Nokia revives N-Gage games on Series 60 handsets

The move marks the third time that Nokia has tried to mobilise support for the N-Gage standard in the face of unrelenting competition from the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP.

The first, widely derided N-Gage handheld made its debut in 2003 while a revamped N-Gage QD crept onto the market the following year. Total N-Gage console sales reached a mere 2 million.

But the move to make N-Gage a gaming standard across a range of Series 60 handsets rather than attempt to take on Sony and Nintendo with a dedicated player means this could be its best chance to succeed.

Already big games software companies such as Electronic Arts, Capcom and Vivendi have announced that they will support the 2008 vintage N-Gage platform. That means that popular games 'franchises' such as Crash Bandicoot, Tiger Woods Golf, Virtual Evil, FIFA Football and The Sims could soon be playable on Nokia phones.

The New York Times reports that the service will allow people to play against friends, sample and then buy games direct on their phone and compete in large online tornaments thanks to advances in data connectivity such as 3G and HSDPA.

“Today’s phones are so capable," said Nokia product manager Tomi Huttula. "The graphics problem has been removed. And phones today are always connected and you always carry them with you. Phones are now the perfect device for gaming.”

Nokia has sold an estimated 125 million Series 60 phones. The new N-Gage games will initially be playable on a small number of models such as the flagship N95 before being rolled out to the entire Series 60 range over the course of 2008.