Lara is N-Gage favourite

But sales appear meagre...

The N-Gage version of Tomb Raider was the fledgling handheld's best seller in the first week of sale, with Super Monkey Ball and Sonic N in hot pursuit followed by Pandemonium then Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. None of these debut titles managed to make an impression on the all-formats chart, much in the same way that the N-Gage itself failed to dent sales of the GBA - much to Nokia's consternation no doubt.

Indeed, reports from Chart-Track suggest that through games retailers a piffling five-hundred N-Gage units have been sold; not exactly impressive for a debut hardware product - even by Xbox-Japan standards. Of course, these early figures do not represent sales of the product through mobile phone stores, where the best deals on the N-Gage are available, so we may have to wait for some statistics that take account of these contract-subsidised sales to glean a truer picture.

Regardless of this however, Nokia are likely to be disappointed that sales through gaming channels haven't blossomed further given the massive marketing investment the Finnish mobile giant has made globally.

By Luke Guttridge