The surprise news isn’t that California based mobile game developer Digital Chocolate would publish titles for the N-Gage platform, but rather that the N-Gage was around. The hybrid gaming device, mobile phone launched what seems like ages ago, and never caught on quite as much as Nokia expected. But apparently the platform is doing well enough to entice Digital Chocolate, which will be publishing a variety of titles for the system this fall.

“Digital Chocolate has been a driving force in promoting social interaction within the context of mobile gaming,” said Gregg Sauter, Nokia’s director of third party publishing. “They are also an award winning publisher dedicated to bringing innovative games to the masses. It is these qualities that make Digital Chocolate a perfect fit for our N-Gage offering, which allows publishers to innovate with respect to quality, ease of use and community interaction.”

And while the original N-Gage may have failed, the brand is living on as a made-for-mobile game service and is compatible with Nokia Nseries and other S60 3rd edition devices. The newest series from Digital Chocolate include DChoc Café,which is meant to feature casual card, boardd and puzzle games for multiple players. Think of this as social networking meets gamers. The only question is whether there are really enough N-Gage users for a social networking service to work?

Digital Chocolate
N-Gage