today in the Cooper Building, just a half-mile south of the Staple Center, Nokia rekindled hope in the NGage despite 7 months of despair.
Like the Lakers, Nokia’s victorious comeback is still uncertain, but it has rallied for a comeback nonetheless. But that’s just my opinion, take it for what it’s worth and read on.
Prelude
Despite my underwhelming expectations for the NGage press conference, I couldn’t help but inhale the smoggy air and realize that it was laced with anticipation. The Staple Center was warming up for the NBA Semifinals and the Convention Center was warming up for the E3. It was in the North Hall of the Convention Center that I met ever-reliable Vince, ever-stylish Brandon, effervescent Tim and his ever-loyal companion FFDog. We met up, badged up and boarded up on a bus to the Cooper Building, where the Nokia NGage conference was to be held. The location of the conference was rather poetic, as it straddles the line between upper and lower downtown LA, rich and poor, metropolitan and Mexican. Likewise, Nokia’s position in the portable game market was stuck somewhere in the middle. I wasn’t shy on sharing this with my newfound foreign friends, like Kikizo’s Sharan Dev Jain. Foreign may be too harsh for a Brit, perhaps I should by him another drink and apologize.
On second, thought, scratch that. I’m going to save that money and buy a drink for that babe Brittany, that model Michelle, and that mysterious but marvelous Maurice and two beautiful but unfortunately anonymous blondes. As you may have now guessed, Nokia not only stocked up a full FREE bar, but also a bevy of beauties to pass out Sushi and Nokia NGages. But don’t take my word, look for yourself.
But I digress, before the babes, there was a social lesson. For no sooner had we arrived at the Cooper Building, than we caught the attention question from a well-built, well-looking young black man and his entourage of friends.
“Where are you from man?” he said inquisitively.
“Oh, I’m from LA, but these guys are from London. Where are you from?” said I querulously.
“80th and Vermont…home of the riots,” he noted somewhat emphatically.
As he finished this sentence, I felt an awkward silence that was punctuated by awkward laughter from him and his friends as they walked off, as if to say, “Silly rabbit, this neighborhood ain’t for kids.” Maybe I should have introduced them to my friend FFDog, that wouldn’t be awkward.
INSIDE
We entered the building, which wasn’t awkward at all. The faces of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and other famous musicians looked upon us behind their glass displays as we strolled down the corridor of the lobby and into the elevator. Several floors later, the doors opened to a red dimly-lit room and techno music, much like last year’s NGage press conference only more stylishly executed. Next was getting my pass into the conference. Fortunately, I got placed with a lovely Filipina gal, who unfortunately told me I wasn’t on the list. I was sent to the VIP table, where I quickly received my pass. Not one to question good luck, I ran for the bar.
Three Kirins and several sushi later, the voice on the loudspeaker told us to take a seat and hear from the head honchos from ahigh, the Nokia NGage executives. Whether it was Senior Vice President of Games Business Unit, Illka Raiskinen, Director of Games Publishing, Pasi Polonen, or General Manager of Games Business Unit, Nada Usina, the Finns were in full force. Let me just say I love their accent.
It colored the entire speech, just like the constant clinks of Kirin bottles rocked across the floor by shuffling feet. You can’t blame them for shuffling. Its natural, and the speech was very stiff. By contrast, the constant chatter of the bespectacled gentleman with the pony-tail to the right of me was not stiff. Nonetheless, Nokia said some important things. Let me recap them for you.
It didn’t take long for the opening speaker to admit to the lackluster last 6 months of sales for NGage, which he admitted were “tough”. Yet he quickly qualified this admission with the assurance that Nokia is a smart company that can and indeed has learned from its mistakes by listening to the consumers, all of whom are early adopters. In fact it is the brief period of time between the original NGage and NGage 2 that is both a sign of poor sales and a symbol of frustration for the early adopters, who shelled out $299 for the multifaceted portable system. During the Q&A session this issue came up, as one member of the press asked if Nokia would allow its early adopters to trade in their NGages for NGage 2s. The answer was a no, with an ambiguous qualification that it will allow interesting offers to upgrade in various countries. I truly hope it delivers on this promise, otherwise it will have committed the sin of Sega. Anyone who remembers the Sega Genesis cum CD, cum 32X knows what I mean. As it stands, there are several nasty consequences of releasing an expensive system and a slightly less-expensive upgrade within half-a-year of each other. The poor attempts to assuage this sense of anger on the part of the Nokia brass testifies to this.
What’s Improved: Hardware
The new NGage is slightly smaller than the first, and a little more streamlined in its button layout and shape. That notwithstanding, its pretty much the same thing on the outside. Inside it has improved telecommunication abilities, which merely facilitate Nokia’s plan to capitalize on communication and the community experience it engenders. It will utilize the pre-existing NGage Arena, which for the time being is a complimentary service from Nokia. If the NGage Arena user-base grows it will become a pay service like XBOX live.
Nokia is betting most of its chips on the community experience of the NGage, which is the intersection between the communication abilities of the NGage and the NGage Arena. Thus many of the new games shown at the press conference, such as Pocket Kingdom, are either MMORPGs or have a MMO aspect to their gameplay. I wasn’t impressed by Pocket Kingdom because of the dungeon and dragon style format of the game. It is a war strategy game but the graphic layout doesn’t engender much connection or interactivity into the battle scenes, which are absolutely boring, head to head or not. I have yet to see a killer MMO game, and since Nokia verily said that it must produce games to justify the hardware, it must do so soon.
And perhaps it has. There was a trailer for a racing game called Glimmerati, which featured little gameplay but copious amounts of silhouetted females in a variety of provocative poses. This, in conjunction with its slick, stylish presentation, got a lot of wheels turning.
Sims’ Busting Out wasn’t a fully-fledged MMORPG, but there is an online component to it that I am not completely clear on. Besides downloading top-scores, it appears that one can swap characters.
On the non MMO side of the equation, there is a great line-up of games, thanks to improved 3rd party support. Capcom will offer MegaMan Battle Network, and Atari will
The games lineup has improved with increased 3rd party support, most notably from EA and Hudson. The latest additions to the FIFA, PGA Tour and NCAA Series will arrive on the NGage by this year, along with SSX3. Hudson will publish King of Fighters and Metal Slug, and bring some Neo-Geo to the NGage. Awesome.
The new First-Person Shooter cum Survival Horror, Ashen by developer Torus Games looks cool, as does Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. I enjoyed Crash Bandicoot’s Nitro Kart Racing, which like many of the games I sampled, had a solid frame rate that balanced out the NGage’s rough 3D textures.
Finally there was Pathway to Glory, which is an excellent looking, and certainly well-researched WW2 turn-based strategy game. The graphics are good, and the action seems quickly paced. This, like Glitterati, have the aura of innovation and originality to them that give the rather rank-and-file NGage library a fresh, vibrant feel. If you put Take-2’s Rockstar logo on Gliterrati, no one would doubt it.
Nokia put on a great show with great games. The only thing that will hinder it is the price-point and the comparative advantage/disadvantage to the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Unfortunately, I truly feel that these two systems will prove superior to the NGage technically, and therefore have a strong advantage over the NGage in cross-portable platform 3rd party titles. As it stands, the DS and PSP have a strong advantage in first party titles. Graphically, the NGage is somewhere between the DS, PSP and the Gameboy Advance. Like the Dreamcast, I fear it will be a system with a solid library that is stuck in a generation gap that occurs when a company loses the classic game of system leapfrog that might look a little like this:
1. N64/PSOne 1.5 Dreamcast 2. PS2/XBOX/Gamecube
1. GBA/GBA SP 1.5 NGage 2. DS/PSP
The NGage’s advantages are connectivity, and some strong original exclusive content. The new price will be somewhere between $99 and $199 dollars. The cheaper the better for Nokia, especially when the new kids on the block, the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, are right around the corner.
We’ll have to wait and see.
Asia-Pacific
Nokia’s NGage director in the Asia-Pacific answered some questions regarding the company’s plan for the NGage 2 in Asia. Here’s the lowdown:
Asia Divided:
Nokia NGage Asia-Pacific does not encompass the People’s Republic of China for a variety of “business” reasons that he only vaguely discussed. Allow me to fill in the blanks. The PRC’s legal, macroeconomic and microeconomic institutions are not very transparent, leaving manufacturing as the only sure bet for foreign direct investment. Furthermore, the PRC is so large it could constitute its own market, such as the United States or Japan. Thus the PRC is covered by a separate branch of Nokia NGage.
Regardless of who’s on base with the PRC, it’s safe to say Nokia hasn’t gotten as far as first due to the aforementioned reasons. Yet there is also a technical reason for Nokia’s lack of penetration into not only the PRC, but also South Korea and Japan: lack of GSM infrastructure. There are no GSM operators in these nations, although this may change.
Australia and Singapore are the main markets and money makers for NGage Asia-Pacific. As the director, himself a proud Australian, explained, these countries are simply the most developed of the available markets. Hong Kong is also a strong contender as the third most profitable market for NGage Asia-Pacific.
Finally, NGage Asia-Pacific plans to enter India.
Games
Obviously, the NGage games shown at the press conference will be distributed to the various Asia-Pacific markets as is appropriate. Australia and Singapore will absorb all the games at the E3 lineup.
josh hsieh
hungers for more sushi
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