N-Gage to connect people "through play"

Nokia's N-Gage software gaming platform is out to solve three key issues in the mobile space: "Discovery, ease of use, accessibility."

That's according to Dr Mark Ollila, the company's director of technology and strategy, talking to GamesIndustry.biz on the eve of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

"You've got to remember Nokia's DNA, its values, is connecting people," he said. "And what we're doing with gaming, with N-Gage, is connecting people through play."

And he went on to say that the primary benchmark for success will be the number of active users over time in the N-Gage community.

"With the fact that we're shipping a lot of devices a year, and they'll be N-Gage compatible - we have a lot of devices which are already on the market which are N-Gage compatible - I think we've got a great opportunity to actually have higher community penetration."

The N-Gage platform is currently available to N81 users for beta-testing, and will be rolled out to additional handsets over time.

The full interview with Dr Mark Ollila is available now.