Espoo, Finland, December 19, 2005 – Nokia's next generation mobile games development platform was unveiled for the first time to sixteen of Nokia's first party games developers, during the inaugral next generation mobile gaming workshops in Helsinki, on the 1st – 2nd December, 2005 and Vancouver, on the 7th – 8th December, 2005.
Nokia's first-party games development studios were given an exclusive opportunity to learn and experience the development environment of the next generation games platform where rich and immersive N-Gage quality games can be played on a variety of Nokia smartphones. During the two-day Workshop, the developers learned about fundamental functionalities for the new mobile games platform and got the opportunity to interact with Nokia to share their thoughts and consult on game design, middleware, tools, certification, software developer support, hardware and how to bring a connected gaming experience to the global community via the N-Gage Arena.
Kamar Shah, Head of Industry Marketing, Games at Nokia, commented, "Working with first party developers at each workshop is a crucial initial step to introduce the new end-to-end gaming platform." Shah continued, "Our first party developers have already worked on the N-Gage platform and know how to push the boundaries of mobile gaming to ensure that our next generation mobile gaming platform offers a plethora of rich, immersive mobile gaming experiences from launch. Our collaborative workshop format provides our developers with the tools and information to push the envelope on Nokia's new next generation mobile gaming platform."
Joe Bonar, Executive Producer of Backbone Entertainment commented, "The workshop left us with a feeling of excitement about Nokia's commitment to making mobile gaming a more accessible and widespread experience across millions of mobile phones. Backbone is working closely with Nokia to create distinctive and entertaining games that harness a phone's technical abilities to create unique and compelling mobile games experiences. The recently announced Shadow-Born is a testament to that collaboration".
Tadd Jensen, Senior Developer at Barking Lizards, said, "Nokia's new next generation games platform is a forward looking end-to-end gaming strategy, and we're excited about the new opportunities it will bring. Nokia is in the position, and is the right company, to make this platform work."
Laszlo Molnar, Designer and Project Manager, Bonus.com commented, "The workshop has been a great forum for all the developers to ask some straight questions and receive straight answers. Nokia has a very visible commitment to the mobile games industry, and provides confidence to us games developers for the next generation gaming platform."
Xavier Carrillo Costa CEO, Digital Legends Entertainment, said "Nokia's next generation mobile games platform will allow developers to reduce their development costs by bringing a unique development platform for a wide range of mobiles devices. We believe this new platform has the potential to set a new reference in our industry to bring 3D high quality games to the mass market."
Rob Hendry, Producer at Ideaworks 3D commented, "Nokia is delivering a solid business global gaming eco-system for the future, and we're delighted to be involved at its inception."
Martin Vilcans, Lead programmer, Jadestone Group A, commented, "Nokia's next generation initiative is a broad platform for the next generation of mobile games - a market we surely want to be a part of."
David Leitch, Development Director, Razorback Developments Ltd commented, "We're delighted and extremely flattered at Razorback to be invited to the unveiling of a very exciting new games platform."
Kevin McIntosh, Producer, Torus Games commented, "We like the way the workshop allowed us to share ideas and interact with the first party community. We feel that Nokia is committed and professional about the next generation games platform and we feel confident about its launch to market."
Martijn Reuvers, Two Tribes B.V. Business Development said, "By organizing this workshop, Nokia went through great lengths to actually listen to game developers. By doing so, I'm confident Nokia is taking to right step towards bringing the next generation initiative to gamers."
Nokia announced the expansion of N-Gage quality gaming onto the range of Nokia smartphones at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The Nokia strategy is to expand the N-Gage platform's rich connected multiplayer experience across a wide range of Nokia multimedia devices. This next generation mobile gaming platform includes enhanced 3D game graphics capability and offers user-friendly search, purchase and installation of high-quality rich games as well as connected gaming with instant access to a global mobile gaming community. The solution will work with a number of new Nokia smartphones, giving consumers the freedom to choose a multimedia device that best suits their individual needs.
The next developer workshop will be held at the Games Development Conference in San Jose, California – March 20 – 21, 2006.
