Nokia closes Gage game service next year

Beijing time October 31 morning news, according to foreign media reported yesterday, Nokia admitted that the Gage game service operation failed, and will close the service next year. As the traditional mobile phone market matures, Nokia is looking for new sources of revenue through Web services, while games and music are the preferred areas. Nokia's game strategy, however, is facing a huge challenge: Although the company launched its first game mobile phone in October 2003 with a large number of advertisements worldwide, it was snubbed by consumers.　　The online gaming service, which opened last year, follows the Gage brand, but still fails to effectively expand the market beyond hardcore gamers. "We will stop releasing new games for the Gage platform," Nokia wrote in Gage blog. "This is an unfortunate day for Gage fans," one user wrote in the commentary.　　Nokia said that users could also buy the existing Gage games by September 2010 and that the corresponding community sites would be running until the end of 2010. "This shows that Nokia will adopt a more realistic strategy," said Trow Quittining Tero, an analyst with MKM, a marketing research firm. It's time to clean up the wreckage and focus on the future.　　He also said Nokia had great opportunities in areas such as location-based services, microfinance services and mobile e-mail.　　Nokia's leading position in the mobile market has attracted all the top mobile game developers to develop games for Gage, including EA, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and digital chocolate. After shutting down the gage service, Nokia will also continue to sell mobile games through the Ovi Store, similar to Apple's iphone App Store, but much smaller. (PEI)