Less than a month after Nokia Corp. introduced its first foray into the video gaming realm, hackers have managed to break the security settings on the company’s N-Gage mobile phone/video game device and are making pirated copies of N-Gage games available on the Internet.
The issue could represent a potentially serious blow to Nokia’s nascent gaming efforts. If the security hacks spook games developers, they may end their support for the device. Gaming analysts agree that the key to any successful gaming platform is a healthy library of games-and if Nokia loses the support of games developers, it may be left with only a handful of available N-Gage games.
“The business model is dependent upon a secure platform,” said Richard Doherty, director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group. “I don’t think anyone expected it would be cracked so soon.”
Hacking has been a concern since the beginnings of the computer industry, with software sellers going to great lengths to protect their revenues. The video-game industry has especially been keen to protect against hacking, as the spread of free games could cut into revenues. However, Nokia isn’t the first gaming player to suffer from a security breach-hackers have broken into Nintendo’s Game Boy device, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation. Nokia isn’t even the first wireless company to fall prey to hackers-in Europe developers managed to break into Orange’s SPV smart phone and install applications that were not approved by the carrier.
“It’s just not a good situation,” said Billy Pidgeon, a mobile-gaming analyst with the Zelos Group. “Nokia is certainly going to have to reassure its developers.”
“We take these types of intellectual property offenses very seriously,” Nokia said. “We have initiated an aggressive program to stop individuals and/or entities that are behind these intellectual property violations. Nokia will work with ISPs, auctions sites and the relevant authorities to pursue all actions and remedies available to stop this illegal activity. We are also working to continually develop our copy protection mechanisms to make it even more difficult to do this in the future.”
Nokia said it would not recall any N-Gage devices, but would add additional security features to its games. Edios, Activision and other gaming companies have built N-Gage games, including “Tomb Raider” and “Pandemonium.” Edios and Activision were not immediately available to comment on news of the security breach.
“It’s not a good thing to happen when they’re trying to get as much top-quality content as possible,” said Zelos Group’s Pidgeon. “I doubt it will be huge, but there will be problems.”
Although Nokia’s main concern is that hackers could make free games available to other N-Gage users, hackers apparently also managed to get N-Gage games working on other Series 60-based devices like the Siemens SX-1. The N-Gage, the SX-1 and several other devices use Nokia’s Series 60 platform, which is based on the Symbian operating system.
Some industry watchers have wondered whether Nokia would do just this-expand its N-Gage gaming effort to include other Series 60-based devices, thus increasing the potential user base for game sales. However, a Nokia spokesman said the company had no intentions to do so.
Nokia introduced its highly anticipated N-Gage device in October, looking to take advantage of the mobile-gaming market dominated by Nintendo’s Game Boy device. Nokia pumped millions of dollars into its worldwide N-Gage promotion campaign, but the device drew mixed reviews from gaming enthusiasts. Nokia said it has sold about 400,000 devices so far.
There are about a dozen games available for the $300 device. The games fit on MMC cards, which are about the size of a postage stamp, and sell for between $30 and $40.
