According to latest plans shared by Nokia, the firm is looking to shut down its N-Gage gaming platform, thereby axing the N-Gage store by September 2010. The giant cell phone manufacturer announced on Friday that it will no longer include N-Gage in any of its new phones.

The axing of N-Gage is being seen as an attempt by the Finish company to drive its customer base to the Ovi Store. The new store, in addition to the older N-Gage games, also features game like Pac-Man and Sims 3. Ovi, which is already supported by as many as 100 of the company's productions, will now find more exposure and reach out to even more customers. From 2009's fourth quarter onwards, Ovi will now be pre-installed on most of the new Nokia devices, including Symbian S60 and Series 40 models.

The company, in a latest post on the N-Gage blog, shares, "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".

Nokia thanked the N-Gage community and was quick to assert that the platform had been much helpful. Launched in 2003, the original N-Gage had opened to mixed reviews. It was then followed by price cuts, and 2007 saw the launch of the updated N-Gage 2.0. In 2008, the N-Gage gaming service was launched by Nokia.