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I think it is fairly valid to say the N-Gage is a flop at this point. Nokia seems to have totally misjudged the market for the N-Gage. The N-Gage is priced very poorly for a game machine, as such it is going to sell very poorly in game outlets. To people who buy console games $300 means an entirely new platform to buy games for. A $300 console is not a neat must-have gadget for most game buyers. The price of an N-Gage would buy a PS2 or GBA and a core library of brand new games, even more if you went for used games.
To people who drop down $300 even year on a new whiz-bang cell phone the N-Gage might be an attractive little toy to pick up however. I don't see Nokia really advertising to those people. They should be focusing on the people buying 3650s and T610s. Instead of pitting the N-Gage against GBA games they should be pitting it against the relatively crappy Java games on the 3650 or T610. The N-Gage is a phone with some cool games. It is being marketed as a game console. Game consoles aren't practically worthless without monthly subscriptions. The N-Gage is.
I think the N-Gage is going to flop badly, to the point where they will be given away with new wireless contracts just to get rid of them. Console game develors don't like moving targets. Cell phones are very dynamic, new versions are being released all the time. This is just going to lead to the current N-Gage games being entirely incompatible with a phone that comes out in 2005. A $40 investment in Tomb Raider now isn't going to be worth a whole lot when the N-Gage 2 with larger screen and different processor is released.
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Posted: 2003-10-23 12:13:42
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Well, in fact I think you should read this news about 400,000 units sold to retailers again.
These are units sold SINCE october the 7th! Remember that on October 7th, it was already available worldwide.
I.e. there is obviously a real demand for them!
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Posted: 2003-10-23 15:21:33
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You know, nintendo once tried to put a phone in their gameboy remember? Oh wait, nobody does. If somebody did we wouldn't have this tragity known as ngage.
This message was posted from a T610
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Posted: 2003-10-23 15:33:17
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Quote:
On 2003-10-23 15:21:33, Super G wrote:
Well, in fact I think you should read this news about 400,000 units sold to retailers again.
These are units sold SINCE october the 7th! Remember that on October 7th, it was already available worldwide.
I.e. there is obviously a real demand for them!
If there was a demand, more than a few hundred of the 400,000 units would be in consumer's hands - not on the retailer's shelves.
Nokia greatly misjudged the demand of the N-Gage.
N-Gage = Flop
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Posted: 2003-10-23 15:50:12
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well i don't like Nokia as well...I find them to be...toys...instead of mobile phones, but I think it is really early to call it a flop.
Besides...in Italy they seem to sell out fine.
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Posted: 2003-10-23 15:56:44
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@ specialk
"If there was a demand, more than a few hundred of the 400,000 units would be in consumer's hands - not on the retailer's shelves.
Nokia greatly misjudged the demand of the N-Gage.
N-Gage = Flop "
Well, I can see many GBA on retailer's shelves. Does that mean there's no demand for it? That would be a bit of a simplistic reasoning don't you think?
I'm sure you would likely be delighted if it ended up as a flop, but like a French saying goes "Don't sell the bear's skin before having killed it"...
@ obsixx
Quote:
On 2003-10-23 15:33:17, obsixx wrote:
You know, nintendo once tried to put a phone in their gameboy remember? Oh wait, nobody does. If somebody did we wouldn't have this tragity known as ngage.
This message was posted from a T610
Oh and there's a very good reason for that: they didnt have the competence. Now they're working on it with Motorola.
Anyway, you might want to look up the word "Innovation" in your dictionary.
Every mobile phone around has game nowadays. NGage offers console-quality games and mobile gaming which was impossible until now!
Though you might be reluctant to it, fair enough, but it's not because nobody does something, that nobody should do it.
Take a simple example:
nobody did make fire before the first man did.
[ This Message was edited by: Super G on 2003-10-23 15:20 ]
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Posted: 2003-10-23 16:09:29
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Quote:
On 2003-10-23 16:09:29, Super G wrote:
Well, I can see many GBA on retailer's shelves. Does that mean there's no demand for it? That would be a bit of a simplistic reasoning don't you think?
I'm sure you would likely be delighted if it ended up as a flop, but like a French saying goes "Don't sell the bear's skin before having killed it"...
Nintendo sells every unit they make and have for years. Nokia has failed to generate widespread interest with the N-Gage. The reason you see so many GBA's on the shelves is because they continue to receive shipments every week. It's too feeble for real gamers and too inconvenient for people who want a phone (have you seen how you have to talk on this thing? It looks like you're holding a taco to your head.)
On top of that, it's marketed at the youth market. The majority of the youth market could not afford a $300 phone. For about $100 you could get a GameBoy Advance AND a good cellphone. Both of which will be better than the N-Gage.
I don't know how many of you knew this, but when Nokia first started developing the N-Gage they were doing it with Nintendo as a joint project. Nintendo realized early on that Nokia was intending to make a product that would not sell so they pulled out. That is why Nintendo is now working with Motorola on a similar project.
Go read some market research and sales figures of the N-Gage compared to any portable game console OR cellphone and you'll realize the N-Gage is seriously lagging behind.
N-Gage = Flop
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[ This Message was edited by: specialk on 2003-10-23 21:07 ]
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Posted: 2003-10-23 22:03:42
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Quote:Well, in fact I think you should read this news about 400,000 units sold to retailers again.
These are units sold SINCE october the 7th! Remember that on October 7th, it was already available worldwide.
I.e. there is obviously a real demand for them!
The number of units sold to retails is irrelevant. The numbers people are actually buying is nowhere near what has been shipped to retailers.
This ought to tell you that no one is interested in buying the N-Gage. There is no consumer demand for the N-Gage, just retailer demand naively believing Nokia's ridiculous marketing. You bring up the fact Gameboys sit on store shelves. When the Gameboy Advance was released retailers could not keep it stocked! After the GBA was available for a week it was practically impossible to find it anywhere. I was at a game shop yesterday the there were several N-Gage's sitting in the case with no one doing much more than glancing at them. That is hardly consumer demand.
The N-Gage is being marketed to the wrong people and does not live up to the marketing hype. The games are jerky with poor graphics. Tomb Raider which I played yesterday was slow and looked more like a slideshow than an interactive game. The only thing that will sell the N-Gage is generous carrier subsidizing. If people can pick them up from T-Mobile and Cingular for $150 and a renewed or new contract they might sell decently. Game shops trying to unload them at retail price is going to fail miserably.
[ This Message was edited by: GiantRobot on 2003-10-23 23:29 ]
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Posted: 2003-10-24 00:28:59
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@ Super G
It's not that I don't want to see the marriage of the cell and the console worlds, I just don't want it done half assed. The ngage is not innovation, nokia is just tring to cash in on a lucrative market. This is evident by the lack of originality in their launch titles. Nokia basicly grabbed up all the high profile franchises they could and put them on a device that can not handle them. Nintendo has the right idea now, mototorola knows phones and nintendo knows gaming that could be big.
This message was posted from a T610
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Posted: 2003-10-24 01:21:49
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@obsixx. I highly recommend you actually try these games on N-Gage (pandemonium, tomb raider, etc...) They put GBA to shame. Nintendo's in fact doing the wrong thing: GBA is a technically old device. And now they try to match what N-Gage offers in term of mobility. The game is already lost. They are obviously worried about N-Gage potential.
This message was posted from a Nokia
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Posted: 2003-10-24 07:21:22
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