N-gage's Second Coming

Nokia recently launched the second iteration of the N-gage - this time it isn't a hybrid phone/handheld game, but a service offering demos, friends lists, points, stats, messaging and other features.

On the eve of GDC 2008, GamesIndustry.biz caught up with the company's director of technology and strategy, Dr. Mark Ollila, to talk about the service, the obstacles they are trying to overcome and the potential challenges posed by the DS, PSP, and iPod.

Dr. Mark Ollila: When we look at what percentage of people are playing games or using games on mobile, I think it's more apt to look at the category we're focusing on in gaming. From the Nokia perspective, it is the N-Gage platform which is across multiple devices - typically our N-series devices.

Last year we sold about 38 million N-series devices. This is something which we're seeing an increase in. People actually buying these multimedia rich devices - multimedia computers, we call them, because of what we've been able to do with them.

What we know is that when we look at this sort of consumer group, from our studies, we see that 50 per cent of them are gamers. Over 50 per cent of them are gamers in this target of N-series devices. Gaming is an important feature for them.

But then, when you look at the market, that we only have about 5 per cent of people purchasing games at the moment in mobile - what are the problems? What are the barriers? What's been happening?

It's about discovery, ease of use, accessibility - that's what our N-gage platform, a software platform across multiple devices, is looking to solve.

You've got to remember Nokia's DNA, its values, is connecting people. I mentioned that at the DICE conference. And what we're doing with gaming, with N-gage, is connecting people through play.

One of the benchmarks that we'll be looking at is how many active users will we have - how many people will actually be in this N-Gage community?

We've had experience in building up communities with the original N-Gage arena. We had 700,000 active users and we had 3 million N-Gage devices out there. So that's quite a high uptake, actually.

With the fact that we're shipping a lot of devices a year, and they'll be N-Gage compatible — we have a lot of devices which are already on the market which are N-Gage compatible — I think we've got a great opportunity to actually have higher community penetration. So, I think our number of active users I think is one of the key [benchmarks].

When someone went to buy a phone, gaming was on the top of their mind, but other aspects of the phone were on the top of their mind — messaging, communication, camera, video, music, things like that. The combination of those different parameters then actually influences the purchasing decision.

I think what we looked at and learned, when we looked at our customers and consumers, was that gaming was very important to them, but what was important to them also was the ability to choose the form factor they want.

For example, I love this N95 but I also love the N81, but maybe I love this more. But I still want to do gaming on it. So I'll sacrifice the fact that I don't have the shoulder keys here. Whereas someone else might say "I love gaming more, so I'll go for the shoulder keys and all that, because that's what I want."

Still, I'm delivering the N-Gage experience to both of them. So they have the choice about the handset that they want - the form factor.

I think we've got 9 or 11 third-party publishers signed on. It's Electronic Arts, THQâ¦the usual suspects. And that was very important for us to bring on those key third-party publishers.

I think one of the key things to look at is we have discussions with carriers at all levels — small carriers, large carriers. We've announced just recently over the past three months relationships with Vodafone, Telefonica around services, and so there has been a dialogue that we have with each individual operator about what makes sense for their services, and our services, so that we can actually bring the best to the consumer. That's what we're driving towards. How do we make the consumer get the experience that they want?

That's why, like with N-Gage, we can get the stuff through the air, or through WiFi, or through the Internet and deliver it through some mechanism, and there is still operator billing, credit card, and all that. So, how we work with the operator is a conversation we obviously have, and if there is push back, there's push back, and if there is acceptance, there is acceptance.

But the whole matter is that we're driving towards the consumer experience and operators can see the value that we bring. They can really see it.

I'm not particularly commenting too much on what Apple is doing. Apple's entry with the iPhone is something that we celebrated in many ways because of the messages that they are bringing - they've been preaching the messages that we've been preaching for very much a long time. Like we've been calling this a multimedia computer for several years.

The fact that it gives mindshare to people about what they are able to do on these devices is just better for the whole industry.

I'm not too concerned about that they are doing because it is only going to be beneficial — developers and publishers will look at what is available out there, and the fact that we have the volume which is so important and the fact that we have a system that is out right now.

When you look at this device hereâ¦Hold it in your hand. That's got 8 GB in it. It has WiFi. It's got 3G network. It's got some hardware accelerated graphics in that, a built-in GPS, and the 5 megapixel cameraâ¦this is an amazing thing.

The point is that we are not interested per se in what the PSP is about or what the DS is about. That's portable gaming, and has its place. What we are interested in is that 50 per cent of people buying these devices have a clear interest in gaming. How to we deliver the gaming experience to them in the easiest way possible? That's the opportunity.

Like I said, we shipped about 38 million N-series devices during 2007. Not all of them, obviously, are N-Gage compatible, but it just gives you the scale of numbers that we are talking about.

It is a great opportunity for us, but also our partners that will be working with us, and I think that's what we are very clear and humble about. It is not about us trying to dominate. It's about how we can work together to make a "win-win" for everything out there.

The numbers are there for that opportunity to be realised — we just need to execute. That's the reality of it. The big news, I think, is that we've been out for two weeks. And I'm looking forward to next year when I can talk about what we've achieved.