If you've been desperately seeking some Snakes Subsonic gaming partners on that N82 of yours, your pool of potential playmates just got a little (emphasis on "little") wider. The N78, N96, and XpressMusic 5320 have now been added into the N-Gage client compatibility mix -- though of the three, the N78 is the only one that's really widely available at this point. The 5320's just now starting to trickle into distribution around the world, and if you happen to end up playing System Rush with an N96 owner in the next few weeks... well, you're playing with a very special individual, indeed.

[Via All About Symbian]

N-Raged... see what we did there? Sigh. Anyway, Nokia's strategy of handset lock-in has its N-Gage subscribers in a fit. Seems somebody didn't read the EULA and now is upset that they must re-purchase N-Gage titles when they switch Nokia handsets. The terms and conditions do state that, "Content shall be... limited to one private installation on one N-Gage compatible Nokia device only." Forever. Come on Nokia, we're all for reading, but purchased games should at least be transferrable to newly purchased, substitute Nokia devices. After all, that's what you claim for music downloaded from your forthcoming Comes with Music service. Don't turn N-Gage v2 into another sidetalkin' fiasco.

While we patiently wait for Nokia's current, "no major new products" fiscal quarter to expire, we'll have to trudge through releases like these 5320 (left) and 5220 (your other left) candybars. As members of the XpressMusic range the devices themselves are fine. Unfortunately, fine isn't going to win back that 1% lost market share. The 3G HSDPA 5320 (€220 / $351) features dedicated music and N-Gage gaming keys, a 3.5-mm headphone jack, up to 24-hours of play time, up to 8GB of expandable storage, and a "Say and Play" voice controlled playlist; speak the name of the artist or song you want and the phone will play it. The (€160 / $255) 5220 removes the HSDPA but adds a lanyard... hoorah!? Expect both to land in Europe sometime in Q3 2008.

Truth be told, we could sort of see this one coming -- after all, why wouldn't N-Gage developers seek to use a handset's built-in functions to enhance gameplay? Nevertheless, the folks at Nok Nok were able to pick the brain of Will Shen, N-Gage Head of Production in North America, and found out quite a few tidbits about the future of the platform. Reportedly, Mr. Shen went so far as to confirm that it is "looking at creating games that harness the power of [a mobile's] built-in camera, GPS receiver and any relevant skill [that it] may possess that could help inspire and execute innovative games." Granted, location-based titles aren't anything new in the grand scheme of things, but Shen also noted that his team is looking to "focus on innovation" rather than "gimmick gaming." Marvelous -- now let's get this stuff rolled out en masse, shall we?

It seems that several years of taking their lumps on the long road to mobile gaming success has hardened the boys and girls at Nokia just a bit, and they're ready to come out swinging. The target? Fellow European manufacturer Sony Ericsson, of course, which has been rumored for eons to be cooking up some sort of PlayStation- or PSP-branded handset to go head to head with the likes of Nokia's N-Gage service. The head of Nokia's games division went on the assault at a recent press event for its brand spanking new N-Gage client, saying "I'm not scared about anybody. The real question is how do they do it? Can they create a link between the PSP games and a phone? Can they do the multiplayer and online stuff? We've been doing this for two years and it hasn't been easy." In other words: bring it, Sony Ericsson, because we don't think you can do it. Kind of funny to be lashing out against a product that hasn't been announced (much less launched) though.

[Via Tech Digest]

While we all wait patiently for a wide-scale release of Nokia's revamped N-Gage platform, it's always fun to get learned on just what sorts of titles will be available for the rest of 2008; after all, the titles available through the First Access beta -- Creatures of the Deep, World Series of Poker, Space Impact, and Block Breaker Deluxe -- are only going to take us so far. Seasoned mobile game developer Glu Mobile has come forward to announce its '08 contributions to the platform, and with just three titles in the wings, it seems the company has done a surprisingly decent job of covering the full gamut. Speed Racer is a (you guessed it) racing title on "extreme" tracks, Super Slam Ping Pong! puts an arcade spin on the classic table game, and The Dark Knight is an action title that follows the upcoming Batman flick. The one thing we don't have in our lives is enough productivity sinks, Glu, so by all means, let's get these suckers pushed out on the double.

Sorry Gizmondo, your dreams of a resurrected user generated gaming platform were just usurped by Nokia. Straight outta Espoo comes Nokia's Yamake (a mashup for "you make the game") for their N-Gage platform. With it, Nokia says players can "create their own games" from a range of "mini games" by adding user generated text, pictures, sound clips and movies. Games can then be shared via the N-Gage Arena and via MMS between N-Gage compatible S60 devices. The press release specifically mentions the creation of mini games "such as" pictures puzzles and quizzes -- so no, we're not looking at user generated, 3D first person shooters upon initial release. In fact, without any images or video to accompany the press release, Yamake sounds more like a user customization platform than game creation platform. Still, we'll cut them some slack on this initial release. One thing seems pretty clear though, this ain't your mama's sidetalkin' N-Gage; Nokia is playing for keeps this time around.

That didn't take long. A mere day after the release of Nokia's N-Gage First Access gaming preview exclusively to N81 users, the app has been cracked open to work with any N-series device with enough horsepower. The hack was performed by Nokia regular P@sco, and comes in a convenient downloadable form, or an only slightly involved guide to hacking the app yourself. No rocket science here, and while we're sure Nokia could easily fight back, what we've really got to ask ourselves is why didn't Nokia just open it to everyone in the first place?

[Thanks, Michael J.]

The delayed, revamped N-Gage client still isn't ready for prime time, but the First Access preview service -- which is just a little bit more functional than the preview shipping on some Nseries devices already -- has finally launched. The service introduces a full suite of social gaming tools (though with compatibility officially limited to N81s for the moment, that's a very small social circle indeed) and lets users download several game demos; Nokia promises that the service will evolve and expand as it ramps up for a full-scale release, so don't get too down on the lack of content and community just yet. Oh, and just a word of warning, downloaders: your data will get reset prior to the full-scale launch, so don't get too attached to your high scores, k?

[Via All About Symbian]

We suppose it was just too good to be true, having a solid release window and target device for N-Gage, even if it was going to be merely in the form of a "First Access" test service. Nokia has been going over the service internally with about 1,000 testers, and has uncovered an "issue" that it needs to address, but wouldn't elaborate much further about the problem, other than that the games and service are supposedly working smoothly. That means Nokia won't be releasing First Access for N81 users this week as promised, but instead will wait until the new year to finally make its new push back into the gaming market. Don't worry Nokia, it's not like we've got anything else going on.

[Via Pocket Gamer]

It's a good time to be an N81 or N81 8GB user, since Nokia's got some pre-release versions of full N-Gage titles just for you as of next week. Nokia's hoping for some feedback with this "N-Gage First Access" setup, since the full service isn't quite ready to go yet. Of course, the N81 has game demos on it out of the box, but this time it'll have "exclusive access to the pre-release version of the N-Gage application and one or more N-Gage games!" They're certainly taking their own sweet time getting the relaunch of N-Gage ready, but given the failure of its first two iterations, perhaps we should be grateful Nokia's waiting to get it right this time. But seriously, hurry up already.

[Via NokNok; thanks James B]

Nokia's N81 is now, at this very moment, "available globally" according to Nokia. Pre-tax, pre-subsidy €360 / $515 for the 2GB microSD model or €430 / $615 for that full 8GB of on-board flash experience. Since the revamped N-Gage platform isn't online yet, the N81 comes pre-loaded with three playable demos of FIFA 07, Asphalt 3: Street Rules, and Space Impact Light. Those same games will be available for free download-and-preview over HSDPA when the service goes live sometime "later in 2007." Still, while Nokia touts a global launch, the fact that this quad-band GSM phone only sports 2100MHz WCDMA will limit its effective use in North America -- even if it is FCC approved.