Electronic Arts may be planning a range of new mobile games releases this winter, but that doesn’t mean everything is sweet and dandy between Nokia and the publishing giant. Speaking publically at the 2008 Nokia Games Summit in Rome, EA Mobile’s Peter Parmenter was far from restrained when highlighting the shortcomings in the N-Gage service and frequently pointed out the superiority of the rival iPhone service.
“As a publisher, we will make twice the revenue from selling an iPhone game in Italy than we will from selling an N-Gage game at the same price,” Parmenter said.
He wasn’t happy about the hardware either, observing: “If a guy’s sitting in a bar with a Nokia N96, and their friend has an iPhone, if the guy with the N96 downloads a game from their operator portal, they’ll get a Java experience. Their friend will get a hardware-accelerated iPhone experience. That can’t be right.”
Apple has an advantage with compatibility too, seeing as it merely covers the handful of very similar iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Nokia’s many and varied mobile platforms are more of an issue. “As new devices come along, the compatibility of our code isn’t necessarily happening,” Parmenter said.
“I think it’s easier to get an audience with the Pope than it is to get a game through certification at Nokia,” he added.
Ouch. Don’t hold back, EA, just tell ‘em how you really feel.
Happily for Nokia owners, EA may be disgruntled, but it’s not giving up the fight. The publisher wants to work with Nokia to solve these issues and in the meantime its scheduling a load of a new titles for release over the coming year. These include EA SPORTS FIFA 09, MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition, Spore Origins, Boom Blox, Need For Speed Undercover, Tomb Raider Underworld, Pandemonium, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR and The Sims 3.
(via PocketGamer)
