14 DAY TRIAL // The latest mobile phones from Nokia arrived on shelves with support for the NFC technology, and the company has already started to take advantage of the feature.
A series of games that can benefit from this technology have been recently showcased, and three of them were just made available for download for users.
These mobile titles, called “tangible” games, offer users the possibility to play with various physical objects available in the world around them. Moreover, the games are meant to offer the spirit of natural and social fun to the mobile gaming.
The first games made available for users as part of this initiative include Nokia World Flags, Nokia Shakespeare Shuffle, and Nokia Nursery Rhyme Shuffle.
These mobile titles are currently available for download for Nokia Symbian NFC-enabled mobile phones, including the Nokia C7-00, C7 Astound, 600, 603, 700, and 701.
“These games are designed to work without having to read or write to the tags. (The phone only needs to detect the tags.),” Luis Sarmenta, Nokia Research Center (Silicon Valley), explains.
“This means that aside from blank NFC tags (which you can order from some online sellers), you can also use NFC cards that you may already have in your wallet -- including “contactless” or “tap”-able transit cards, ID badges, etc.
“And, you can use the same tags or cards for any number of other tangible NFC games in the future.”
Soon, these games might arrive in the Nokia Store. For the time being, the company is looking to see what users feel about the new titles, so as to see what improvements will need to be included into the mix.
“We are particularly curious to hear about how easy or hard it is to get enough tags or cards to play with in different places around the world. (Note that if you have a few tags or cards but not enough, you can try pooling tags with your friends),” Luis Sarmenta continues.
These first games for Nokia devices are simple, but there are many possibilities that can be explored, it seems. Nokia is looking into bringing NFC to educational games, family games, and social games.
You can learn more on these games through the video embedded at the bottom of this article.
