The successor to the original N-Gage gaming device and launched as part of their Ovi initiative[1] in 2007, it aimed to offer AAA games for trial and purchase into a single application[2] with full compatibility to all devices, along with online multiplayer and social features using N-Gage Arena via in-house servers.

Games on the platform were natively coded or ported using C++[3] although N-Gage used APIs from its own SDK separate from Symbian's.

N-Gage games can still be played on compatible devices, but support for the online features ceased in September 2010.

[11] Working behind closed doors, it took a little more than a year before, at E3 2006, finally announcing the N-Gage mobile gaming service, set for a 2007 release.

[12][13] They also started showing off next-gen titles such as System Rush: Evolution and Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, with the fighting game ONE perhaps being the most visually impressive—even making use of motion capture.

[16] Nokia showed off previews of the service at the 2007 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California.

[19] By this time, Nokia had attracted a healthy number of third-party publishers, including Electronic Arts, THQ, Gameloft and Capcom.

[22] This period of time was referred to as "First Access" and was only a public test of the client which could be downloaded for free from the N-Gage website.

While not the final version, the user had access to most of the features that the new application had to offer along with three games to try out: Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, System Rush: Evolution and Space Impact: Kappa Base.

[28] Some hours after the launch, the man behind the official N-Gage Blog,[21] Ikona, said about the delay: "We are currently ensuring Block Breaker Deluxe, Space Impact: Kappa Base, and Tetris are running smoothly with our new application.

[45] Nokia was inspired by Microsoft’s Xbox Live service in creating the user interface[46] of the app.

All N-Gage services, which includes purchasing of games and various online features, had reportedly ceased operation by the end of 2010.

[49] Later on 31 March 2011 Nokia closed their DRM activation service, leaving customers unable to reactivate their purchases in the case of a device format or software update.

He also noted that N-Gage titles simply didn't sell well enough compared to their Java and iPhone OS counterparts.

This meant that developers no longer have to learn Symbian OS C++ idioms, like active objects and descriptors, before they can port their code.