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Other PDAs > News > Nokia Postpones Launch of N-Gage Gaming Service Nokia Postpones Launch of N-Gage Gaming Service
By James Alan Miller
Nokia spokesman Kari Tuutti cited software testing as the reason for N-Gage's delay. He said to Reuters, “Software testing is taking a bit more time than what we had expected. We are talking about a couple of weeks." The N-Gage of tomorrow, accessible at www.n-gage.com or through pre-installed software, will be very different from the N-Gage of yesteryear. It isn't a single game-enabled smartphone anymore, as it was in its first couple of iterations. Instead, as the gaming section of Ovi, N-Gage will allow users to try out, buy and download games directly to supported smartphones. At launch, N-Gage will have several popular gaming titles available, including EA Sports FIFA 08, The Sims 2 Pets, Tetris, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and Crash Bandicoot. Nokia announced that games will cost between 6 and 10 euros, but didn't give U.S. pricing. Players will also be able to choose daily or weekly licenses. The company plans for Ovi to be a door to a variety of online applications. Besides the N-Gage gaming service, Ovi will also include a music service called the Nokia Music Store, online maps, and other unspecified social networking services. Four new Nokia Nseries smartphone models, the N95 8GB, N81 (image shows it running N-Gage game), 5310 Xpress Music, and 5610 Xpress Music suppor all the Ovi services, including N-Gage, of course. Other compatible Nokia Nseries and S60 3rd Edition, Symbian devices will work with N-Gage gaming after downloading an N-Gage application. The Nokia Music Store, the first of which opened in the UK last week, and is due to expand to other parts of Europe and Asia in the coming months, has run into a bit of trouble as well. Due to concerns about illegal downloads at Nokia's Mosh file-sharing site, Warner Music Group Corp is withholding its music from Nokia. Without the participation of Warner, you won't find music from the likes of Green Day, Linkin Park, Madonna, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and many others. Even without Warner's content, the Nokia Music Store will still carries over 2 million tracks, however, including songs from the other three major labels: Universal, Sony BMG, and EMI. Nokia is reportedly in discussions with Warner to resolve the issue. Troy Dreier contributed to this story Related Links:
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