Nokia Has Given Up on the N-Gage

There are some things out there that refuse to die and you don't know whether to admire their persistence and refusal to drift away with the tide or disapprove of the old man that won't let go of his empty existence. The Nokia N-Gage is one of them and, if there is a time for the long-forgotten to come back and haunt the living, then that's most definitely Halloween.

The platform's tutors have announced that they're finally pulling the plug and disconnecting the device from life support. Nokia says that the hag spawn born from a cell phone and a handheld gaming platform will no longer see any new games published and support for the community will go offline at the end of September, 2010.

The Nokia blog announces that, "While the N-Gage.com site together with the N-Gage Arena and other community features will remain in operation throughout 2010, the Ovi Store will be the new central place for all the mobile games that Nokia and other publishers offer from this point forward. We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform." It's sad when the only new thing you hear concerning an old friend is the piece of news of their imminent death.

Nokia's post continues, trying to comfort the N-Gage fans, saying that, "Your games are safe – all your purchased N-Gage games will continue to work on your N-Gage compatible mobile device and they're yours to keep. However, community features of the games will not be functional after 2010." They're like the uncle at your father's funeral that presents his condolences, while still reminding you that, since he inherited the house, you have three days to evacuate the premises, or else. Nokia devices that have the N-Gage application will continue to be sold "for some time," but the company "will no longer ship new devices with the application pre-installed."