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GameCube (Games)

Nintendo Revolution Details Reaffirmed 61

Posted by Zonk from the lantacular dept.
Nintendo President Iwata has reaffirmed details already released about the upcoming Revolution console. Gamsutra has details from his talk, where Iwata touches on the wireless capability of the Revolution, the designer friendly attitude of the console, and the secretive nature of the console's controllers. From the article: "For the next-generation console, we plan to introduce a friendly user interface so that, for example, a mother who's watching her child playing a game might say, 'Oh, I'd like to try that too.' However, user interfaces are devices that can be easily imitated by other companies, so I can't reveal any details right now." GamesIndustry.biz also has coverage on this topic.
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Nintendo Revolution Details Reaffirmed More

Nintendo Revolution Details Reaffirmed

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  • Other links (Score:5, Informative)

    by frikazoyd ( 845667 ) on Thursday March 31, 2005 @06:56PM (#12105185)
    Also of interest,
    Rumor Control: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/03/25/news_61211 12.html [gamespot.com]
    Same story from Gamespot: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/03/29/news_61212 64.html [gamespot.com]
    More Rumors and speculation from IGN: http://cube.ign.com/articles/522/522559p1.html?fro mint=1 [ign.com]

    The latter has some interesting theories and "leaks", as well as some drawings of interest.

  • Note to Nintendo: (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Thursday March 31, 2005 @07:08PM (#12105286) Homepage Journal
    If you want to make free on-line gaming work, game developers were need to make it so that a PC can host their games. I doubt many people will want to dedicate a Revolution system towards hosting games 24x7.

    • Re:Note to Nintendo: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why would they do that when they could charge you monthly to connect to their game servers?

      • Re:Note to Nintendo: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Mostly because Nintendo has gone on record as saying that they want whatever online gameplay they come up with to be free.

      • Re:Note to Nintendo: (Score:5, Insightful)

        by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Thursday March 31, 2005 @07:21PM (#12105360) Homepage Journal
        "Why would they do that when they could charge you monthly to connect to their game servers?"

        *sigh*

        Do you realize that the whole reason that Nintendo isn't on-line right now is that they DON'T want to do business that way? (It's this exact reason that a lot of people are under the mistaken impression that Nintendo is anti-online.)

        a.) It's not all that profitable, especially considering the maintenance involved.

        b.) It's not all that popular. Only a small fraction of PS2 or XBOX users actually pay for the service.

        c.) Quality of service issues making charging for it that much more difficult.

    • Redundant? Do you honestly think that on-line console gaming is going to take off without people hosting their own matches like they do with Quake and every other PC game ever made to run on the net?
    • They may want to, if the Revoluiton is cheaper than an PC of similar power.
  • From TFA:

    Iwata comments: "For the next-generation console, we plan to introduce a friendly user interface so that, for example, a mother who's watching her child playing a game might say, 'Oh, I'd like to try that too.'

    http://erik.tjernlund.net/slask/reklam/atari-yars_ revenge.mov [tjernlund.net]

    Reminds me of that commercial

  • I think I figured it out. To continue on the bongos and stylus themes of innovation, while making it interesting for a mother, they will use a NEEDLE AND THREAD controller. Think of all the innovative sewing, knitting, darning, etc games that could be made!!! Nonstop ACTION!

  • Never a truer word has been said (Score:4, Insightful)

    by shoptroll ( 544006 ) on Thursday March 31, 2005 @10:56PM (#12106839)
    Taken from the poster:
    However, user interfaces are devices that can be easily imitated by other companies, so I can't reveal any details right now.

    That's probably the truest thing about Nintendo. Look at the SNES controller design, near perfect. Sony sees that and copies it for the PS. Why nintendo didn't continue using that idea is beyond me. It's definitely done a good amount for Sony.
    • Not quite. Sony copied Immersion's controller technology. [theregister.co.uk] Thankfully, they were caught and orded to pay.

    • Nintendo = The remaining innovator (Score:4, Interesting)

      by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @01:32AM (#12107798)
      Look at the SNES controller design, near perfect. Sony sees that and copies it for the PS. Why nintendo didn't continue using that idea is beyond me.

      Thats because after Sony copied the SNES controller design to make the original PS1 controller, Nintendo one-upped them by blowing people away with the thumbstick AND a Z-trigger. Suddenly people could play FPSs on their consoles and not get bashed on by their PC playing brethen (at least, not as much). Soon after, Sony releases the 'analog' sticks and after Starfox64 is released with a free packaged rumble pack, the 'dualshock' is created. Fast forward to today and Sony is still basicly using the same controller design they basicly ripped off of Nintendo. Course other game companies aren't innocent of this either. The Dreamcast took the Z-trigger a step farther removing the shoulder buttons in exchange for a second trigger and the X-Box simply added a second thumbstick and the black and white buttons.

      • Sony was so successful in copying Nintendo that a PSX fanboy I used to know thought that the Playstation had rumble and analog sticks before the N64 did!
      • Some points/opinion on your post and the grandparent's:
        • The SNES is a perfect controller for smaller hands. Like the PS* controller, it feels small and flimsy now. The ideal size for me is Xbox's Controller S. The Dreamcast and regular Xbox controllers were just too damn big.
        • The Dreamcast added the VMU, which wasn't really as useful as I had hoped -- a lot more could've been done with it.
        • The Xbox didn't add the second analog stick, since it already existed in PS* controllers. To me, the big failure of
        • Dreamcast VMU useful? Maybe to trade save games, but I never took mine anywhere except for a short period when I put tetris one one of them. (I have like seven of them, I have a tendency to buy memory cards when I See them cheap. one is sealed in the box.) Anyway if it's the size of the controller S you can't have big buttons. Xbox controllers are curved more than genesis controllers, so the buttons have to be smaller or you end up with problems with buttons sticking up out of surfaces that aren't flat enou
        • And wasn't the VMU copied by Sony as the PocketStation? There wasn't much useful released that used it well... Aside from Chocobo World
        • The Xbox didn't add the second analog stick, since it already existed in PS* controllers.

          You got me there, but lets ask ourselves this. How many games ACTUALLY used the right analog stick on the PS2? I'm willing to guess a small number compared to the total number of games released since the Dualshock controller design was made the standard controller.

  • Too much innovation (Score:3, Informative)

    by xenocide2 ( 231786 ) on Thursday March 31, 2005 @11:36PM (#12107101) Homepage
    At this pace, Nintendo is going to innovate themselves into the ground. Sony has been moving forward in a very conservative manner, and it's only lead them to greater success. The PSX controller was essentially a SNES pad with two extra buttons. I forget which game introduced the dualshocks, but again, an incremental update to the standard design. The Dualshock 2s were similar.

    The advantage here is ports from arcade games, especially fighters. Smash bros proved that if you take the time to think and examine the hardware, you can brainstorm up something really great and really platform specific. Mortal Kombat proved you don't need to think nearly that hard to get millions in sales, as long as the controller fits the same style they used ten years ago.
    • Look, I'm not going to argue that Nintendo is totally going to have the hugest bestest console ever, and that they're going to sell 600 million revolutions while sony and MS only sell 12 million total.

      But I am going to predict that Nintendo will release a solid piece of hardware, one that's affordable for them to build, and one that has some quality games for it.

      The gamecube is not the super greatest #1 in terms of marketshare, but Nintendo has been making plenty of money selling it, and they're not in da
      • I guess too much innovation means the drive to pay less than full attention to the standard video game market: 16 year old boys who want to play games marketed to 24 year old boys. People who've already been playing games for a while. Nintendo wants mothers to think "I'd like to try that," while Sony and Microsoft are quick to say "This isn't your mommy's games" and include liberal amounts of blood, gore and violence. It might be sad, but you have to pretty much expect the new Zelda to outsell the "cel-da"

  • Let me be the first to guess (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Pendersempai ( 625351 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @12:21AM (#12107383)
    Accelerometers in controllers -- steer your Mario Kart by tilting the controller.
  • What I want to see... nay, hear... is voice recognition. It might not work for any online games, but most of the kid- and family-oriented games, i.e. Mario Party, would rock with voice commands only. Then the adults could get something from Rockstar Games with obscene voice commands. Fun for everyone.

  • New Controller (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Translation:
    "We're making the A button even bigger and it will do EVERYTHING!"
  • Is it too much to ask for a keyboard and mouse as an official, or even standard, control setup on a console? I would even settle for a mouse and a numeric keypad setup...

    I enjoy PC gaming much more than consoles mostly becuase of the flexability and level of control in the interace.

    I like console gaming, however, for the low cost of entry. $600+ for a decent gaming computer vs. $300 and under for a console that will play every game designed for it without issue. I like that the game purchses subsidize the
  • >"for example, a mother who's watching her child playing a game might say, 'Oh, I'd like to try that too.' "

    This makes sense, since my sources tell me that Nintendo is using the new Doc Johnson "iVibe" interface. You might have to fight your mother to get it back!

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