Nokia takes second bite at gaming

Mobile giant Nokia has begun a second assault on handheld gaming, with the launch of the N-Gage platform.

The company has shifted its approach, from focusing on a dedicated games system to titles which can be played on a range of Nokia devices.

At launch, only owners of the N81 can use the service but the firm plans to roll it out to other N-series phones.

N-Gage has the support of developers such as EA, Gameloft and Vivendi, who are making titles for the platform.

Nokia first launched its N-Gage handset in 2003, designed to compete with the highly-successful Nintendo GameBoy.

But the device was criticised for its design and poor sales led to the phone being quickly overhauled with new versions, including the QD.

Nokia persevered with the device, in different incarnations, and had sold more than two million so-called game decks by August 2007.

Last year the firm said it was concentrating on N-Gage as a platform for titles, rather than as a specific handset.

Jaakko Kaidesoja from Nokia's Play New Experience division, said the firm had learned lessons from the original launch.

"This is step two. Step one was the original Nokia N-Gage launch. We are still talking about mobile devices as a convergent platform. People want to have more balanced use for their devices.