Lady Geek

Nokia has finally unwrapped its N-Gage mobile games service globally, allowing users of their newer smart-phones to download some half-decent games for their mobile phones and providing a real alternative to console and PC gaming.

Mobile gaming is on the increase: Its a great way to attract ‘snack’ or casual gamers, of which a large proportion are women. I have seen many women on the bus, train who play games on their phones. I do not think these women would ever be seen in public playing a DS or a PSP – playing a game on the phone is more respectable (even if it’s that boring breakout game on the BlackBerry).

Travel time is ‘dead’ time for women – they don’t have the same guilt and feeling of indulgence that they would have if they were to ‘surrender’ an hour of valuable home time to play Mario Galaxy. Home time is too valuable, and this is why the hand-held gaming market is skewed towards female gamers.

The genius of N-gage is that Nokia have delivered a fully portable game-platform that allows players to try before they buy. Like the XBox Live Arcade at home, this feature of the new N-Gage takes the risk out of choosing games, as buyers are safe in theknowledge that they will not be mis-sold. You always know what you are going to get before you hand over your cash.

The new N-Gage games are just downloads. There is no need to visit a game store (hooray as they are not exactly inviting to women) and there are no game packs to be lost or damaged.

According to Mintel data (2007), women are far less likely to spend money on gaming, particularly on a subscription model that dominates the hardcore gamer market. Nokia have sensibly adopted a pricing model similar to Nintendo’s Wii, that is once bought games are free to play online.

While I think Nokia have got much of this right, it’s still going to be a tough sell: The Nintendo DS is the hottest selling games platform right now, and shelves are literally bulging with many lifetimes worth of casual games.

Having the N-Gage platform pre-installed on all future phones will make a big difference – however even then I think Nokia will need to advertise heavily in order to help women understand the clever features that are buried deep within their phone’s memory.