N-Gage

The N-Gage is a mobile device combining features of a cellular phone and a handheld game system developed by Nokia, released on 7 October 2003. Officially nicknamed the game deck, the N-Gage's phone works on the GSM cellular network, and software-wise runs on the Series 60 platform on top of Symbian OS v6.1.

N-Gage attempted to lure gamers away from the Game Boy Advance by including telephone functionality, including SMS texting, in an "all-in-one" device. Game software was packaged in a MultiMediaCard to be inserted into the N-Gage's slot. Nokia also ran an online service community, N-Gage Arena, which also supported multiplayer on some titles, using the phone's GPRS data connection. Ultimately over 50 games — which included titles by major third-party publishers — were released for the system in a three year period.

The N-Gage was unsuccessful, partly because the buttons were not well-suited for gaming, while it was described as resembling a taco, which led to its mocking nickname "taco phone". Less than a year later, the QD model was introduced as a redesign of the original "Classic" N-Gage, fixing widely criticized issues and design problems. The revised model was unable to make an impact, and with only 2 million units sold in its two years, the N-Gage was a commercial failure and discontinued in February 2006, with Nokia moving its gaming capabilities onto selected Series 60 smartphones; this was announced as the N-Gage platform or "N-Gage 2.0" in 2007, carrying on the N-Gage name. In 2022 a TikTok video about a new N-Gage phone went viral in Indonesia.

Nokia officially introduced the N-Gage at the Mobile Internet Conference in Munich, on 4 November 2002, a device that integrated the functionalities of mobile phones and handheld game consoles, which some people were increasingly carrying side by side. Its original development codename was Starship.

The N-Gage had a reported development budget of more than $100 million. Games for N-Gage used to cost $600,000 to $1.5 million to develop. Nokia had attracted a decent amount of large third-party game companies that signed up to develop titles for the platform, including Eidos Interactive, Electronic Arts, Sega, Gameloft, Activision and Taito.

Many of the preloaded ringtones and sounds were composed by former demoscene musician Markus Castrén, who worked at Nokia during mid-2002. For both the N-Gage and Nokia 7600, he wrote ringtones in a variety of popular dance genres, as well as creating a small set of sounds inspired by 1980s arcade games; he chose to compose those in a chiptune style as music in video games of the time did not stand out as sounding distinctively game-related.

Nokia tested the N-Gage with consumers across Europe from August 2003 until release as part of the N-Gage Tour. With a launch price of US$299 (equivalent to $511 in 2024), the N-Gage was not commercially popular. In its first weeks of availability in the United States, it was outsold by the Game Boy Advance 100 to 1. Within 17 days of the deck's release, popular retailers GameStop and Electronics Boutique began offering $100 rebates on the deck's price.

In February 2004, with the N-Gage failing to make a major impact four months on, CEO Jorma Ollila claimed that the device would be given until 2005 to be judged whether it was a success or failure. In 2004, a revision was released named N-Gage QD and this retailed at a lower price compared to the original N-Gage device, aided by the fact that it was usually sold with service contracts and applicable subsidies.^{[citation needed]}