Meet Scrooge McNokia. He loves his recently-launched N-Gage platform because it does an amazing job of putting access to payware games in the hands of countless S60 device owners. It couldn’t be easier for them to fire up N-Gage on their handset and fork over some cash for a few titles from the ever-increasing N-Gage catalog. McNokia even worked out a few deals with top gaming labs Electronic Arts and Konami to include top notch titles that no mobile gamer can refuse. Already garnering acclaim across the internet, N-Gage popularity is growing every day as more compatible handsets are released. All this should give McNokia enough gold coins keep him swimming for years to come, right? He wouldn’t try to milk his customers for even more would he? Oh yes, he would. Despite information presented by N-Gage reps at Nokia’s Go Play event last year, we are now learning that N-Gage titles are not – we repeat, not – transferable from one device to another. Reps at Go Play clearly stated that N-Gage purchases would be tied to a profile rather than a specific handset. It only makes sense; after all, a customer who ditches one Nokia handset to purchase another Nokia handset is the prefect customer! But no, word is now coming through that despite initial info from the N-Gage team, purchases are locked to a device’s IMEI. Buying a new handset means you’ll have to either repurchase all of your N-Gage titles or simply lose them. The only known caveat to this point applies to handsets with manufacturer defects that are exchanged by Nokia customer care. Makes you think twice before clicking that purchase button…
[Via Symbian-Guru]
