GDC08: Nokia wants your soul on N-Gage

Don't worry: Anssi Vanjoki doesn't want your entire soul, just a piece of it. Nokia's executive vice president of New Markets outlined his vision for the N-Gage platform during this morning's mobile keynote, which kicked off day two of the Game Developers Conference.

Speaking on the nature of mobile gaming and Nokia's role in shaping its future, Vanjoki encouraged the audience to broaden their view of how mobile devices and games fit into our daily lives.

"We have more than one billion consumers carrying a Nokia device in their pockets," he enthused, explaining that Nokia was, in particular, targeting the 200 million early adopters (or Technology Leaders as he called them) whose decisions shaped the wider market via its Nseries of Symbian devices. He claimed around 50 per cent of this group carried Nokia devices.

Significantly, the company's own research shows only 12 per cent of the time these people spend using their mobiles is taken up with voice communication. Texting, web browsing and music are popular, while gaming accounts for around 4 per cent of time spent on the device.

This shift away from voice, according to Vanjoki, represents a fundamental change from the mobile being just a phone to a portable computer. Understanding this new context means developing a new paradigm for how we interface with devices. As Vanjoki asserted, "Our vision is a world where everyone can be connected." Blurring the line between reality and the virtual world of the connected mobile means instilling a bit of ourselves to the network; in short, "a piece of our soul".

"It's all about self-expression and social gaming," Vanjoki said, pointing out that N-Gage promises to provide a space for players to interact in a connected, contextual environment. Nokia is working hard on fine-tuning the service as much as compiling a compelling portfolio of new games. According to Vanjoki, giving consumers the freedom to express themselves via this new connected, contextual space is equally as important as crafting titles. This includes the company's Yamake DIY game service, where you can incorporate the music and photos stored on your phone into simple entertainment.

That isn't to say Nokia doesn't have more traditional games to back up N-Gage, though. Titles like Creatures of the Deep, Creebies and the recently-announced The Dark Knight hope to steal your time, if not your soul. Even if you're not playing on the go, the ability to connect N-Gage handsets to a larger screen – such as a flatscreen TV via TV-out for example – will enable you to play games and view content at home. It's identical to the component-out functionality featured in the redesigned PSP Slim & Lite, as well as a feature being highlighted by Nvidia with its APX 2500 technology.

But for all his discussion of multimedia, connectivity and souls, Vanjoki remains committed to expanding the potential of mobile gaming. N-Gage is an enormous initiative for Nokia and with the launch of the First Access titles, we're starting to see just how ambitious it is. A few hurdles still need to be overcome before N-Gage reaches the vision Nokia has laid out, but Vanjoki insists it's worth it. As he confessed, "It's all for the love of gaming."