Fans of Nokia’s N-Gage mobile gaming platform will be upset to hear the news that the service currently suffers from a major flaw – should they upgrade to a new N-Gage phone, then gamers need to buy all their games AGAIN.
Fansite All About N-Gage unearthed this major failing in Nokia’s N-Gage plans earlier this week.
Game off
According to the site each game’s activation code is tied to your phone's unique IMEI number.
Stuart Dredge, over on mobile gaming specialist site Pocketgamer.com is aghast at the news: “Given that N-Gage is based around creating a username and profile, it's ridiculous that games are tied to a specific handset, rather than a specific user. Properly, embarrassingly ridiculous considering N-Gage games cost £6-8.”
Shurely shome mishtake?
As most mobile user upgrade their phones annually, TechRadar hopes that the problem is an oversight on Nokia’s part and something that can easily and quickly be solved.
However, Nokia currently has confirmed with TechRadar that the non-transferable N-Gage games problem is actually part of the N-Gage strategy, citing piracy issues as the reason for the move.
Nokia's responsded to the issue, telling us: "Our policy is that the N-Gage activation codes only work on the device where they were first activated. As with any digital media there is a potential risk of piracy and this policy is one of the ways we are dealing with piracy and ensuring our partners receive their rightful revenues from our platform. If users need to repair their device, the activation codes will be reissued."
