Nokia

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Like Magnavox, I was somewhat surprised to see the name Nokia used in the same sentence as video games, but it is true that Nokia came out with its own handheld video game. Of course the device is a phone too, but hey, what did you expect? You don't get to be the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer without some serious focus.

That's not to suggest that Nokia was always just a telecommunications company. With a company history dating back to 1865, Nokia has been involved in producing paper products, bicycle and car tires, footwear (including Wellington boots), personal computers, communications cables, televisions, electricity generation machinery, capacitors and aluminum. Clearly not as strange as Nintendo's pre-video game endeavors. (See Nintendo's page for more information.)

It wasn't until the 1990's that Nokia ceased its "extra-curricular" activities and started focusing strictly on its telecommunications operations. Nokia's subsequent interest in video games was not necessarily a side-step from that decision, but it was meant to be more of an enhancement to their services. In 2003 Nokia began selling a half-phone, half-handheld game system called the N-Gage. The goal was to lure in "on the go gamers" known to carry both phones and handheld game consoles. General consensus was that the phone was awkward to use as a game and the game was awkward to use as a phone.

Considering you have most likely never even heard of Nokia's half-phone, half-breed step child you can probably already guess that it hasn't done so well. Both the first and second attempts at the N-Gage saw dismal sales across the globe but Nokia has not given up on the project entirely. Currently, Nokia has shifted their N-Gage efforts from making it a dedicated gaming/phone device to more of a mobile platform on which games can be played.