The N-Gage platform aims to usher in a new age of high quality connected phone gaming. However if you upgrade to a new phone, you cannot transfer any of your N-Gage games from the old phone. In this feature article All About N-Gage looks at the situation, possible consequences and potential solutions.

Read on in the full article (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/7333_N-Gage_games_locked_to_single_.php).

This week we had something rather nasty confirmed to us by Nokia: when you upgrade to a new phone, the only way to keep your N-Gage games is to buy them all over again. Read our special feature article on all the implications of this policy, why it's an awful idea, and how Nokia ought to change their policy to allow people to transfer their game libraries.

Read on in the full article (http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7334_Want_to_move_your_N-Gage_games.php).

Wow, this is very unfortunate news :(

I seriously belived the games were linked to the N-Gage account and not the phone. Cause that would make so much more sense. Now the N-Gage suddenly got a lot less attractive to me.

Unless there's a really mindblowingly awesome single player RPG released soon (like Rifts for original N-Gage), I don't really care anymore if my next phone is a non-N-Gage phone. There are good java games out there (such as Sola Rola & Puzzle Quest) and I might just stick to those.

This is really confusing.

Nokia must realise more than anyone that people change phones often, sometimes even during contracts.

I seriously belived the games were linked to the N-Gage account and not the phone. Cause that would make so much more sense. Now the N-Gage suddenly got a lot less attractive to me.

That's exactly how I feel. The platform has so much potential, and this policy just ruins it.

It seems that Nokia did originally want to link it just to an account, because the early N-Gage demo videos from 2006 included a "game locker" feature for PCs that let you load a phone with games just like loading an iPod with music.

Hopefully Nokia will go back to their original plans when they realise how stupid the current situation is.


Nokia must realise more than anyone that people change phones often, sometimes even during contracts.

Yup, and you'd think Nokia would want to encourage people to change phones often, because they make a profit on the hardware sales.

Ive never been much into games on mobiles, but I was always keen to see some of the Ngage stuff. Sooner or later a game was going to come up that suited me, and they are reasonably cheap.

If I cant take it with me when I upgrade, (or my phone dies) which is at least once every 18 months, then Im not interested in Ngage at all.

I cant put into words what a bad move I think this is.

I really really REALLY hope Nokia change their policy about this...

I really really REALLY hope Nokia change their policy about this...
So do I. The N-Gage accounts are already there. Don't see why they wouldn't be able to take advantage of that instead.

This insane policy ruins N-Gage for me

I have bought a couple of Games, Tetris and Brain Challenge and was going to buy the Creatures of the Deep and Mile High Pinball games.

But if you can't swop devices what is the point, I tend to change my devices a couple of times a year.

Sorry Nokia, unless you change this policy, you won't be getting anymore of my cash.

If anyone wants to make their feelings known directly to Nokia, they might want to post on the official N-Gage forums:

http://forums.arena.n-gage.com/

or i wont buy. piracy ftw!

Oh wow, censorship! :-)

According to our site stats, someone DID post a link to our story from the official N-Gage forums, but it's now been deleted!

Here's where it would have been:

http://forums.arena.n-gage.com/nokia/board/message?board.id=3&thread.id=46192

EDIT: Ok being fair it was actually merged into another thread: http://forums.arena.n-gage.com/nokia/board/message?board.id=3&thread.id=46104&view=by_date_ascending&page=3

and by the end of the month they will be giving it away games for free. Or maybe even paying games companies to give them away for free.

and by the end of the month they will be giving it away games for free. Or maybe even paying games companies to give them away for free.

The games aren't the problem, it's the DRM system that people are complaining about.

People do want the games, but Nokia won't let them keep them after changing phones. If people didn't want the games, there wouldn't be such a fuss about this restriction.

If anyone wants to make their feelings known directly to Nokia, they might want to post on the official N-Gage forums:

http://forums.arena.n-gage.com/

Have done now. Probably be better if someone made a poll and then gave a link.

Whoa, I can't even believe that this is true. It's so easy to link games to an account, not a phone.

Piracy for me then, lol.

I thought the games were locked to the account and not the phone, well for this reason I'm not buying a single game untill they fix this. Nokia, what were you thinking?

Good call, Krisse. I would go further to suggest that all feedback/comments be centralized into this one thread:

http://forums.arena.n-gage.com/nokia/board/message?board.id=3&thread.id=46104&view=by_date_ascending&page=3

Having 15 threads about the same issue is just a mess and makes it less likely to be heard. Everyone should go in and comment on the one thread, so that the N-Gage team can see that this is a big deal.

I think Ricky is right, that's the thread people should post their feedback to Nokia in.

The N-Gage people really do read that forum, not just administrators but developers and executives too. There's a good chance they're reading it right now! :-)

Here's the more general link to that same thread, rather than a specific page. Post your opinions to Nokia at this link folks!

http://forums.arena.n-gage.com/nokia/board/message?board.id=3&thread.id=46104

Thanks for cleaning up the link, Krisse. :)

Nasty indeed - but if a good solution to allow using the game on all phones owned by a single individual, I would imagine Nokia would be willing to reconsider.

Btw, where, how and by whom was this confirmed to you by Nokia?

Nasty indeed - but if a good solution to allow using the game on all phones owned by a single individual, I would imagine Nokia would be willing to reconsider.

We already suggested two solutions at the end of the article, one of which (I'm guessing) is actually already possible with Nokia's infrastructure but Nokia doesn't use it.

However, it may be that Nokia is contractually forbidden by third party publishers from letting games be transferred, in which case the solution has to be commercial rather than technical.


Btw, where, how and by whom was this confirmed to you by Nokia?

The first thing we did was actually try to transfer the games using Nokia customer service. They told us it wasn't possible (except for repair-replaced phones).

As it says in the article, we wanted to make sure this wasn't a mistake so we contacted various people in Nokia's gaming departments and they all confirmed it to us.

To follow up, it's only natural that we at All About Symbian / N-Gage can address concerns to those people we know in Nokia, who can then address the question to the relevant department. I think it's unfair to point at one person in Nokia and say 'XXXX said it,' because of the resulting email that person is likely to get, needless to say the current policy was confirmed by more than one trusted source in Nokia that were in positions to know, and those sources are 'on the record' with us - nothing shady involved.

Just to add, we're all huge fans of N-Gage at All About N-Gage / All About Symbian, and we want to see the platform succeed. It has the potential to become the biggest gaming platform in history.

The reason we're publishing this article is because we don't think it has any chance of succeeding with the current system of locking games to one phone forever. Hopefully the response generated by this article will make Nokia understand and change the locking system before the N-Gage platform enters the mainstream by being embedded in phones.

In short, this article is "tough love". :-)

In short, this article is "tough love". :-)

Indeed, but if the the problem is commercial as is possible, then its actually doing nokia a favour by showing the third parties just how many sales will be lost by sticking to this daft method.

Indeed, but if the the problem is commercial as is possible, then its actually doing nokia a favour by showing the third parties just how many sales will be lost by sticking to this daft method.

Well, yes of course, that's the point of tough love: doing someone a favour by criticising them.

Everyone loses from the current one-phone-forever policy: Nokia, N-Gage, gamers and publishers. The policy has to change for everyone's sake.

Sorry, I did not mean that you should name the individual. It does indeed sound reliable since you had it confirmed by a number of individuals. So far N-Gage team has (IMHO) been very responsive and I would not be surprised if they were to at least try to give some kind of rationale for their decision. Bad one as it might be (well: is). I'd give them at least the benefit of doubt of there being something more than just greed behind it. At least I hope there is.

Moronic. Which doughnut thought this idea up? Christ, how to kill a brand in one easy step.

I was thinking about getting a few N-Gage games. I won't bother now I know I'll only be renting them.

So far N-Gage team has (IMHO) been very responsive and I would not be surprised if they were to at least try to give some kind of rationale for their decision. Bad one as it might be (well: is). I'd give them at least the benefit of doubt of there being something more than just greed behind it. At least I hope there is.

Well, we did try to give them the benefit of the doubt all along: we tried to transfer the games, then we tried to contact customer support to transfer the games, then we tried to contact people higher up at Nokia about transferring the games. We didn't do the article until all those methods had failed.

I agree they are clever intelligent people behind N-Gage, but they aren't necessarily powerful people. It may be that they're being forced to use this system by other people, perhaps third party publishers, perhaps other people in Nokia.

We don't know the reason they're using this DRM system, but whatever the reason, it's wrong.

It can't be greed because this system discourages both game and phone sales, so it's actually going to harm Nokia's profits. People won't buy games if they're buying an upgraded phone, and people won't buy phones if they've already bought lots of games.

By locking games to one phone forever, Nokia's distorted all the incentives so that they're actively punishing people who are loyal to their products.

Yep, I got your point and agree with it. All I was trying to say that let's wait and see what the _corporate_ response is - it will probably come in the name of the N-Gage team, but I would be willing to bet is actually a response coordinated at corporate/division level and double checked and triple checked with lawyers and PR specialists etc.

If Nokia changes your IMEI during warranty, happened to me once. I'd loose all my games. This would be terrible publicity for Nokia and create rather much customer animosity. Surely they will reconsider that part of the policy within the year.

I'd be happy with the drm used with Nokia Maps. Change either IMEI or SIM-card. Change both and make a call to get things fixed manually. Perhaps a time limit of 3 years on drm-transfer would be reasonable. Then again the sheer numbers to be expected between n-gage and low price compared to Nokia Maps might make this commercially not very viable.

(Without reading thru the comments) This really sucks. Even the Zune allows for migrating protected content. So do ALL software developers on all mobile platforms.

I find it hilarious that people complain more over this, than they have when Nokia REMOVED features from the N95 after firmware updates.

I find it hilarious that people complain more over this, than they have when Nokia REMOVED features from the N95 after firmware updates.

We're still VERY happy with our v21 and don't really mind the missing past features. At least not me.

Yep, I got your point and agree with it. All I was trying to say that let's wait and see what the _corporate_ response is - it will probably come in the name of the N-Gage team, but I would be willing to bet is actually a response coordinated at corporate/division level and double checked and triple checked with lawyers and PR specialists etc.

The reponse is (and was) that the reason is preventing piracy and protecting partners value etc. ("As with any digital media there is a potential risk of piracy and this policy is one of the ways Nokia is dealing with piracy and ensuring partners receive their rightful revenues from its platform." - also being quoted to other media who as about this.)

That's a reasonable answer in one sense, but doesn't explain why a system could be designed that allows transfers but still stops piracy. As mentioned in the article Nokia Music manages this just fine.

Its likely about what DRM technologies were / are available (e.g. music uses WM DRM), but perhpas the N-Gage stuff was more limited... Ultimately though this was a predictable issue and should have been a fundamental consideration when building / specifying the DRM requirements.

While this is certainly no news, thanks for drawing attention in proper time.
I have above $100 invested into games on a Symbian platform, and they all are locked to my phone's IMEI.
N-Gage has a chance to change the practice, since the N-Gage policies are controlled centrally by Nokia, unlike the decentralized [but coherent] practices of multitude UIQ, S60 'native' developers.

You have got to believe Nokia is trying to prevent fraudulent use of the game by registering it to the IMEI number of the phone. Registering to one's N-Gage account would not have the same effect.
The question for them is; how much ill will would be created to their customer base by this policy?

You have got to believe Nokia is trying to prevent fraudulent use of the game by registering it to the IMEI number of the phone.

Linking to an IMEI isn't the problem.

The problem is the lack of facility for changing that IMEI when the user upgrades their phone.

As long as there's only one IMEI at a time linked to a game then it shouldn't matter if the user changes it from one to another, but Nokia won't allow this change to happen in any way.

The article made this point many times, does anyone actually read these articles before commenting?! ;-)


While this is certainly no news, thanks for drawing attention in proper time.

This is most definitely news! :-)

We got this policy confirmed from Nokia's customer service and from people higher up in the company, which is something no one has done before.


I find it hilarious that people complain more over this, than they have when Nokia REMOVED features from the N95 after firmware updates.

The scandal here is that you have the ENTIRE GAME LIBRARY removed after going to a new phone, not just a feature or two. A library of just 10 games would have cost 100 euros to build up, these aren't small sums of money.

This is something that people aren't warned about properly when they buy games. No one is going to read through a long "terms and conditions" legal document on a mobile phone screen. Whatever DRM they use, Nokia could make the warning much more clear.


(Without reading thru the comments) This really sucks. Even the Zune allows for migrating protected content. So do ALL software developers on all mobile platforms.

So do Nokia, if you want to move protected maps or music bought from them!

But not games for some reason.

An interesting brandrepublic survey was released recently and republished by a new other media outlets including Which and BBC. It showed Nokia as Britains most loved brand, but NGage was one of the top 5 most hated.

An interesting brandrepublic survey was released recently and republished by a new other media outlets including Which and BBC. It showed Nokia as Britains most loved brand, but NGage was one of the top 5 most hated.

Well, I've been saying for a long time Nokia should never have re-used the "n-gage" brand. It doesn't bring them any kind of benefits, but it does bring a lot of drawbacks and unwelcome baggage.

They should have called the service something like "Nokia Games", to go with Nokia Maps and Nokia Music. As you say, Nokia is a very popular brand in itself and a new name would have emphasised that this was a totally new kind of gaming service.

One of the interesting things in the comments on this story on other sites is that MANY people still think we're talking about the gaming phones from 2003/2004. They don't know that the new N-Gage is a platform rather than a device.

----

People might like to know that BBC News has picked up on our story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7414323.stm

BBC News is one of the most read news site in the world (maybe THE most read?).

I don't think Nokia can possibly ignore this issue any more.

People might like to know that BBC News has picked up on our story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7414323.stm

BBC News is one of the most read news site in the world (maybe THE most read?).

I don't think Nokia can possibly ignore this issue any more.

That's pretty cool :D

This is the biggest gaming blunder in the world at present. It severely undermine the essence of most of the games, even the much hyped Reset Generation.
If Nokia keep up with it, someone ( Symbian-Freak or any other Freak) is going to sleep on hacking that game-IMEI security system. Probably making something that creates a pseudo- imei number or something.
We might need to take a poll - Reactions of people.
Lucky Nokia doesnt support my country. - still have demos.
If Nokia changes stance ;it'll show how indecisive and impaired their Management is - in return ,serious drop in confidence (in Nokia) by consumers.
Guess they dont like the 'Comes with game' idea. More like game 'stuck in phone' notion.

If Nokia keep up with it, someone ( Symbian-Freak or any other Freak) is going to sleep on hacking that game-IMEI security system.

Yes, that's what I think as well. If people feel extremely cheated by the legal method of buying games, they may turn to illegal methods.

It's in the list of ten in the article, that honest people may consider using piracy just to keep the games they've already paid for.

Can you imagine Nokia taking someone to court for pirating games they've already bought? If they did that it would severely damage not just Nokia's reputation but the reputation of DRM in general.

One of the interesting things in the comments on this story on other sites is that MANY people still think we're talking about the gaming phones from 2003/2004. They don't know that the new N-Gage is a platform rather than a device.


Very true, I was speaking to a friend about it the other day and he thought exactly that.

Wow, even BBC news has covered your story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7414323.stm

Great article in fact and I totally agree with it.

This is now news on the BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7414323.stm

I was reading at AllAboutSymbian about Nokia Maps 2. If I recall correctly, if you pay for this for the maximum (3 years) you will have the same problem as with the N-gage games. Since it's also being connected to the phone's IMEI. Or did I dream about this??
This should also be changed if they go ahead with their OVI portal. We could have a username for all these services (N-gage, Maps...) and we could move our software if we would like to...

Radu

No that is not the case with Nokia Maps, I know people who bought a 3 year license but changed their phones. You need to contact Nokia who will then cease the license on your current device and enable it on the new IMEI device.

Unless their policy has changed again... But I doubt it.

As mentioned the most likely reason is that Nokia can't do much about the licensing for the games because of the contractual obiligations to the software houses.

TBH I really don't care about ngage. It'll probably fail again...

I was reading at AllAboutSymbian about Nokia Maps 2. If I recall correctly, if you pay for this for the maximum (3 years) you will have the same problem as with the N-gage games. Since it's also being connected to the phone's IMEI. Or did I dream about this??

No. Changing phones is not a problem with Nokia Maps

I've just checked with an expert and apparently the NM licence is linked to your SIM card, not your phone. If you want to use NM on another phone, you just put your SIM card in it and tell the other phone's NM app to "update licence".

Well i don't think if Nokia would make the game "logged" per username since this will allow people to install it on several handsets, thus making the company lose money. I think the only solution Nokia has is to log the game by SIMCARD number(can this be done?) because I personally don't think people would change their phone numbers each and everytime they changed their handsets - this seems to be the best solution as the ngage application would check the phone simcard and allow the player to play the game after verification.

If written press or magazines starts to write about this, their game sales would definitely be hurt as not many people will throw away money to buy a game which will only work on 1 of their handset!

krisse, I don't know if there was any article written for it but I've read on symbian freak's website (I am not sure about it) or or another website, that the game saves for the ngage won't work after a firmware upgrade and it is impossible for people to export the saves via the ngage application to the phone or computer. This would makes hours of playing a game in vain and completely pointless if this is the case since people will not be able to resume their game after a firmware upgrade!

krisse, I don't know if there was any article written for it but I've read on symbian freak's website (I am not sure about it) or or another website, that the game saves for the ngage won't work after a firmware upgrade and it is impossible for people to export the saves via the ngage application to the phone or computer. This would makes hours of playing a game in vain and completely pointless if this is the case since people will not be able to resume their game after a firmware upgrade!

I'd understood that game saves are supposed to work if you restore them from a backup after a firmware update. Whether or not that actually happens is another matter!

One thing that is definitely true is that you cannot export game saves so even if you're willing to buy a game again on your new phone, you can't move your saves to it from the old phone.

We didn't mention the saves issue in the article because we felt the actual games were far more important, and wanted to focus on one thing at a time.

If Nokia fixes the game transfer issue, the saves issue is the next biggest thing for them to fix with N-Gage.

Ideally Nokia would let you upload your savegames to your account on their server, so that you could then restore the savegames at a later date if you need to. You can already upload your photos and videos to Nokia's server, why not game saves too?

I'd understood that game saves are supposed to work if you restore them from a backup after a firmware update. Whether or not that actually happens is another matter!

One thing that is definitely true is that you cannot export game saves so even if you're willing to buy a game again on your new phone, you can't move your saves to it from the old phone.

We didn't mention the saves issue in the article because we felt the actual games were far more important, and wanted to focus on one thing at a time.

If Nokia fixes the game transfer issue, the saves issue is the next biggest thing for them to fix with N-Gage.

Ideally Nokia would let you upload your savegames to your account on their server, so that you could then restore the savegames at a later date if you need to. You can already upload your photos and videos to Nokia's server, why not game saves too?


On devices with UDP (user data perservation) like the N82, save games work fine after firmware upgrade.

Makes no difference to me now though, there is no way I will be buying any more games on N-Gage until they allow the transfer of games between devices.

And if anyone has any sense they'll do the same.

There is only one way to solve this and that is to hit Nokia where it hurts by not buying games.

So you're doing Nokia a favour are you? Wouldn't that have been to voice it privately to your contacts at Nokia? If you have as much influence as you seem to think you have, they'd have paid attention.

Seems to me, you thought you'd bite that hands that have previously fed you, and stir up enough publicity to drive traffic to this site. Stories that knock N-Gage are cheap, and it's disappointing that you're trying to dress it up in some kind of tough love excuse. Tough love would be taking the decision to support the platform, accept it's not perfect yet, and keep chipping away in private discussions. You've ridden the wave long enough - I hope they never give you another interview or comp you any games or phones.

Was really looking forward to playing with N-Gage on my N95 8GB :-(

I think the idea is great, but the way they are locking you in seems very 'Appleish', etc.

Maybe if the games were a bit cheaper, then more people would not mind having to buy again, when they change their handset.

Not A Happy Bunny

Just an update - Nokia Conversations has reported good news.


We've dug in deeper and we've been told a fix is in the works for the recent N-Gage games transfer situation. This is excellent news and although initially it looks like it may need to be serviced through Nokia Care (as an interim solution), there is a longer-term fix in the works.


See: http://conversations.nokia.com/home/2008/05/n-gage-update-.html

Good to see a rapid reponse, hopefully more [official] details will be forthcoming, will be posting about this on the site shortly.

i can confirm that restoring saved games data after a back up works using content copier,
youll need to install the n-gage app manually to overwrite the DISCOVER N_GAGE app before you proceed with a restore to get it to work otherwise you'll end up with both icons and the propper one wont open

so install n-gage to clean phone before you use a restore from content copier

broalmanone.com (http://broalmanone.com)