N-Gage in ‘midnight madness’

Nokia’s widely anticipated N-Gage mobile gaming platform officially goes in sale throughout much of North America tomorrow, with many retailers planning “midnight madness” sales tonight and “dawn madness” sales early tomorrow morning, according to Nokia.

The Finnish device maker’s hype machine went into full throttle this weekend, noting that flash mobs supporting  N-Gage’s commercial release were seen this weekend in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. A skywriting plane in Chicago etched “N-Gage.com” into a pristine blue sky Sunday afternoon, and an N-Gage crop circle appeared in Minnesota. Sidewalk art noting the product’s release also could be found in many cities.

“I thought it was something about the Cubs being in the play-offs,” said one Chicago woman of the sky-written message that appeared over the city’s north side in the early afternoon. “What’s the heck is N-Gage?”

The N-Gage mobile game deck will sell for $299 at EB Games, GameStop and some Target stores.  The game deck package includes the game deck, charger, rechargeable battery, stereo headset, USB cable and a SIM card with a pre-selected telephone number and $50 worth of free T-Mobile service.

"Hard core and active gamers now have a way to compete head-to-head with other gamers wirelessly via Bluetooth wireless technology and over-the-air globally via N-Gage Arena," said Nada Usina, general manager of entertainment and media for Nokia Mobile Phones in the Americas region.

The unit accesses the Internet and transmits data via GSM/GPRS networks. The N-Gage device’s gaming features include on-line, mobile, multi-player game play with 3-D color graphics and backlight, a nine-way directional controller and an ergonomic design. It also has an MP-3 player and stereo FM radio. Last, but not least, it operates as a tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 mobile phone.

N-Gage Arena is a web-based content home for N-Gage users looking for game clips, strategy guides and other gaming offerings.