Major League Gaming (MLG), the preeminent worldwide console gaming league for professional video game players, and Nokia announced Monday the N-Gage game deck as MLG's presenting sponsor for the 2004 MLG season. The deal went into effect beginning with MLG's most recent tournament, which took place this past weekend in Philadelphia, PA. As part of this agreement, the two highest ranked N-Gage players at the end of the 2004 season will receive a MLG management contract and become the first members of Team N-Gage, the first professional team for the N-Gage game deck.

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Gamespot reports that Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila made a revealing comment to a Financial Times reporter at 3GSM World Congress in France, yesterday. "The sales are in the lower quartile of the bracket we had as our goal," Ollila said.

Nokia has shipped 600,000 N-Gage units since launch and has set a goal of shipping at least 2 million units by 2005.

Yesterday, Nokia and Vivendi Universal Games announced Crash Nitro Kart for the N-Gage game deck. The new game will transport users to the Crash Bandicoot world where multiple players can go head to head with the freedom of Bluetooth wireless technology on the N-Gage platform. Crash Nitro Kart on the N-Gage game deck promises to beone of the most advanced 3D Kart racing worlds ever developed for a portable gaming device, delivering connected, over the air features through N-Gage Arena.

Crash Nitro Kart is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2004.

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Snow sports enthusiasts enjoying the first virgin powder on the slopes of Europe in 2004 will get the opportunity to take time out from the black runs and snow parks to test drive new titles on the Nokia N-Gage game deck. The N-Gage Snow Tour kicks off in Hermagor, Austria on February 13, 2004 and will visit more than 27 winter sport resorts in 7 European countries, letting gamers sample the latest N-Gage releases and mobile gaming at its best.

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Nokia, together with SEGA® Corporation, today announced two SEGA branded titles that will be released for the N-Gage game deck. Virtua Cop and Alien Front Online will be available on the N-Gage game deck beginning with Alien Front in spring 2004.

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Carphone Warehouse is now offering the Nokia N-Gage for £99.99 on the UK Virgin Mobile pay as you go network. This beats our previously reported Woolworths deal by £30. The United Kingdom is already one of the most successful markets for the N-Gage, even before breaking the £100 barrier.

Good news for N-Gage fans. Looks like Nokia is going to put more resources into supporting the N-Gage platform. According to the recruitment page on GamesIndustry.biz, Nokia is looking for to fill several positions related to their N-Gage business.

1) Manager, Advanced N-Gage Developer Support team. The N-Gage Developer Support team offers special game development tools and advanced technical support for N-Gage developers.

2) Product Manager, Game Development Tools, responsible for the end-to-end management of N-Gage game development tools offering.

3) Product Manager, N-Gage Developer Offering, responsible for defining and implementing Nokia's offerings to game developers.

4)Games Producer. The Games Producer will manage the production of games by internal or external development companies and will co-ordinate internal game design and review for Nokia's N-Gage handheld gaming platform.

MVC reports that new N-Gage handsets may be coming sooner than expected, possibly to be revealed at E3, in May. "Our hardware cycles are different to what the games business is used to and our strategy is clearly to have more devices," said Ilkka Raiskinen, a Nokia representative.

In response to criticism of the certain aspects of the N-Gage, Raiskinen told MCV, "We are getting invaluable feedback. Some say it is too difficult to load the cartridges. Some say there could be fewer features and a lower price. But we are pleased with what we have achieved. Little more than 100 days ago, Nokia wasn't in the games business. But now it is, and we're learning fast."

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is the largest gaming industry trade show in the world and is commonly used by gaming companies to announce upcoming products.

N-Gage France reports that Nokia has shipped 600,000 N-Gage Game Decks to Europe throughout 2003. The N-Gage launch date was October 7th, so 600,000 units were shipped in just under a three month period. That means about 200,000 Game Decks a month.

Also revealed was this: An average of 1 N-Gage MMC game has been sold for every Game Deck. This statistic could be a cause of frustration for the N-Gage team, who are trying to market the system as a game machine, not just a phone. It turns out that the N-Gage is quite appealing to many consumers not for its gaming capability, but for its other extensive features. Analysts speculate that as more original and higher quality titles become available, such as those being developed in-house by Nokia, the ratio of games sold per Game Deck will increase.

No figures for North American or worldwide sales numbers were revealed.