REZ, LUMINES DEV MAKING N-GAGE GAMES?

File this one under wait and see, but when Shuji Utsumi speaks, I listen. Formerly variously VP at Sony Computer Entertainment, Sega and Disney, Utsumi is now CEO of Q Entertainment, the developer behind Lumines, Every Extend Extra and Xbox Live Arcade’s Rez revival — in general, one of the top studios driving music and games closer together outside of Rock Band and Phase creator Harmonix.

So it was with some interest that I noted via his blog that he’d just returned from a quick ‘Roman Holiday’ to visit the Nokia Games Summit, where he appeared on stage (above) to tell the audience that mobile media would soon be the “center of the media, replacing TV,” and, more interestingly, how happy he was to see Nokia working closely with content creators in the area.

Sitting to Utsumi’s left is not, as it would appear on first glance, Mythbuster Adam Savage, but instead (you later can hear him referred to in the video) former Eurythmic Dave Stewart (!).

Utsumi notes in his post that Stewart was impressed when he showed off another of Q’s music properties, Genki Rockets, who are, in Q’s own words, “a music group which vocal is 17 years old girl, Lumi, a first baby born in outer space and has never been to the earth” (and is, in fact, beaming her pop videos to us from 30 years in the future).

So what brings Q and a Eurythmic together? After doing a little further digging, we can see that Stewart attended the games summit as part of the company’s “Artists’ Advisory Council,” where he is helping to introduce “up-and-coming singer Cindy Gomez through [Digital Legends’ already-announced N-Gage game Dance Fabulous] with brand new songs including the theme song, ‘Street Dancing.'”

But after more digging, we can see that while the studio isn’t currently listed, in July of this year Q Entertainment did indeed show up on Nokia’s ‘Our Developers’ list.

So, like I say, file this one under wait and see until we get solid word from an official source — it could be as simple as Q porting Lumines to the device, as they have to PSP, Xbox Live Arcade, and PC (via Steam) — but either way, along with the mind-boggling but excellent N-Gage/PC strategy game Reset Generation and the intriguing looking Yamake, Nokia appear to be gathering a solid team beneath their wing.