Official: Nokia N-Gage mobile gaming service

Nokia's new N-Gage mobile gaming platform was announced today during Nokia's major London handsets and services launch event.

The Nokia N-Gage mobile platform has been transformed completely from the original platform launched unsuccessfully in 2003. Advanced mobile games from leading mobile gaming companies will be released on the N-Gage platform, which will be playable on a wide range of Nokia handsets. N-Gage gamers will be able to buy and download games from their mobile or PC, and try before they buy. The N-Gage platform will use social network elements too, enabling multi-player gaming and connecting gamers to share tips, recommendations and scores in a revamped N-Gage Arena.

Up to 15 N-Gage games are expected to be available by the end of the year. Games being developed for the N-Gage platform include EA Sports' FIFA 08, The Sims 2 Pets, Tetrris and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, plus games from Capcom and Vivendi including the popular Crash Bandicoot franchise. Nokia is also developing more interactive games for next year that will use deeper functionality of Nokia mobiles - such as cameras and movement sensors - and will be enabling N-Gage users to custom build and exchange games using elements of phone functionality.

New N-Gage games will be compatible with a selection of current Nokia Nseries handsets, and will be supported on forthcoming Nokia S60 and Nseries devices. The new N-Gage service will be available globally in November, when users of compatible handsets will be able to download the N-Gage application from http://www.n-gage.com and install it on their device.

Compatible handsets at launch will include the Nokia N73, N81, N81 8GB, N93, N93i, N95, N95 8GB. Pricing is yet to be finalised but Nokia has indicated that they could cost between 6 - 10 Euro (£4 - £6.70).