We got an email in from someone calling themselves "anonymous source" earlier today, with a link to this story:

Tracy Erickson:
Like a sickly thin socialite slipping unnoticed to the ladies for a quick sniff, Nokia has quietly moved its enigmatic Project White Rock into alpha.

The game, which we previously reported on as promising to break new ground with its N-Gage-to-PC connectivity, is expected to launch sometime early in the new year.

We've yet to get our hands on the title, but a memo leaked from the testing lead points to some highly addictive stuff. "Testers who have been with the game since the start have insisted on staying with the game for as long as possible," wrote the test project manager.

If true, the fact testers are enjoying the game to this extent bodes well for Project White Rock, as the endlessly repetitive nature of their job would drink anyone dry of enthusiasm.

The multiplayer focus of Project White Rock has likely lead it to being such a hit with testers. Exactly how the game functions across both N-Gage-supported handsets and PCs is unclear, but we're looking forward to drafting a preview of our impressions in the near future.

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/N-Gage/Project+White+Rock+(working+title)/news.asp?c=5016

and a link, which is apparently exclusive to us, to this:

To which we all replied: Wha?

I wouldn't bother sharing if it weren't so damn weird. So now I'm reaching out to you guys. What's the deal?

I'm clueless, is it supposed to be a game? Didn't the N-Gage die out ages ago?

Sounds like something from The Onion.

Weird. I had no idea the N-Gage was supported by anyone anymore, the number of games released literally were in the dozens.

Searching for Project White Rock yields some strange results. It sounds almost like Nokia is peddling cocaine or something with that kind of name and addictive nature that they're talking about.

Some kind of marketing ploy, maybe? Try to generate hype through mystery, drop a hint here and there and get people talking. Drop a mysterious image, let it go from there?

I'm thinking there were a number of small white rocks present in a very smoky office when this particular project was conceived.

Yeah, I'm thinking it's an ARG lead of some type. Internet detectives assemble!

Nokia had absolutely no idea what they were entering into...I mean, come on. Tall-screen for games? Pay-to-play? I won't say "Leave it to the game designers" because Microsoft got in on the business smoothly, but PLEASE leave it to someone who knows what they're doing!

Well this sounds intresting...off to check it:)

Edit: http://blog.n-gage.com/archive/gdcwhiterock/

:D

I did hear talk not long ago that Nokia was going to redesign and rerelease a new-and-improved Ngage...