After seeing some pictures of a supposed N-Gage 2 prototype, Jim and Ewan have posted their wish list. I’m personally curious to see if the N-Gage 2 ships with EDGE capability. EDGE could be a huge requirement for more interactive online gaming. Don’t get me wrong, downloading data and shadow racing is cool and all, but massive multiplayer games, and multiplayer shoot ’em ups are going to require much fatter pipes.
If the N-Gage 2 ships with EDGE, might we see a wave of online games that were just waiting for the infrastructure to be in place? I sure hope so. Another thing to think about is that depending on the street price of an NG2 without contract, it could become an attractive low priced EDGE phone.
I wouldn’t consider EDGE a given yet though. If Nokia is going to ship the NG2 with a T-Mobile SIM, there’s little motivation to add in EDGE capability. To my knowledge, T-Mobile (in the US at least) has no plans or announcements for EDGE in the near to medium term. Might we see AT&T or Cingular SIMs in the NG2? Who knows.
Right now I’d consider the possibility of the NG2 having EDGE to be 50/50. I’d love to see it happen, and it would make a lot of sense, however the current partnership with T-Mobile makes me think that it’s not a big possibility. I guess it all depends on if they stole the guts of a 6600 or a 6620 when putting together the NG2.
It may not happen, but I’d sure like it to.