Nokia plays games with Vivendi

Finnish phone manufacturer to distribute rudeware

Nokia has signed a deal with Vivendi to distribute the latter's games through their Download! client on the S60 platform, including the eponymous Leisure Suit Larry.

The deal initially covers games only, which have been made immediately available through the Download! client, but will later expand to wallpapers and ringtones - The Ballad of Freddy Pharkas perhaps.

The deal puts Vivendi games alongside EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu and THQ on the Nokia menu, so the announcement isn't entirely unprecedented. But it does demonstrate how seriously Nokia are taking their chosen role as content distributor rather than homely old handset manufacturer.

But while the games section of Download! is filling up, the N-Gage application which came with the latest firmware update on the N95 is still strangely empty - there's only a place-holder informing the curious that the N-Gage application will be available real soon now. ®