Leading handset vendor Nokia said Thursday that its ill fated N-Gage platform will be making a comeback next week.

Owners of the Nokia N81 and N81 8GB will have exclusive access to a pre-release version of the N-Gage application and one or more N-Gage games, the vendor said.

Nokia will also be opening up its N-Gage First Access forums, where users can give the company feedback on the experience.

After doing away with the doomed hardware-based N-Gage handsets, the company has turned the gaming technology into a software platform for “tens of millions” of S60 devices.

Nokia will also incorporate the gaming platform into its mobile service platform Ovi and has promised to revive the offering by making games more affordable, introducing a rental model and making everything free to trial.