I do remember the original N-Gage and the problems you had finding games in-store, especially the later titles (shelves full of the release title Tony Hawks Pro Skater had an inch of dust, a testament to how well sales were in the first six months). But thanks to the growing internet stores, and a vibrant trade on Ebay, it was possible to build up a full collection of boxed N-Gage titles, along with the Taco and QD machines.
There's nothing collectors love more than a short-ish run of titles (just over 50 in the case of the N-Gage) with some of them being relatively hard to find (Sega Rally, if you're interested). Unfortunately, now that we've moved to a digital distribution system for the latest N-Gage platform, that virtue has been gone. There are no super fans ordering everything from the stores, proclaiming very loudly that they have everything, and proud of their spoils of battle.
It's not just N-Gage going this way, the Sony PSP infrastructure is now releasing all PSP games as digital variants, and a number of these are digital only – although in the case of Patapon 2, US customers can still buy the box and manual in a store, but rather than a game disc, there's a slip of paper and a code to download the full game online, for free.
But the collectors get the box.
Collecting N-Gage, new and old...
Given the difficulty that Nokia had in getting original N-Gage games into the retail chain, it's not surprising that a digital distribution system was the route of choice for the new platform. It's just a shame that the benefits of ownership have become much lower.
This may seem a strange issue to bring up, and even though there is a niche that regards game boxes as collectibles, there are many, many more that would be quite happy to sell on a game, be it to a second hand shop, as a trade in at EB Games, or on Amazon or eBay. And the games publishers are fighting to stop this second sale happening – after all, these are sold on at almost full price.
Nowadays, with electronic stores, you have to struggle just to re-download an application you've already purchased, and in the case of the Ovi Store you get one chance at downloading a purchase. Need to grab it again because of a hard reset, corruption or you've bought a new phone, then you're out of luck. [I've been hit by this, after buying an Ovi Store app - not good enough, Nokia - fix it and fast - Ed]
Ownership of a game is no longer something physical – with a boxed product, it was easy to move to another handset, or reinstall. With a digital product you are completely at the whim of the server somewhere further up the line. Sure you could have DRM on the physical game you got, but the N-Gage MMC cards played on any N-Gage device.
While the digital storefront has obvious cost (and time) benefits for Nokia, it has reduced the rights of the shoppers at the stores. You can't trade your games with your friends, you can't use games that have been finished to help finance buying the next game, and, while the low price of games may make this seem a touch trivial on the current N-Gage and Ovi catalogues, it's already influencing people's thinking on which stores are good and which aren't.
It's time for Nokia to look seriously at this issue, and I hope they start with something long promised... the ability to transfer your N-Gage games to a new handset without jumping through customer service hoops. [Ed here again - I've now been waiting for two *months*, following half a dozen chaser emails, for my initial purchase of the premium-priced Pro Series Golf to be transferred to a new phone - a simply appalling situation]
-- Ewan Spence, June 2009.