N-Gage First Access to end on 27 March

Nokia has revealed that its N-Gage First Access beta is ending next Thursday (27 March), in advance of the commercial launch of the N-Gage application.

The company has stressed in a blog post that you'll still be able to play the games you've downloaded through the First Access app after that date.

But obviously, Nokia would like you to upgrade to the proper version when it comes out. So when's that?

Well, the post just mentions "the next few weeks", as part of a slightly worrying sentence saying, "Our development team is working as hard as it can in order to implement as many changes and fixes as they can in time for our roll-out in the next few weeks."

It'd be nice if the team can implement all the fixes to bugs it's found, if we're honest!

Nokia is also reminding early N-Gage adopters that the player name you've been using for First Access will need to be re-registered for the full roll-out, unless you also registered it as your name on the N-Gage Arena forums.

What about the games you've bought through First Access? You'll have to reinstall them, but you won't have to pay again. Well, as long as you've saved the original emails with your activation codes in.

You'll lose all your saved games, point pick-ups and N-Gage points, though.

The latter two are fair enough, but losing your saved games is a bit harsh, for those of us who've been devoting weeks of our life to unlocking new locations in Creatures of the Deep. I guess we were warned, though.

The silver lining: Nokia is getting First Accessers to complete an online survey to give feedback on the beta. If you take part, you'll be sent a complimentary activation code for the upcoming Mile High Pinball game, as well as trousering 1,000 community points.

The survey is here. Get to it!