N-Gage 20 years

20 years ago today Nokia made a brave and doomed effort to challenge Nintendo's handheld.
In some ways they were ahead of their time: phones have since become gaming devices.

But generally the device was a disaster. It cost Nokia €250 million and got mostly bad reviews, both from experts and users.
They hurried too much to get a product out fast before someone else would try to make a gaming phone and the result was bad design, most famous elements of which were using phone sideways aka "elephant ear" and the fact that you had to take out battery to switch game card.
As only few dozen games were released, lack of success is no surprise.

Though there were other reasons. Marketing campaigns targeting gamer boys were of bad taste even by the time's standards and among others UK banned several N-Gage adds for sexism and promoting violence. This, using in retrospect embarrassing "booth babes" and other strategies were the last nail in the coffin.

But I do feel certain pride that Finland did once produce a gaming console. (Yes, it's a phone, but it was a dedicated platform with its own games, so it does count as a gaming console!)
There's only so many countries that can say the same.

@Kaunisto: Very interesting information. Did you have one?

No, didn't even have a phone back then.

I just dug out a comic book that had back cover ad for N-Gage and it's...

I'll try to describe it. Looks like bit of woods or bushes with urban buildings nearby; like a spot where kids might hang out.
There's patch of bend grass, as if something was laid there. (Or someone.)
And text: "Here Emma's little sister proved to be quite a beast."

Without the picture and logo and some basic information of the device at the bottom of the page, there'd be no way to tell what they're selling here. (If this wasn't in back of a Batman, I'd guess condoms.)

Finally there's also English slogan: "Anyone. Anywhere."