Nokia widens N-Gage games roster with Vivendi Games deal

Nokia has signed a deal with games publisher Vivendi Games to make the Crash Bandicoot series available on its revamped N-Gage gaming platform. N-Gage is expected to launch across a range of Nokia phones in the next two months.

It emerged earlier this year that Nokia was planning to revive the ill-fated N-Gage brand as a piece of gaming software built into handsets, rather than a standalone device (MW February 8). Nokia launched the original N-Gage (pictured), which was a phone and games console hybrid, in 2003 but it failed to make an impact with consumers.

Vivendi has sold more than 33 million Crash Bandicoot games worldwide. Paul Maglione, president of Vivendi Games Mobile, says: “We look forward to working with Nokia to offer entertaining, innovative mobile games that tap into the performance and innovation of the N-Gage application and Nokia’s mobile devices.”