Nokia dismisses N-Gage demise rumours !

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia remains "completely committed" to the N-Gage, a spokesperson has said in response to speculation that the company may be about to discontinue the mobile console range.[br][br]The reports originated with a report on online technology site The Inquirer, which claimed that Nokia is planning to shut down an R&D and production facility for N-Gage in Germany.[br][br]However, a Nokia spokesperson was quick to deny that the firm has any intention of shutting down the mobile game console division, despite the weak market performance of its handsets.[br][br]"Nokia have no intention of shutting down the N-Gage," the company told UK website C&VG.com today. "We are completely committed to the platform... There's been so much money and effort poured into the system we're not going to pull out now."[br][br]Indeed, the company does have two of the strongest software prospects for the N-Gage on the horizon, with Sega's Pocket Kingdoms and internally developed title Pathway to Glory both looking promising, albeit still unlikely to make the system into a viable rival to the likes of PlayStation Portable.[br][br]The rumours of N-Gage's demise haven't been helped by the well-publicised decision of UK market research firm Chart-Track to stop publishing an N-Gage software chart at the start of this year, citing a lack of interest in the data.[br][br]However, that data covers only boxed N-Gage titles, not downloaded Java games - and many Java game publishers have lauded the N-Gage, and particularly its much improved successor the N-Gage QD, as a popular platform for playing downloaded games.