Nokia has revealed that it is to close the doors on its N-Gage platform next year, in favour of offering all its gaming through its Ovi Store content portal.

Nokia’s N-Gage launched as hardware back in 2003 with a “taco-shaped” gaming phone, which although now arguably a cult device, had design flaws which made it ripe for ridicule.

A few years later and Nokia rolled out N-Gage gaming abilities to its higher-end mobiles, with the more recent N81 angled as a gaming phone, making N-Gage into a mobile gaming platform available across a range of handsets.

“We are not releasing any more games on N-Gage, although the store – the ability to buy N-Gage games – will remain open until at least September 2010, and the N-Gage service will run through to the end of 2010″, Mark Ollila, director of X-Media solutions, media and games at Nokia, explained to ME.

“The message is that Ovi Store is the place to find and purchase mobile games. It’s our one-stop shop for games”.

The official PlayStation website might have leaked information regarding firmware 2.53, but it was clearly very wrong about the date. The update didn’t drop on November 26th, as the website suggested, but is instead available right now. Honestly, it’s true. Go check for yourself.

The latest firmware adds full screen functionality to embedded Flash videos in the web browser, as well as generally “improving the way the Flash Player works with the internet browser.” Meaning more websites will now work. Overall, a nice, if slightly anemic, firmware update. It’s all free though, so we can’t complain. Go on commenters, prove us wrong.