Glu Mobile to publish games on Nokia Next Gen games platform

According to a recent report on Gamesindustry.biz, the mobile games publisher Glu Mobile has announced its support for Nokia's Next Gen games platform. EA and Gameloft have already officially committed to the platform, and a document seen by All About Symbian last year suggested that Sony, Square Enix, THQ and Activision would also publish games on it. A Pocket Gamer report earlier this year revealed that Disney, Sega, Sony, Universal, Square Enix, Capcom, THQ, Glu Mobile, Digital Chocolate, EA, Tecmo and Namco all attended a secret Nokia Next Gen games platform workshop in January 2007.

Nokia to sponsor GCDC 2007 game developers' conference

Nokia and their N-Gage sub-brand are sponsoring the GCDC 2007 game developers' conference, which takes place in August in Leipzig, Germany. Nokia's Next Gen Gaming Platform is due to launch shortly afterwards in September, so there should be a complete unveiling of the platform at the conference if not earlier. Nokia are also sponsoring the GDC 2007 developers conference in San Francisco in March.

Nokia next-gen gaming: taking aim at the problems

In another superb and comprehensive piece, our very own Krisse analyses the successes and (mainly) the failures of the original Nokia N-Gage, then looks at the way the new next-gen gaming platform will directly address each problem. It's all looking rosy - apart from the name! Krisse explains...

Next Gen Gaming Platform launching in September 2007

Almost unnoticed in a post about another topic, the official N-Gage Blog recently revealed for the first time a specific month for Nokia's Next Gen Gaming Platform's launch: September 2007.

Next Gen N-Gage secret workshop revealed

According to a report on Pocket Gamer, a secret workshop for American and Asian publishers and developers on Nokia's next gen gaming platform was held in Santa Monica last week. Perhaps most notable in the article is the incredible list of publishers that apparently attended the event: Disney, Sega, Sony, Universal, Square Enix, Capcom, THQ, Glu Mobile, Digital Chocolate, EA, Tecmo, Namco and Vivendi. The article also claims 3rd party publishers just got their development kits in January, which could suit a Summer launch and Xmas advertising push fairly well (old generation N-Gage titles usually took 6 - 12 months to make). These revelations seem to confirm what All About Symbian exclusively revealed last October. Another event will apparently be held in Madrid next week for European publishers and devs.

N-Gage Future Watch site launches

Nokia's Future Watch site devoted to their Next Gen gaming platform on S60 3rd Edition smartphones has now officially launched. The site tries to answer the most frequently asked questions about the new platform, something N-Gage Arena members have been waiting for ever since the Next Gen was announced. While Future Watch mostly repeats the information that Nokia's given out at various press conferences over the last year, this is the first time all the official statements have been collected in one place, and in amongst the familiar facts there are one or two gems of significant new information as well. Click here to find out more...

Nokia publishes results of research into gaming habits

Nokia has commissioned a survey by Nielsen Entertainment which interviewed 1800 users of mobile phone games from China, Germany, India, Spain, Thailand and the United States. The results are available in a press release and suggest that people will enjoy using Nokia's Next Generation gaming platform which is due for launch in the first half of 2007. Perhaps the most interesting is the average gaming session length: 28 minutes, which is far longer than is usually thought the case on phone games, and implies that the average phone gamer plays with as much dedication as they would on a portable console.

Nokia to sponsor Game Developers Conference Mobile 2007

Nokia is going to be one of the main sponsors of GDC Mobile, the phone game part of the Game Developers Conference. GDC and GDC Mobile take place in San Francisco from the 5th to the 7th of March 2007. Nokia's Next Generation gaming platform is due to launch across a range of S60 3rd Edition smartphones some time in the first half of 2007, so a March sponsorship of a major gaming event would seem to be well-timed.

N-Gage: The Next Generation

In another excellent article, AAS's krisse rounds up everything you ever wanted to know about Nokia's plans for the next generation of N-Gage. We've already had a taste of it on the N93's System Rush Evolution demo, but what else is on the way?

Sony to publish games on Nokia's Next Gen gaming platform?

An apparently genuine Nokia document contains some interesting details about their Next Gen gaming platform, which is due to launch across a range of Nokia smartphones in the first half of 2007. In the document is a list of publishers which it claims are working on content for the platform, and which surprisingly includes Sony. The document also gives some details about the distribution channels and development kits. (To find out more, click here...)