Handset maker¹ Nokia plans to shut down its N-Gage games service in 2010, the firm has announced.

移动电话生产生诺基亚宣布，将于2010年停止对N-Gage手机游戏程序的支持。

Nokia had high hopes for N-Gage when it launched in 2008.

N-Gage was a mobile gaming platform launched by Nokia in April 2008 with about 30 games available for download direct to certain Nokia handsets.

No new N-Gage games will be released, although users will be able buy existing games until the end of September 2010.

The N-Gage community website will be available until the end of the year.

N-Gage had a difficult birth - an earlier version which launched in 2003 also failed to capture the market.

In the future all games available to Nokia handset owners will be shifted to its apps store, Ovi Store.

"It's much more convenient to have one place to get all your mobile games, and this it what Ovi Store provides," said Nokia on the N-Gage blog.

"Mobile gaming is one of the most popular activities in the Ovi Store, with games being the second most downloaded category for premium² content（优质内容，高级内容）."

People commenting on the blog were generally saddened by the news.

"Sorry to hear it, N-Gage was a pioneer in many ways," posted a blog reader called Jo.

But not everybody was in mourning.

"I am so happy that we get into this point," wrote Frax. "N-Gage2 was simply a joke..."

Nokia has recently taken a financial hit after sales dropped by one fifth in the last quarter.

The Finnish company made a net loss（净亏损） of 913m euros (£838m) between July and September 2009 - during the same period in 2008 it made a profit of 1.1bn euros.