Well, talk about nipping controversy in the bud. Just a couple days after Nokia enthusiasts started to get all riled up over having their Nokia N-Gage games locked to a single handset, Nokia has up and announced that they'll make sure that N-Gage games can be transferred between multiple handsets.

Nokia previously said that N-Gage titles are tied to the handset through which they were purchased:

“N-Gage activation codes only work on the device where they were first activated. As with any digital media there’s a potential risk of piracy and this policy is one of the ways Nokia is dealing with piracy and ensuring partners receive their rightful revenues from its platform. If users need to fix their device, the activation codes will be reissued. Also, if you buy a new N-Gage compatible device, you’ll need to purchase your games again.”

But, with Nokia fans up in arms over being forced to re-buy games for new handsets, Nokia has flipped an about face and backpedaled on their previous statement. The games can be transferred through customer service in the near-term, but rest assured that Nokia is working on a long-term solution to make sure that N-Gage customers can play their purchased game titles on multiple mobile phones.

Here's what Nokia has to state about transferring N-Gage games:

“We have noticed a number of media stories about N-Gage game transfers and wanted to clarify the issue. Due to replicate protection, N-Gage games, like most mobile games, are linked to one device. As the value of content increases, a robust copy protection mechanism is essential as it makes it possible for the games industry to invest in N-Gage content.

We acknowledge our customers' concerns and have been working on a solution that would allow people to transfer bought N-Gage games to a new Nokia device. We are working with our Nokia Care Centers with an intermediate solution to enable the licensed transfers of games until a final solution is ready to be deployed.

We apologise for the confusion around this issue and look forward to delivering an appropriate solution to transfer bought N-Gage games to new Nokia devices.”

It's not clear when, exactly, Nokia will be allowing users to transfer their games, but it shouldn't take too long.

It's good to see a large company like Nokia actually listening to customer complaints and criticism throughout the blogosphere and doing something that helps the consumer. At the end of the day, the customer that bought the game title deserves to do whatever they wish with the software.

[Via: N-Gage Blog]

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Related Articles at IntoMobile:

• All N-Gage games now EUR 9.99
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• All About Symbian looks at where N-Gage came from and how it will be better in its second iteration
• There has been a lot of talk about N-Gage recently
• Tell Nokia what you have to say about the N-Gage

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 11:12 pm and is filed under Mobile News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.