Nokia prepares to get back in the game

Nokia has begun to shed light on its upcoming next-generation N-Gage mobile gaming platform.

"One of the main events for us is the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in early March and that is really where you can expect some announcements," the company said in its N-Gage blog.

Nokia said that it plans to release a new line of mobile devices that support N-Gage, although the mobile firm declined to say whether it would be rolling out a dedicated mobile gaming device, something the company abandoned in 2005.

UK gaming site Pocket Gamer reported that Nokia recently held a meeting in California with a group of potential developers including Disney, Capcom and Square Enix.

Nokia has already verified that EA Mobile and Gameloft have agreed to develop titles for the new N-Gage platform.

Pocket Gamer quoted another entry on the N-Gage blog disclosing September as a possible launch date, although the referenced entry currently only mentions "early 2008" as the expected arrival date for the new games from EA and Gameloft.

The original N-Gage devices were introduced in 2003 and fell far short of expectations, selling only two million of a predicted six million units.

Nokia announced in 2005 that it would be putting mobile gaming on the back burner until the technology was better-equipped to handle games.

The company said in September that it had begun development on a new gaming platform, with mid-2007 as a target release date.