Say the name N-Gage in a room full of gamers and you are still more likely to get greeting with laughter and take out orders from the local Mexican place than you are fond stories of gaming sessions past. Nokia is looking to change all of that now, as the N-Gage morphs from hilarious taco phone into a dedicated mobile platform based on the concept of community and connectivity. Scott Howard, the network games product manager for Nokia took some time during a session at the Develop Conference in Brighton to hammer home the importance of shared experiences to the fledgling platform.

What does shared experiences mean? Judging by the features shown and talked about during the session, N-Gage is aiming to be Xbox Live for mobile phones. An easy interface for connecting to other players, a friends list, game demos and ratings, and even eventual game achievement points were just a few of the similarities discussed.

Like Xbox Live Arcade, players will be able to download demos and then upgrade them to full versions, with certain titles having multiple price points depending on how much of the game you wanted to see, effectively turning titles into their own series of microtransactions.

So yeah, Xbox Live, and why not? It certainly isn't a bad community tool to mimic. Hell, I would just be happy being able to purchase a phone knowing what games I would be able to play on it myself. Having a universal friends list and quick n' dirty matchmaking available as well only sweetens the pot.

This marks the first time I have ever been even remotely interested in anything with the named N-Gage attached to it. Savor this moment, Nokia.

Community is key to Nokia's strategy, says Howard [GamesIndustry.biz]

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