Nokia: "N73, N93 and N93i will NOT be getting N-Gage compatibility"
Published by Tzer2 at 22:20 UTC, March 20th 2009
After almost eighteen months of silence, a Nokia forum moderator has finally made an official statement about the status of N-Gage on the N73, N93 and N93i. In short, N-Gage will NOT be coming to those phones. As many predicted, the relatively older OS versions and less powerful hardware on those models apparently weren't up to the job of handling next gen N-Gage games. The low sales of the N93/N93i wouldn't have helped either. Our editorial thoughts on this issue are below. (Click here to see which phones ARE getting N-Gage.)
There are two equally important points that need to be brought up here:
On the one hand Nokia is probably justified in not supporting devices which aren't capable of running N-Gage games as well as the latest phones. The N97 is just about to take N-Gage into a very high resolution touchscreen-based age, so it would be very odd to simultaneously make games designed for phones from 2006.
BUT... on the other hand, Nokia did specifically promise that the N73, N93 and N93i would get N-Gage on many official occasions. They even said so in a launch video shown to a large crowd of journalists at the Go Play event in late 2007, which was personally supervised by Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. You cannot get a more direct promise than that. Anyone who owns those phones has a total right to feel hard done by, because Nokia has failed to deliver what they said they would.
What Nokia really should have done was make a public statement the instant they found out that there were problems with N-Gage on the N73, N93 and N93i. But they were totally silent about the issue, and even had an "N73/N93/N93i support coming soon!" message on the N-Gage website's hardware section until just a few weeks ago.
The lessons to be learned by Nokia from this are never to make promises you can't keep, and if you do have to break a promise come clean about it as soon as you can.
Categories: Hardware, Miscellaneous, Editorial Thoughts, Games
Platforms: Series 60, N-Gage, S60 3rd Edition, N-Gage
News Discussion
Rafe
Oh dear. Really not good at all.
Was fairly obvious this was going to happen, but this is just going to give a lot of people one more reason to moan about N-Gage.
N93 - hmmm, dodgy argument alert... same hardware platform as N95 (I think) - similar free RAM.... but I would assume support here about not being worth it due to the number of devices sold.
Was fairly obvious this was going to happen, but this is just going to give a lot of people one more reason to moan about N-Gage.
N93 - hmmm, dodgy argument alert... same hardware platform as N95 (I think) - similar free RAM.... but I would assume support here about not being worth it due to the number of devices sold.
ccraig
after reading your article i totally understand why, supporting them phones would hold the platform back and would mean probably dumbing down future games to run on all phones.
ppl will say that hackers got n-gage running on older phones and yes we know they did and that was done badly too with phone rebooting every time u got incoming call or anything running in background
ppl will say that hackers got n-gage running on older phones and yes we know they did and that was done badly too with phone rebooting every time u got incoming call or anything running in background
fernando20
Well, about time something was done. I wonder what would happen if the N73 was ignored from the start, the base hardware for game makers would have higher specs, and perhaps games with better graphics would be the norm. Then Nokia wouldn't be allowed to dump the 3d hardware on current phones as they did.
lol, thinking about alternative timelines.
lol, thinking about alternative timelines.
Tzer2
Rafe, AFAIK the N93 has 20 megs free RAM but the N95 has 30 megs with the later firmware versions?
On the other hand, if they're the same hardware platform then maybe Nokia could have created a new firmware version for the N93 which freed up similar amounts of RAM to the N95...
But I suppose the relatively low sales of the N93/N93i compared to the N95 would explain why the N95 got such an update while the N93/N93i didn't. (Also the N95 had a later version of S60, the N93/N93i ran the original S60 3rd without any feature packs, which might have affected things?)
An interesting point, but I think it would still have had to be a graphics hardware-optional platform, because most of the cheaper N-Gage-compatible devices in recent years wouldn't have had graphics hardware anyway.
On the other hand, if they're the same hardware platform then maybe Nokia could have created a new firmware version for the N93 which freed up similar amounts of RAM to the N95...
But I suppose the relatively low sales of the N93/N93i compared to the N95 would explain why the N95 got such an update while the N93/N93i didn't. (Also the N95 had a later version of S60, the N93/N93i ran the original S60 3rd without any feature packs, which might have affected things?)
Quote:
| Well, about time something was done. I wonder what would happen if the N73 was ignored from the start, the base hardware for game makers would have higher specs, and perhaps games with better graphics would be the norm. Then Nokia wouldn't be allowed to dump the 3d hardware on current phones as they did. |
Tzer2
I've altered the news item to be less specific about the reasons for this decision, as this is all speculation. All Nokia will say is that they couldn't get N-Gage to work well enough on those models.
Pawlee
this is a real shame... but inevitable...
its a real shame because the n93 is still one of my fav fones to ever grace the earth, and if i still owned an n93 i would be very sore.
i spent no extra money on my n93 (i somehow managed to trade in an o2 n73 and got given an n93 even tho i didnt know o2 stocked n93s...) but if i had spent the money required to own an n93 i would expect some sorta of care from nokia...
...
to spend 500 quid on a nokia phone it would be nice to be treated with 500 quids worth of respect iinstead of forgotten for the next person screaming about n95s...
:(
(n85 and n86 are a perfect example of this modern day neglect/disrespect that nokia are openly displaying to people willing to spend over 400 quid on a phone...)
its a real shame because the n93 is still one of my fav fones to ever grace the earth, and if i still owned an n93 i would be very sore.
i spent no extra money on my n93 (i somehow managed to trade in an o2 n73 and got given an n93 even tho i didnt know o2 stocked n93s...) but if i had spent the money required to own an n93 i would expect some sorta of care from nokia...
...
to spend 500 quid on a nokia phone it would be nice to be treated with 500 quids worth of respect iinstead of forgotten for the next person screaming about n95s...
:(
(n85 and n86 are a perfect example of this modern day neglect/disrespect that nokia are openly displaying to people willing to spend over 400 quid on a phone...)
Tzer2
Quote:
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this is a real shame... but inevitable... its a real shame because the n93 is still one of my fav fones to ever grace the earth, and if i still owned an n93 i would be very sore. |
In horizontal mode the N93 was an awesome gaming machine, all the buttons and the d-pad were perfectly laid out below the screen. I often wonder if the N93 was originally going to be the next gen replacement for the first gen N-Gage and QD. There was talk that a gaming-specific device would be launched in 2006, and that would tie in with the N93 very nicely.
Quote:
| (n85 and n86 are a perfect example of this modern day neglect/disrespect that nokia are openly displaying to people willing to spend over 400 quid on a phone...) |
I don't think N85 owners are being treated badly though, they're getting what they were promised.
The problem Nokia has had with the N73 and N93 is they specifically promised N-Gage compatibility several times, at big official events too, and now they're breaking that promise.
Kazutoyo
It's a shame, but not a surprise.
The phones have an outdated OS (plain S60 3rd while all the phones that actually do have N-Gage are S60 3rd FP1 or FP2) and in the case of the N73, slower hardware (although that didn't stop N96 with it's 264 MHz ARM9).
I think it would have been possible to give the devices N-Gage if they had released FP1 firmwares for them. The FP0 (:tongue:) devices are noticeably slower than the FP1 devices (don't know how many of my acquaintances who complained about the speed in N73 & N80) and consume more RAM as well. Wouldn't surprise me if they lack some API functions that the current N-Gage app uses too.
The phones have an outdated OS (plain S60 3rd while all the phones that actually do have N-Gage are S60 3rd FP1 or FP2) and in the case of the N73, slower hardware (although that didn't stop N96 with it's 264 MHz ARM9).
I think it would have been possible to give the devices N-Gage if they had released FP1 firmwares for them. The FP0 (:tongue:) devices are noticeably slower than the FP1 devices (don't know how many of my acquaintances who complained about the speed in N73 & N80) and consume more RAM as well. Wouldn't surprise me if they lack some API functions that the current N-Gage app uses too.
Hardeep1singh
I always had a doubt this was going to happen but I think the real reason why this happened is not because these phones lack hardware capability but because Nokia doesn't want to support them as they don't sell anymore. FP1 is just a piece of software, which Nokia could've added if they wanted to but why do you think they would even bother?
If people like Illusion and BinPDA can run N-gage on every other Symbian they see, I don't see a reason why Nokia can't.
If people like Illusion and BinPDA can run N-gage on every other Symbian they see, I don't see a reason why Nokia can't.
snoyt
Nokia should make amends and port a less heavy n-gage game for free to those platforms as an apology.
chlettn
Not a big surprise really. The N73 is on its way out anyway, being replaced with other devices, and if the N93/N93i combined ever reached five-digit sales I'd be surprised.
As a recent Symbian-Foundation blog post said - if Nokia wanted to update a phone to a new FP version, they also have to update the Symbian version, which means they have had to pay Symbian again for the licensing the new version for every single updated phone. That was just not feasible, obviously.
Because Nokia has a bit more obligation to make the games actually run well? If a cracked version has performance & stability problems, well, not a big deal as that's to be expected. But if an officially bought game doesn't run well on an N73, it hurts the reputation of N-Gage itself, and I can understand why Nokia doesn't want that.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Hardeep1singh
I always had a doubt this was going to happen but I think the real reason why this happened is not because these phones lack hardware capability but because Nokia doesn't want to support them as they don't sell anymore. FP1 is just a piece of software, which Nokia could've added if they wanted to but why do you think they would even bother?
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Hardeep1singh
If people like Illusion and BinPDA can run N-gage on every other Symbian they see, I don't see a reason why Nokia can't.
|
Tzer2
Quote:
| Nokia should make amends and port a less heavy n-gage game for free to those platforms as an apology. |
They could restrict it to people who bought their N73 or N93 after the N-Gage announcement by asking for the IMEI code. The IMEI tells Nokia when a phone was bought, so they'd know someone might have conceivably purchased their phone with N-Gage in mind.
I doubt any of that will actually happen, but it seems like a good idea IMHO.
lumothesinner
with the state n-gage is atm cant most n-gage games be played on n73 and n93 as symbian games anyway - only one, mgs, resi and reset gen (and possibly a few others) are specific to n-gage whereas the rest of the catalogue is just ports from already available s60v3 games (or java - NFS!!!)
ccraig
Quote:
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Originally Posted by lumothesinner
with the state n-gage is atm cant most n-gage games be played on n73 and n93 as symbian games anyway - only one, mgs, resi and reset gen (and possibly a few others) are specific to n-gage whereas the rest of the catalogue is just ports from already available s60v3 games (or java - NFS!!!)
|
blackbear989
That's it! I lost my patience with nokia. I had N93 for a long time and all this time I was waiting for N-Gage support for my phone.
Now after almost two years they say there is no support. It was almost one of the reason I bought that D-A-M-N phone in the first place. At least they would have told me that earlier, haven't they knew that it wouldn't be compatible in the first place.
They probably wanted bigger sales for those phones, so they were silent about compatibility issues. What about the advertasments, commercials that N93, N73 being compatible?
I'm done with Nokia, I didn't had any trouble with Nokia. At the begining I was proud of having a phone made by Nokia, now I am ashamed of them. And for N93, I will throw it into the river, cuz I don't want anyone to have so much trouble with Nokia as I did.
I am moving to IPhone, my friend had it for some time and didn't have any troubles at all. Now I am buying one too...
Now after almost two years they say there is no support. It was almost one of the reason I bought that D-A-M-N phone in the first place. At least they would have told me that earlier, haven't they knew that it wouldn't be compatible in the first place.
They probably wanted bigger sales for those phones, so they were silent about compatibility issues. What about the advertasments, commercials that N93, N73 being compatible?
I'm done with Nokia, I didn't had any trouble with Nokia. At the begining I was proud of having a phone made by Nokia, now I am ashamed of them. And for N93, I will throw it into the river, cuz I don't want anyone to have so much trouble with Nokia as I did.
I am moving to IPhone, my friend had it for some time and didn't have any troubles at all. Now I am buying one too...
Ratkat
N-Gage died for me when they screwed up the transfer of games from one device to another, I haven't bothered with it since.
I prefer to use my iPod Touch for mobile gaming these days, the games in many cases better and in most cases cheaper than their NGage counterparts.
Larger ignored by both the game producers and media, if N-Gage survives much past 2010 I will be very surprised.
I prefer to use my iPod Touch for mobile gaming these days, the games in many cases better and in most cases cheaper than their NGage counterparts.
Larger ignored by both the game producers and media, if N-Gage survives much past 2010 I will be very surprised.
viipottaja
N-Gage died for me when they screwed up the transfer of games from one device to another, I haven't bothered with it since.
>>> While that is the case for you, fortunately for Nokia that issue does NOT matter for a huge part of the N-Gage game buyers. 1) they don't know it and never will come to know it 2) they play a game to its end on one phone in most cases, and are not even bothered to transfer when they eventually change their phone (most people do NOT change their phone nearly as often as people in these mobile phone sites think) 3) Nokia is solving that issue (in fact, read on the N Gage forum that a solution is expected in a month or - whether that is true remains to be seen).
>>> Larger ignored by both the game producers and media, if N-Gage survives much past 2010 I will be very surprised.
There are certainly big challenges ahead, but I would not write them off quite that soon.
>>> While that is the case for you, fortunately for Nokia that issue does NOT matter for a huge part of the N-Gage game buyers. 1) they don't know it and never will come to know it 2) they play a game to its end on one phone in most cases, and are not even bothered to transfer when they eventually change their phone (most people do NOT change their phone nearly as often as people in these mobile phone sites think) 3) Nokia is solving that issue (in fact, read on the N Gage forum that a solution is expected in a month or - whether that is true remains to be seen).
>>> Larger ignored by both the game producers and media, if N-Gage survives much past 2010 I will be very surprised.
There are certainly big challenges ahead, but I would not write them off quite that soon.