RIP Nokia N-Gage

Nokia announced, Friday, they "will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform."

The dedicated gaming phone N-Gage was launched in 2003 and sold like hot cakes for the first few months, thanks to a major global advertising campaign. The launch of N-Gage also attracted mobile game makers such as Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and Digital Chocolate which developed special games for the device.

N-Gage became a runaway hit and was lapped up by avid gamers who using the N-Gage Arena, could keep tracks of their in-game achievements and those of their online friends as well as challenge their friends to online games in multiplayer mode.

However, N-Gage developed niggles very quickly. For instance, battery drained very quickly when the device was on gaming mode and the device required users to do things like removing battery to install game cards.

But the biggest letdown was N-Gage's limited game library.

Nokia sought to correct these issues by re-launching an upgraded device in 2008 and helping the game library grow up to 50 games. The revitalized N-Gage was also supported by an online service that enabled multiplayer gaming, message boards, live-chats, and leaderboards, as well as online and over-the-air game sales.

However, it was too little, too late and interest in N-Gage waned rather quickly and the device never moved beyond a niche audience of hard-core gamers even as mainstream users moved on to new devices like iPhone and iPod Touch, lured by the app store.

According to a Nokia source, the company decided to take the extreme step as the gaming service had failed to generate revenues as hoped for. Besides, Nokia also wants to focus more on developing its Ovi Store, which like the iPhone App Store allows users access to a wide range of applications, music and games that can be downloaded for free or a small cost.

However, Nokia has promised that N-Gage owners can continue purchasing games for their devices till September 2010 while the community site would remain in operation throughout 2010.