A great N-Gage article gets (Game)spotted

Thanks to reader Brandon Cruz for pointing me to what he called "an excellent example of newswriting from a

rather unlikely source: Gamespot." While I don't think Gamespot is that unlikely of a source for good video game journalism, I do agree that Tor Thorsen's article, N-Gage start stumbles, is a great bit a newswriting. While plenty of sites covered the story adequately (and others covered it not so adequately), the Gamespot article went above and beyond the competition in providing relevant information to its readers. Here's a quick list of some of the things it does right:

• Addresses both the dismal sales figures and Nokia's official sales statement in the same article. Many sites covered these developments seperately (as they came on seperate days) but failed to mention the first (Nokia's statement) in the article about the second (the Arcadia sales report).
  
  
• Gives relevant comparison to sales numbers for the market leading Game Boy Advance. Many other articles did this too, and I applaud them for it.
  
  
• Quotes from analysts about the sales numbers Yes! This sets the article apart more than anything else. While any yahoo who can read a sales report can tell you how many N-Gage's have been sold, a real journalist will talk to people to find out what those numbers mean to Nokia and to the consumer. These analysts get paid to talk about this stuff, and most of them want to get their names out there, so give them a call whenever you need some more context. This kind of added value will keep readers coming back to your site for a more complete picture of the news.
  
  
• Information about AT&T bundles of the N-Gage. This is information I saw alluded to in other articles, but not explicitly discussed with pricing details as it was here. Good digging.
  
  

Congrats to Mr. Thorsen on a well researched and presented article.