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Nokia takes on Nintendo Gameboy
LONDON, England -- Mobile phone giant Nokia is set to muscle in on Nintendo's handheld games console territory. The Finnish phone firm is to unveil a cellphone that doubles as a handheld gaming device. The move, which is expected to be announced on Wednesday, is seen as a challenge to a market dominated by Nintendo's Gameboy Advance, which was launched in March 2001. Nokia's product -- called N-Gage -- looks similar to the rival hand-held console, which in its first 18 months on the market sold 24 million units worldwide and 71 million games. Boasting a color screen and GSM technology that will make it usable in Nokia's major markets including the United States, the N-Gage is the Finnish company's first foray into handheld gaming. Like Nintendo, Nokia said it would also become a publisher of games, which will be developed on wafer-sized memory cards. The Japanese games publisher Sega will develop for N-Gage, including its familiar Sonic the Hedgehog character. Ben Keen, executive director of market research firm ScreenDigest in London, said: "(Nokia) will have to set up a massive publishing unit to get the games to compete with the Gameboy library of games. "We're talking a massive investment." Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's Executive Vice President for Mobile Phones, told Reuters: "Nintendo is the one owning this market." But, he added: "The mobile games market is underdeveloped." N-Gage will allow multiple gamers to play against each other over short-range wireless Bluetooth connections or the wider-area mobile phone network. Gameboy players, in contrast, can play against each other only when connected with a cord. Another plus for Nokia is it will be entering into a potentially huge market segment for wireless gaming. While Nokia has yet to announce price and launch details, Nintendo sells its Gameboy Advance for less than 100 euros and has announced a successor with a brighter screen to be launched in March for around 130 euros. It receives around 12 euros in license fees from publishers for every game sold. Reuters contributed to this report.
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