Nokia’s newest brand, Ovi, hit a bit of a snag this week. Touted as “the key that unlocks every door”, Ovi apparently isn’t unlocking the game portion of its site, N-Gage, until December.

Nokia, which introduced its long-awaited gaming service at a large media event in August, said N-gage would be available globally in November. Due to software testing issues, Nokia said today it is delaying N-gage’s launch until December.

“Software testing is taking a bit more time than we expected,” Nokia spokesman Kari Tuutti said.

Additionally, the Warner Music Group Corp. said today it is withholding its music from the just-lauched Nokia Music Store over concerns about illegal downloads at Nokia’s file-sharing site, Mosh, The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) noted today.

Warner, the third-largest record company, has a deep catalog that features popular artists such as Madonna and iconoclasts like Neil Young. Meanwhile, other major labels — Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and EMI — are still offering their content to the Nokia Music Store, which is only available in the U.K. and accessible on a small selection of cell phones.

Mosh is Nokia’s social network that allows users to share files with each other on their mobile devices. Ars Technica notes that The WSJ did a quick search on Mosh and found copies of Beatles songs and Harry Potter. Nokia uses automated software to monitor the site for copyrighted material.

“We are implementing all possible systems to prevent copyrighted material beig uploaded to Mosh,” Tuutti said.

Perhaps worst of all, the Nokia Music Store is being trashed around the Web. In a particularly virulent — but accurate — account, Mashable says the store “completely and absolutely sucks.” Reasons given: The songs are DRM-protected, only available in the Windows Media format, and the site supports Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, not Firefox.

The timing of Nokia’s woes is unfortunate. Nokia, the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer, wants to reposition itself as a software-and-services company looking for new revenues. At the center of this effort is Ovi.

Are the N-gage delay and Warner problem just bumps in the road, or signs of what’s to come?

Other posts that may be of interest

• Weekly wrapup, 29 October - 2 November 2007
• Nokia introduces new N-Gage, hints at what’s to come
• Nokia’s all-you-can-eat music service to land in UK first
• Warner Music jumps on-board Nokia’s all-you-can-eat music plan
• Sony BMG joins Nokia’s all-you-can-eat music service
• Nokia hopeful of signing up all four major labels for all-you-can-eat music offering

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