According to a New York Times report, Nokia will be launching it’s revamped NGage gaming platform later this week and introduce the service based around multiplayer gaming, demos of games, player skill matching, and a wider range of compatible handsets.
The N-Gage was originally conceived as a dedicated gaming device designed to compete with the Nintendo Game Boy Advance line and was derided for its unintuitive microphone placement, leading it to be named the “taco-phone” and the manner in which to hold the phone while speaking as “side-talking”.
However, the Series 60 smartphone did introduce many innovations that are now commonplace such as Bluetooth connectivity, and multiplayer gaming over a cellular data network by having a persistent GPRS data connection.
Nokia will launch the service later this fall on select Series 60 devices with the entire smartphone lineup supported by next year.
