It’s hard not to feel a little sorry for fledgling gaming devices in this rather unfriendly, sometimes quite mean, industry of ours. The N-Gage from Nokia is still perhaps the worst disaster, now hopelessly out of date and seeming to offer little more than an antiquated phone combined with tepid low-grade videogames, irrespective of licenses Nokia may have bought.
Deciding to ignore that apathy (that was scarily apparent at this year’s E3) Nokia’s N-Gage division has decided that what it needs to bolster its terminal platform is a ream of, well, stuff. Accessories actually, or peripherals if you’re ‘in the trade’.
Aimed squarely at the generic yuppie aesthetic, Nokia offers two new sets of earphones, a snap-on speaker to compound the looks of pity from your fellow travellers with one of annoyance, an MMC expander enabling you to switch between games without too much bother, a carry-case (oh yes!), another carry-case (oh yes, oh yes!), an aluminium game card holder and, wait for it, a carrying strap.
So now you know.
Sorry.