Nokia finally sets N-Gage free

Nokia has officially unwrapped N-Gage, the games platform that’s come from the ashes of the now very much defunct gaming handset of the same name. The N-Gage games service has gone live with just a few titles, including FIFA 08, Asphalt 3: Street Rules, World Series of Poker Pro Challenge with a handful of N series devices – N81, N82, N95 – able to use the service at launch.

Nokia has also unveiled an N-Gage community area for the service, for gamers to find friends, arrange some multiplayer gaming or participate in tournaments and chat with other N-Gage users.

Nokia will need to spread this to more devices if it wants to get some serious take-up, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t planning to add to its roster in the near future. Cleverly, it’s also made sure there’s an N-Gage web portal so gamers can get their fix on the internet as well as mobiles – so that’s expanded the potential user base to just about everyone, then. It’s also promising 30 gaming titles in the near future – including old favourites like Tetris – but I can’t help but think that having them available at launch would have been a better bet.