All About Symbian's sister site All About N-Gage is back and bringing you all the game-related news coming out of today's huge Go Play launch event by Nokia in London! Head on over there right now to see the revamped site, which is ready to inform you about all the developments with the Next Generation of N-Gage games on S60 3rd Edition smartphones.
Nokia today announced that it is working with Vivendi Games Mobile to bring crash Bandicoot games to its next generation N-Gage gaming platform. Crash Bandicoot see you saving the world with a marsupial over a variety of levels with a mixture of action and comedy. Currently there is no information on which games will be coming to the platform or when.
Nokia today announced that games developer I-play will be delivering a number of games for the N-Gage platform. The first two titles to be released will be World Rally Championship and Super Mah Jong. I-play is set to concentrate on casual games providing games which are 'easy to play, but difficult to master with dip in and dip out playability'. Read on for details.
Digital Chocolate, a well known mobile games developer, will be publishing games for the next generation N-Gage platform. The first of these will be DChoc Cafe which has a virtual cafe around with a number of different casual (card, board, puzzle) games can be played. The games also features social elements with customisable characters, game recommendations and competitions.
Ikona, one of the big cheeses over at the N-Gage Arena, posted to the N-Gage Blog recently about an unannounced (first party?) game codenamed Project White Rock for Nokia's next gen gaming platform. Details were scarce, but it's being produced by Scott Foe, who produced the N-Gage's biggest hit Pocket Kingdom (which was the world's first mobile MMO). White Rock also appears to involve RedLynx, the Finnish developers who produced the N-Gage's most critically acclaimed game, Pathway To Glory, and another acclaimed title called High Seize. Ikona hinted that White Rock might be released for the PC as well as N-Gage.
Nokia has issued a press release today revealing some of the first 3rd Party games due on the Next Gen N-Gage gaming platform: Asphalt 3, Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, Brain Challenge, Midnight Pool and FIFA 2008. Also, publishers Indiagames and THQ Wireless have now officially announced their support for the platform, joining Gameloft, EA and Glu Mobile. Nokia's Gregg Sauter is due to give a speech at the Game Developers Conference later today in San Francisco, where he will presumably give more details on this and other Next Gen gaming matters.
An apparently genuine Nokia document contains some interesting details about their Next Gen gaming platform, which is due to launch across a range of Nokia smartphones in the first half of 2007. In the document is a list of publishers which it claims are working on content for the platform, and which surprisingly includes Sony. The document also gives some details about the distribution channels and development kits. (To find out more, click here...)
Nokia and EA have announced an agreement that will see EA create games for both current and future Nokia phones. The agreement encompasses both Java Games, which will be distributed using Nokia's Content Discoverer, and Nokia's next generation gaming platform.
Good news and bad news. The bad news is that I think we'll be seeing a bit less of Krisse on AAS in the next few months. The good news is that Krisse is the driving force behind our sister site, All About N-Gage (RSS feed available here), with a terrific lead article on the really important points behind Nokia's N-Gage relaunch and the implications of it not being dependent on specific hardware, shops or operators.