Gamers 'angry' over new N-Gage's DRM

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Michael French May 22 2008, 4:07pm

BBC report says players have 'hit out' over Nokia's digital rights management

Will Nokia ever catch a break? It's latest stab at the N-Gage - which turns it from a flop hardware platform to a digital distribution system - was plagued with delays, and now that it's launched users are being 'angered' by the service's DRM according to the BBC.

The anti-piracy measures in the new N-Gage platform lock each game bought and downloaded not to each user's account - but to each handset, so if a player upgrades a device they will have to pay for all their games again.

Now gamers are up in arms about it.

"It's a bad idea for everyone... the N-Gage platform, gamers and third party publishers," the BBC quotes site All About N-Gage as saying.

Nokia's terms and conditions read: "Content shall be [...] limited to one private installation on one N-Gage compatible Nokia device only."

But now gamers are campaigning Nokia to change the situation.

In a post on the official N-Gage forum, one user said: "Changes need to be made soon, and sticking one's head in the sand will not change anybody's mind."

The Telegraph prints a response from Nokia which reads: "Our policy is that the N-Gage activation codes only work on the device where they were first activated. As with any digital media there is a potential risk of piracy and this policy is one of the ways we are dealing with piracy and ensuring our partners receive their rightful revenues from our platform. If users need to repair their device, the activation codes will be reissued."

Tags: Drm, N-gage, Nokia

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Comments

“Vive la resistance!”
Posted by: MGB - May 23, 8:07am

And I thought they wanted this new N-Gage to do better than the last one..?!
Hope it gets cracked soon - fight the DRM evil on all fronts! :P

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“Don't like it?”
Posted by: Dan G - May 23, 8:25am

Then don't buy it. Vote with your wallet - simple. I don't think you're going to miss out on too much really...

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“Re: Don't like it?”
Posted by: Guido - May 23, 10:33am

Well, indeed, if you want a gaming platform get yourself a PSP, DS or whatever. Heck, even an ancient GameBoy would be better suited for gaming than the N-Gage will ever be.

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“Re: Don't like it?”
Posted by: Kazutoyo - May 23, 2:28pm

Nokia already said they gonna fix it.
http://conversations.nokia.com/home/2008/05/n-gage-update-.html

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“Re: Don't like it?”
Posted by: cLake - May 23, 11:41pm

What the hell kind of stupid sh_t is that? What are they pulling from the school of Verizon? Simple, if I am buying games from "n-gage", for my "Nokia Phone" -- then it transfers END OF STORY.

Anything LESS, will have me download them for free else where. Get it! And that sorry ass explanation is BULLSH_T! Because it's totally possible to get around that. It will be a pain in the ass, but it can be done. Good job Nokia. I'm not trying it at all.

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“Re: Don't like it?”
Posted by: Walker - May 24, 12:06am

"Then don't buy it?" lol.

These phones were available for over a year before Nokia managed to roll out N-Gage, but we bought them anyway because well, they're good phones/multimedia devices in general.

The N95 is anyway. TBH, the N-Gage novelty wore off after being forced to play the demos (Fifa, System Rush Evolution, etc.) for several months because the full platform release was suffering delay after delay after delay.

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