N-Gage has been Nokia’s gaming focus for quite some time, but after several attempts of trying to revive the service, Nokia has finally decided to call it a day. As mobile gaming evolves and begins to encompass social gaming, Nokia want to offer one store front with a wider portfolio of games – games for everyone. It’s much more convenient to have one place to get all your mobile content, and this it what the Ovi Store aims to provides. You can see the full N-Gage press release after the jump…

We’ve been busy evolving our mobile gaming service and building up the portfolio of games in Ovi Store. Currently, we have more than a thousand games available in Ovi Store supported by 100 Nokia device models and are growing the platform and portfolio as quickly as possible.

If you haven’t checked out Ovi Store lately, we suggest you stop by store.ovi.com/games for the latest mobile games for your Nokia device. And what’s best, not only will you be able to get a wide variety of games like Pac-Man, The Sims 3 and Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile in the Ovi Store, but you will have access to hundreds of new ones like Sky Force Reload and EA SPORTS FIFA 10 from a wide range of publishers from 65 countries.

As we continue to move Nokia’s services under the Ovi umbrella, Ovi Store is the one-stop-shop for all your mobile content. If you’re looking for the latest apps, games and other mobile content, Ovi Store is available in more than 180 countries. And remember, content is for everyone so start downloading today.

So, you might ask, what will happen to the current N-Gage platform?
N-Gage games can be purchased until the end of September 2010. While the N-Gage.com site together with the N-Gage Arena and other community features will remain in operation throughout 2010, the Ovi Store will be the new central place for all the mobile games that Nokia and other publishers offer from this point forward. We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform.

What will happen to N-Gage Arena?
N-Gage Arena will remain in operation throughout 2010 and players can e.g. keep posting their high scores until then. We understand that people value the ability to manage their games and communicate about them, and we are working on offering such community elements through Ovi. Games publishers are free to use community features of their choosing in their apps, the feature set is not defined by Nokia. Social Networking applications are some of the most downloaded on Ovi Store, emphasing the power of connecting people.

What will happen to my games?
Your games are safe – all your purchased N-Gage games will continue to work on your N-Gage compatible mobile device and they’re yours to keep. However, community features of the games will not be functional after 2010.

Do you have plans to bring community elements to the Ovi Store gaming experience?
Yes, we understand how important community is to our gamers. You can already post reviews of games and other apps in the Ovi Store. We are actively working on offering more community elements through Ovi and we encourage developers to use community features in their applications. Stay tuned – there’s more to come on this.

Why doesn’t Nokia keep N-Gage as a separate gaming platform?
As mobile gaming evolves and begins to encompass social gaming, we want to offer one store front with an even broader portfolio of games – games for everyone. It’s much more convenient to have one place to get all your mobile games, and this it what Ovi Store provides. Mobile gaming is one of the most popular activities in the Ovi Store, with games being the #2 most downloaded category for premium content. And besides having all mobile games in one place, people can access other services like Mail, Maps, Music and many more via www.ovi.com.

What will happen to N-Gage.com?
The N-Gage.com site will remain in operation throughout 2010, with the exception of the N-Gage Store which will remain open until the end of September 2010. However, we recommend people to visit Ovi Store to play the latest games – many familiar games and so much more.

Will you stop shipping devices with the N-Gage application pre-installed?
We will continue to sell devices with N-Gage application pre-installed for some time, however we will no longer ship new devices with the application pre-installed.
Games will be available through the Ovi Store which is already supported by 100 Nokia device models and growing. Ovi Store will be pre-installed on most new compatible Nokia devices including Symbian S60 & Series 40 from Q4 2009.

Thank you for being part of the N-Gage community and your participation over the years. It is important we share this information with you first as we know how much the N-Gage Community means to you, and that being up to date on the latest gaming information is of importance.

We appreciate your contributions and loyalty to the N-Gage community and service, and we hope to continue to hear from you via Ovi. See you in the Games!

Sign up here to Ovi for more news about games, apps and other mobile content in Ovi Store

Nokia Games team

Source: N-Gage

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