According to Reuters Nokia will close its battered gaming service N-Gage next year, acknowledging failure in its first major services offering. Nokia is looking for new revenue from online services as its traditional handset market matures, with games and music being the first focus areas.

Yet the handset maker’s mobile gaming push has encountered major challenges, with consumers first shunning its dedicated gaming phones which went on sale in October 2003, accompanied by a major global advertising campaign. The online gaming service, which opened last year, took over the N-Gage brand and also never moved beyond a niche audience of hard-core gamers.

“We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform,” Nokia said on its N-Gage blog, to which a user calling himself Jon replied: “It’s a sad day for N-Gage fans.”

It said the games from its first major services offering could be purchased until the end of September 2010 and the community site would remain in operation throughout 2010.

“It’s a sign of a more realistic approach. It’s time to bury the dead and focus on the future,” said Tero Kuittinen, analyst at MKM Partners, adding Nokia had great opportunities in other areas, such as location-based services, micro-financing and mobile email.

Nokia’s leading position in the cellphone market had attracted all the top mobile game makers — including Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and Digital Chocolate — to create special games for N-Gage. After closing the N-Gage service, Nokia will continue to sell mobile games at its Ovi Store, a smaller rival to Apple’s popular App Store. Nokia’s U.S. shares were 3.3 percent lower at $12.73 by 1750 GMT.

According to official Nokia sources:

So, you might ask, what will happen to the current N-Gage platform?

N-Gage games can be purchased until the end of September 2010. While the N-Gage.com site together with the N-Gage Arena and other community features will remain in operation throughout 2010, the Ovi Store will be the new central place for all the mobile games that Nokia and other publishers offer from this point forward. We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform.

What will happen to N-Gage Arena?

N-Gage Arena will remain in operation throughout 2010 and players can e.g. keep posting their high scores until then. We understand that people value the ability to manage their games and communicate about them, and we are working on offering such community elements through Ovi. Games publishers are free to use community features of their choosing in their apps, the feature set is not defined by Nokia. Social Networking applications are some of the most downloaded on Ovi Store, emphasing the power of connecting people.

What will happen to my games?

Your games are safe – all your purchased N-Gage games will continue to work on your N-Gage compatible mobile device and they’re yours to keep. However, community features of the games will not be functional after 2010.

Do you have plans to bring community elements to the Ovi Store gaming experience?

Yes, we understand how important community is to our gamers. You can already post reviews of games and other apps in the Ovi Store. We are actively working on offering more community elements through Ovi and we encourage developers to use community features in their applications. Stay tuned – there’s more to come on this.

Why doesn’t Nokia keep N-Gage as a separate gaming platform?

As mobile gaming evolves and begins to encompass social gaming, we want to offer one store front with an even broader portfolio of games – games for everyone. It’s much more convenient to have one place to get all your mobile games, and this it what Ovi Store https://store.ovi.com/games provides. Mobile gaming is one of the most popular activities in the Ovi Store, with games being the #2 most downloaded category for premium content. And besides having all mobile games in one place, people can access other services like Mail, Maps, Music and many more via www.ovi.com.

What will happen to N-Gage.com?

The N-Gage.com site will remain in operation throughout 2010, with the exception of the N-Gage Store which will remain open until the end of September 2010. However, we recommend people to visit Ovi Store to play the latest games – many familiar games and so much more.

Will you stop shipping devices with the N-Gage application pre-installed?

We will continue to sell devices with N-Gage application pre-installed for some time, however we will no longer ship new devices with the application pre-installed. Games will be available through the Ovi Store which is already supported by 100 Nokia device models and growing. Ovi Store will be pre-installed on most new compatible Nokia devices including Symbian S60 & Series 40 from Q4 2009. Thank you for being part of the N-Gage community and your participation over the years. It is important we share this information with you first as we know how much the N-Gage Community means to you, and that being up to date on the latest gaming information is of importance. We appreciate your contributions and loyalty to the N-Gage community and service, and we hope to continue to hear from you via Ovi. See you in the Games! Sign up here to Ovi for more news about games, apps and other mobile content in Ovi Store Nokia Games team