In a decision that will surprise no-one, Nokia has announced the end of its beleaguered N-Gage gaming service, which will close its doors at the end of next year.

"We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform," a Nokia spokesperson confirmed on the N-Gage blog. (Why it took Nokia six years to come to this decision is a mystery for the ages.)

The original N-Gage gaming phone went on sale in October 2003, where it received heavy criticism for its unconventional user interface (e.g. to insert a game, users had to remove the phone's plastic cover and pull out the battery compartment. Every time.) You were also forced to talk into the side of the phone like some kind of especially deranged mental patient.

Despite several drastic redesigns, the device never won the public's favour, and has been viewed as an epic hardware failure pretty much from day one. Nokia later discontinued the device and instead came up with a plan to develop phones that would support the N-Gage platform. Presumably, today's announcement will be the final nail in the creaky platform's coffin.

We have to admit, we're going to miss the N-Gage. Sure, it might have been a massively flawed device with buggy memory, an obnoxiously "extreme!" image and a dearth of fun games, but despite this... it, um... [I think what Chris is trying to say is "it was horrible and we're glad it's dead." -- Ed.]

You can read the original N-gage blog post here..