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Telegraph: Users of Nokia’s N-Gage mobile gaming platform have reacted angrily after discovering that the games they have bought to play on their mobile phones will be rendered unplayable if they upgrade to a new handset.

The games are ‘locked’ to the individual mobile phone, rather than simply being tied to an individual’s user account. It means if they swap their current device for another N-Gage-compatible Nokia handset, their library of games won’t transfer with them. Instead, they will have to purchase the games again if they want to continue playing them.

The story first broke on the All About N-Gage fan site, and gamers have been quick to vent their frustration. One user, Kazutoyo, said “the N-gage suddenly got a lot less attractive to me”, while another, Krisse, agreed and said: “The platform has so much potential, and this policy just ruins it”.

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TechDigest: As predicted, Nokia announced its digital music store yesterday morning, at its Go Play event in London. The new store is called Nokia Music Store, and it will launch by Christmas in Europe.

Nokia claimed that it’s the first music store to be truly online and mobile, although all the mobile operators offering their own dual-download stores might disagree strongly. However, the store will sell DRM-protected tracks, against the industry trend towards selling DRM-free tunes.

You’ll be able to tag songs on your phone, for download via PC when you get home, which will get around data charges. And later on, Nokia plans to launch a new PC music client, although this won’t be available at the launch of the Nokia Music Store.

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