One last desperate shuffle of the deck for N-Gage

According to an unconfirmed post over Games Digest, Nokia is about to slash the prices on N-Gage games, from €50 down to at most €40 and as low as €25. It would clearly be a last-ditch plot to build market share just as Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS thunder into view.

The handheld itself is slated for a trimming too, according to GD, but no word on the exact price cut.

Sadly, it's too little, too late for Nokia. The phone/gaming hybrid was expected to sell six million in a year but so far has tallied only 1.4m. This is its dying breath as a serious contender. Nokia will undoubtedly have learned much from the failure but I wouldn't like to be the man who green-lighted this whole sorry project.

Even as the N-Gage vanishes into the rear-view mirror, another David enters to take on the Goliaths - Gizmondo, long viewed as vapourware for its interminable gestation, has announced its Windows CE-based handheld will hit the shop on March 19. I say "shop" because apart from the Gizmondo retail outlet on London's Regent Street, nowhere else seems to be selling it. Will get on to the Gizmondo PR people on Monday and ask that very question.