Users of Nokia’s new Asha phones will soon access a set of rare 22 classic games on their phones courtesy of a partnership between the phone maker and Namco Bandai, a Japan-based mobile, arcade and home video game publisher and developer.
Namco Bandai will include its classic arcade games in the Nokia Asha Touch range. Some of the games include Pac Man, Flight Control, Soulcalibur, Ace Combat Northern Wings, Final Fantasy, Drift Ridge Racer, Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima and Galaga Special Edition.
Nokia has had direct billing agreements with 145 mobile network operators in more than 52 countries where these titles will be sold at around US$0.99 and US$ 2.99.
Speaking about the partnership, James Kucera, head of mobile for Namco Bandai, said the move perfectly illustrates the strengths of the company’s brand experience and leadership in the mobile games industry.
“It fits our mutual resolve to bring games to all mobile users worldwide,” he said.
Nokia Store is growing rapidly,the store reports to have 15 million downloads daily and is accessible in more than 190 countries with 90 percent of its apps in local languages and also said to have surpassed 5 billion downloads to date. The firm also reports 42 percent of all content downloaded from Nokia Store were for the Asha Touch range and a few other Nokia devices running on Java from January to April this year compared to just 10 percent last year.
The introduction of Nokia Asha in Africa in the recent months is however expected to heighten the mobile game downloads.
Nokia Asha is currently going for only Ksh 6,999 in Kenya below the Huawei’s Ideos Huawei Gaga at Ksh 8,799 and Samsung’s Samsung Galaxy pocket at KSh 9, 999. Nokia expects its fair pricing would it an upper hand over its competitors.
