N-Gage won't be folded into Ovi Store, says Nokia

Ever since Nokia announced Ovi Store, which will have a dedicated games category, there's been speculation about how (or indeed if) N-Gage will fit into it.

However, the company says N-Gage will remain a separate service for now, even though most N-Gage handsets will be also be able to access Ovi Store when it launches in May.

"It's the experience we decided to preserve, at least at this stage," Nokia's VP for media Marco Argenti tells Reuters. Instead, Ovi Store will focus on what are described as mass-market games - presumably Java.

However, it seems high end games will be part of Ovi Store at some point: "Our goal in the medium term is really to converge everything into a single distribution channel," says Argenti.

Several developers have suggested to PocketGamer.biz that Ovi Store may present a threat to N-Gage in its current form, though.

Why? Because as one said: "If you can release high-end Symbian games through Ovi Store and take a 70 per cent rev-share, why bother jumping through all the hoops to make them N-Gage titles?"

We'll see how this one plays out in the coming months.