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Canadian Content Will Help Drive Success Of Nokia’s New Portable Gaming Device

July 8, 2004 (Toronto, ON) - Nokia Canada announced today that the success of Nokia’s new N-Gage QD game deck will build off a rapidly growing base of game titles – many of which are produced in Canada -- and a greatly expanded presence in retail outlets. 

Nokia's N-Gage Design Studio in Vancouver will be developing more than half of the games that make up the more than 50-strong portfolio of N-Gage titles expected by the end of the year. A dedicated team of producers designs each game in its entirety. With a highly qualified group of software engineers, animators, artists and quality assurance experts, the team spends many months on each title, refining the game for global distribution. Some of the Vancouver-produced games include Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Tiger Woods PGA Tour® 2004, Call of Duty and Elder Scrolls Travels - Shadowkey. “Rifts,” the highly acclaimed pen and paper role-playing game, will come into the video game world for the first time, available exclusively on the N-Gage in 2005. It is being produced in the Vancouver Design Studio and is being developed by Backbone Entertainment.

The Vancouver office is also responsible for providing the localized user guides, marketing materials and packaging for each title. The Vancouver office has managed the development of top selling N-Gage games including The Sims Bustin’ Out, Call of Duty, Crash Nitro Kart, Elder Scrolls: Shadowkey, MLB Slam, Moto GP and Red Faction.

““The N-Gage QD is a fantastic product that we are bringing to market through a number of new channels in Canada. This is a great story for Nokia Canada because there is such an important Canadian connection,” said Nathalie Le Prohon, General Manager of Nokia Products Ltd. Canada. “Canada has a tremendous skills base in the gaming industry, which is why our Vancouver facility received this global mandate. Based on the many new and exciting games titles available today and scheduled for launch later this year, we are confident that N-Gage QD will be successful.”

Recognizing that the N-Gage QD is a unique mobile device, Nokia is taking the N-Gage QD to market through greatly expanded and non-traditional sales channels, including Electronics Boutique, Microcell Solutions’ Fido outlets, Wireless Wave and DVD Boxoffice.com.

““Wireless devices and games have always had a natural fit, but the N-Gage QD now takes the customer experience to a new level,” said René Bousquet, Vice President of Marketing for Microcell Solutions. “Fido is very pleased that at the launch of the N-Gage QD it is the only Canadian wireless carrier to offer the device and some of the best new game titles in its stores.”

Canadian consumers can also activate their N-Gage QDs on all Canadian GSM networks.

The N-Gage QD is the latest addition to Nokia’s groundbreaking portable gaming platform. With a reworked design to improve ease of use, the N-Gage QD has an extended battery life and additional features to significantly enhance the gaming experience, including improved gaming controls, a brighter screen, as well as powerful smartphone features.

Gamers can play in a single-player mode or participate in real-time multiplayer games via Bluetooth wireless technology, or with other gamers around the world over GPRS mobile networks through the N-Gage Arena. The N-Gage QD features the N-Gage Arena launcher -- a built-in software application that enables users to wirelessly log in to the N-Gage Arena, the global mobile gaming community, for interactive content anytime, anywhere. N-Gage Arena members can compete with one another, download exclusive content, access rankings statistics, participate in events and activities, and more

The N-Gage QD was launched in Canada nearly a month before its U.S. availability on July 27. With a retail price starting at $249 (CDN) or as low as $149 (CDN) with a wireless plan, the N-Gage QD game deck supports existing N-Gage game titles, as well as exciting new titles such as The Sims Bustin’ Out, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, and Spider-Man 2. Nokia is also developing some first-party titles for the N-Gage platform, including Ashen, Pathway to Glory and Pocket Kingdom: Own The World, which is the world’s first mMMOG (mobile massively multiplayer on-line game).

“Nokia’s commitment to the N-Gage platform, which we’ve seen through the tremendous investment in both the development of a vast portfolio of great new games, and through the gameplay and design enhancements in the N-Gage QD, made it an easy decision for EB Games to support the platform extensively in our retail network,” said James Tyo, Vice President of EB Games Canada. “This is a great device with lots of exciting titles and we think it’s going to be extremely popular with our customers.”

The N-Gage QD game deck, which is also a dual band mobile phone, supports advanced smartphone features such as personal information management, XHTML browser, full email support and the ability to download and install additional Series 60 smartphone applications, such as an MP3 player. The Series 60 user interface also enables application multitasking, a voice recorder, predictive text input, voice dial for 20 names, and a screen-capture feature.

About N-Gage
The N-Gage game deck is an innovative mobile device that is creating an entirely new market for the games industry. Built for active gamers, the N-Gage platform is the first mobile and connected game deck to feature online high-quality 3D multiplayer gameplay over Bluetooth wireless technology and GPRS. The N-Gage device also offers unique online games services as well as a comprehensive and growing games catalogue from the leading game publishers. Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Nokia, N-Gage, N-Gage Arena and N-Gage QD are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nokia Corporation.

About Microcell Solutions
Microcell Solutions Inc. is a national provider of wireless communications services under the Fido brand name. The company offers a wide range of wireless voice and high-speed data communications products and services to over 1.2 million customers. Microcell Telecommunications Inc. is the parent company of Microcell Solutions. Microcell Telecommunications has been a public company since October 15, 1997, and is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols MT.A and MT.B. For more information, visit www.fido.ca and www.microcell.ca