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Those who thought they'd seen the last of the Nokia N-Gage will be surprised to learn that it's coming back. But the N-Gage won't be a game-enabled cell phone anymore, as it was in its first two versions. Now, N-Gage is the gaming section of Nokia's upcoming group of online services, called Ovi.

"Ovi" means "door" in Finnish, and the company plans for Ovi to be a door to a variety of online applications. Besides the N-Gage gaming service, Ovi will also include a music service, online maps, and other unspecified social networking services. (CNET is reporting that Ovi will offer direct contact to social networks like MySpace, Flickr, and Facebook.)

"The industry is converging towards Internet-driven experiences and Ovi represents Nokia's vision in combining the Internet and mobility," said Nokia president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo at the London launch event. "Looking into the future, we will deliver great devices, combined with compelling experiences and services, to make it easy for people to unlock the potential of the Internet."

Along with the Ovi online service, Nokia introduced four new phones which will provide enhanced usage with the online services. The phones—the N81 - in two editions - (top picture of an 8GB version running an N-Gage game), an 8GB edition of Nokia's N95 powerhouse, the 5310 Xpress Music, and 5610 Xpress Music—will offer dedicated keys for accessing the music and gaming areas. They'll also offer larger screens and stronger battery performance.

The four new phones will work with Ovi services out of the box. Other compatible Nokia Nseries and S60 3rd Edition devices will work with N-Gage gaming after downloading an N-Gage application. The application and the gaming service will be available globally in November, 2007.

 
                                  Nokia N95 8GB

At launch, N-Gage will have several popular gaming titles available, including EA Sports FIFA 08, The Sims 2 Pets, Tetris, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and Crash Bandicoot. Nokia announced that games will cost between 6 and 10 euros, but didn't give U.S. pricing. Players will also be able to choose daily or weekly licenses.

"As we expand our focus from a dedicated game phone to a gaming service, we are making getting and playing games even easier," said Jaakko Kaidesoja, head of the games business at Nokia. "The N-Gage service combined with powerful devices, world class titles and brands, and interactive social networking features, takes the mobile gaming experience beyond traditional boundaries."

 

Ovi will go live in English sometime in the fourth quarter. Other languages will go live in the first half of 2008.

The Nokia Music Store will open to major European markets this fall, with additional European and Asian markets coming in the following months. The company made no mention of bringing the music service to the United States. The store will offer 192kbps tracks which can be transferred to a PC.