Nintendo Revolution Under Wraps Past E3

The next-generation Nintendo console, codenamed Revolution, may not be shown at this year's E3. Eurogamer reports that the Japanese console maker is going to keep the console under wraps to keep the features of the new system out of the limelight a little while longer. From the article: "Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata is worried about rivals nicking all his best ideas at this early stage. That's how revolutionary the new console is, apparently... and also the exact same line Nintendo used to avoid showing Mario 128 at a previous E3."

Stupid Nintendo!

[bhive01]

I'm so frustrated with Nintendo. It's like they haven't gotten it since the early 90s with the SNES. CDs? Who needs those? Whatever defines their self-made revolution had better be the end all to games for it to fly. PS3 and 360 are going to appeal to the masses and steal away more of Nintendo's turf. I myself am considering jumping ship as Nintendo has failed to inspire me this last generation as it did with the first two.

Re:Linux Already

[compm375]

The Open Source community has the most to gain if Nintendo releases a console based on Linux.

Re:Linux Already

[NanoGator]

"Nintendo has the most to gain by releasing a console based on Linux. In this respect, they could capture some console market and then facilitate for the same apps to be released on Linux."

There are more people with GameCubes than using Linux today. Why would Linux make the next Nintendo system suddenly capture marketshare when nobody even cared that the PS2 had a Linux kit?

I love nintendo but...

[Sprotch]

They have pulled the exact same trick for the N64 (remember the Ultra64?), Virtual Boy, Game Cube and DS. Meanwhile the consoles that left a significant mark on their generation were the NES and Super NES. What did they have that made a difference? Certainly not the fancy gadgets. Remember that NES robot that was promptly set aside?

What made them special is that they offered the best games and were the most powerful at the time. Mario and Zelda made the NES. They also made the Super NES, along with Street Fighter II and Mario Kart. We would almost cry at the inovation of the gameplay, quality of the graphics and music, and amazing fun they provided.

Today it's all about superficially good looking graphics. Gameplay and fun went the way of the dodo. Meanwhile Nintendo thinks it's okay to have consoles with non standard earphone plugs...

I miss those days spent with the old NES/GB/SNES...

Re:Hmmm...

[happymedium]

This is a more serious problem than it seems. Nintendo's "innovations" sometimes turn out to be interesting, e.g. Mario 64's control scheme, some turn out pointless, e.g. Virtual Boy. Honestly, I think the DS will fall in the latter category; its "innovative" features don't impress consumers as much as the PSP's, and game designers may or may not come up with any actually interesting uses for them.

An aside: I recall reading that the Virtual Boy was designed by the same person, Gunpei Yokoi, who designed the Game Boy, and that after the product's failure the company made him personally demonstrate it at the next year's E3...to no one, because no one cared. And this was despite his history as a brilliant innovator. Let's hope "Revolution" doesn't suffer the same fate.

(Or, maybe the "Revolution" will be that Nintendo decides that online gaming is a pretty good idea, what with Microsoft and that whole "Live" thing. ^_^)

what are they afraid of?

[mincognito]

It's really hard to imagine what these secret features might be. M$ and Sony are about upping the graphics ante, not about incorporating voice recognition, three screens, body sensors or whatever new ideas Nintendo comes up with. Maybe if these features turn out to be a success in the marketplace -- unlikely if the DS is any indicator -- the other console makers would think about incorporating them. I figure Nintendo's secretness is just a way of building hype around the product.

Tokyo Game Show?

[-kertrats-]

Might they be holding out to unveil it at the Tokyo Game Show, so that they can completely steal the headlines for the entire show instead of sharing space with the other systems at E3?

Re:Hmmm...

[Txiasaeia]

I'm a nintendo fanboy, but I still consider the DS to be a loss for this sub-generation (not truly a successor to the GBA). But as long as it doesn't turn out to be the end of the gameboy "pure" line (i.e. as long as Nintendo keeps their promises), well, it's no skin off my nose.

Tinfoil hat Suggestion

[NanoGator]

Heh. Well I have a theory. Rumor has it that Nintendo is choosing between two or three systems right now. Assuming that's true, maybe Nintendo's waiting to see what MS and Sony do before making any commitals.

This may seem a little out-there, but if Nintendo is doing something revolutionary like putting a touch screen into the controllers, it stands to reason that the money put into those will result in not as spiffy of graphical specs. If the difference is that noticable, perhaps they're deciding between a $200 system and a $300 system.

Anyway, maybe that's just my imagine working over-time. If I were a bettin man, though, I'd say that Nintendo's big revolution isn't in the system itself, but in the controller. It's probably too late for Sony or MS to mess with the system specs a lot, but tossing in a controller feature may not be out of the question yet.

Am I missing something?

[Jandar0]

Perhaps I am misunderstanding the situation, but I thought that patents existed exactly for individuals and companies who created new and different (revolutionary) technology. If Nintendo invented a new technological innovation for incorporation into their next-generation system, I would have expected them to have filed for a patent on the invention long ago, thus preventing their competition from "stealing" the idea.. or is it not revolutionary enough to be original? Thoughts, explanations?

Re:Stupid Nintendo!

[clontzman]

Okay, I'll bite.

What about the Gamecube was remotely innovative? It's a good game system in a solid formfactor, but Sony's out there with the EyeToy and the HDD add-on and MS is out there with the Live service and a built-in HDD.

Nintendo makes some fun games, but how have they tried to "move the games industry on" this generation?

Re:meh

[adam31]

I'm not a huge Nintendo fan, and I'll even cut them a break. The fact is they're happy to leave Microsoft alone to get the marketing beat-down from Sony.

Remember last year when Nintendo released pre-E3 images of the DS as a white and purple toy? Then Sony put out the PSP shots and everyone looked at the two side-by-side. By the time E3 arrived, Nintendo had scrambled to get a shiny-silver and black version out... but people had already made their comparisons.

Now, Nintendo is in a good spot. They're the overlooked underdog, so they really get to choose their battles. Microsoft has already played their card-- Fall 2005. Sony is the champ with everything to lose, and now Nintendo can afford to bide their time as long as behind the scenes they're getting their 3rd party support in line.

Re:Stupid Nintendo!

[rkischuk]

What about the Gamecube was remotely innovative?

• Legitimately usable, reliable, and affordable wireless controllers.
  
• An attempt to make their controller MORE usable to the broad market rather than just adding more buttons like the other guys

I nearly forgot...

[PKFC]

Nintendo used to have an annual show just for them: Spaceworld. That's where the GameCube (and the original realistic Zelda demo) was shown in 2000. It's been dead for a few years now, but new system makes the perfect excuse to revive it.

Re:Linux Already

[Guppy06]

"Nintendo has the most to gain by releasing a console based on Linux."

WTF? If I wanted to play games on something with an operating system, I'd be playing on my PC.

What would be the point in putting Linux on the console? Increase overhead in order to lessen the performance of the games? Remember how many games used WinCE on the Dreamcast?

Re:Hmmm...

[incom]

Oh, and I am definately not a nintendo fanboy either. I owned a ps1 and not the n64, I own all 3 systems this gen, I own a psp and a DS, and prefer my DS btw, and will be buying the PS3 and am undecided on the revolution, no xbox2 for me though ;p . So if anything I lean towards sony, against MS, and neutral to nintendo, but I feel 10x better about buying my DS than my PSP.

Re:Vapor....

[sloose]

So calling your console "Revolution" does not equal hype?

Re:Hmmm...

[SetupWeasel]

Here are some numbers and sources. [advancedmn.com]

These are Japanese numbers, because they are only numbers you can find on a consistant weekly basis.

It goes: past week | year to date [total sales]

Nintendo DS: 30,028 | 558,421 [2,054,017]
PlayStation Portable: 28,848 | 685,922 [1,168,174]

This is the 3rd straight week the DS has outsold the PSP.

If you argue the point any further, I want sources.

Re:Bad news

[metroid composite]

Let's look at the N64's innovations.

Analogue stick: copied by Sony within a short period of time.

Rumble Pack: copied by Sony within a short period of time.

Four controller slots built into the system: Featured in all big systems that came afterwards (except Sony for god knows what reason).

Re:Usual Nintendo hype

[tonejava]

"Don't get me wrong, I used to be a huge Nintendo fan. I always thought they were pioneers, but they're becoming that old dinosaur of the industry that's only still around because the brand name itself has some intrinsic value."

Yes it is interesting how long nintendo has survived being the oldest out of them all.

It's been what, 23 years since Donkey Kong Game and Watch was a hit?

Show me another company that has lasted that long in the games market and is still alive today. If a company can pull that off then they have more than just intrinsic value.

Re:It Doesn't Matter

[KaptNKrunchy]

With all the success they've experienced in the portable market with backward compatability you'd think that they would have bbeen a little quicker off the bat to do in thier consoles.

The market lifetime of the original gameboy was simply remarkable though. 1989-1998, I mean dyaamn. And pocket and color were both just minor upgrades too so you could say even longer. It will be interesting to see how/if the PSP shakes things up though.

It's not true.

[GFLPraxis]

Nintendo has said that they're showing it at E3. They EXPLICITLY said they will have it at E3, but are deciding whether to have it playable or not.

Every big rumor site disagrees about Nintendo not showing at E3 (see Spong). It's only rumors running around that Nintendo won't be there; and there is absolutely NO official sources involved.

I don't believe it.

NES on GBA and Nintendo DS

[tepples]

The only thing the DS has that got me to buy it was it's backwards compatibility with GBA games.

Not only that, but with the EFA-Linker (under $100 incl. shipping) [kicktrading.ca], you can play a boatload of NES games [pocketnes.org] and many Game Boy games [webpersona.com] as well. So now the Nintendo DS is compatible with GBA games and unofficially compatible with many NES and GB games, but Sony couldn't be bothered to include a PS1 emulator with the PSP and uses code signing to prevent the free software community from stepping up.

Re:Vapor....

[Headcase88]

"Eh I'm so confused by this. Just 2 days ago I read that Nintendo was going to show clips of the games, but not the actual system. *Rolleyes* In any event, I wouldn't equate that with "we have nothing". Nintendo wouldn't make that bold of risk at the turn of a new generation."

Better yet, who cares at all? You're not going to buy the console either way until it launches anyway. Yes, I know the situation is more complicated than that, with shareholders and such, but as far as actual sales go, they aren't getting any until launch, and if they don't release the specs by launch, something has gone horribly wrong!

Mass Market?

[Staats]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but alot of what I've read on "Revolution" has Nintendo trying to cater to those people that don't play games. I vaguely remember some interview with an exec say something like "Mom will walk by and want to play." Or something.

Point being, I'm thinking talking about Nintendo catering old school, or not catering to the masses, etc. is missing the point of "Revolution." It doesn't sound like it's going to be simply a natural progression of graphics, a different (but very much standard) controller and added internet support like Microsoft and Sony are planning... it's going to be their best effort to get the people that don't play games and never have to play games.

This will probably entail two things that they don't want to show off yet... a weird controller (touchpad, tilt controlled, etc.) that has been rumored and games that will disappoint us the old guard of gaming. In fact, if my predictions are true, they'd be better off unveiling on Oprah than at E3.

Re:Vapor....

[Anonymous Coward]

Fanboys for the competition hate to hear it, but for a long time (several years), the game with the highest poly count on a console was a GameCube launch title: Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rogue Leader.

This game is capable of maintaining smooth animation in progressive scan, as well. In fact, it was due to this game that other developers realized that the GameCube was capable of far, far more than Nintendo had originally claimed. But the fanboys? No, you'll still find some fool out there with a comparison chart that reads, "GameCube - 12 million polys/sec, PS2 - 66 million polys/sec, OMG!!!" And they will be as satisfied as pigs in shit to play their jaggy, stuttering PS2 games in lower framerate on their friends' PS2s, because their own PS2s are at SCEA being fixed for DREs. But that's another story.

Re:It's all about genres, actually

[thebdj]

Important question: By the "real" RPGs are you referring to all the SquareSoft RPGs that flooded the older Ninentdo Systems. (I am sure some of them were good, and others great but I hated RPGs until about four years ago)

Unless I am mistaken Sony stole Square away from Nintendo by paying them a TON of money to making Playstation and then PS2 only games. In the end Square wound up back with Nintendo and making good RPGs for Gamecube, or so I hear.

To be honest I still prefer my PC RPGs that I have played. Baulder's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Morrowind, and my only MMO, WoW.

One final thing, I think Nintendo is bound for some for of eventual hardware doom. Similar to Sega. The two companies who were making GREAT consoles before everyone owned a console really didn't/don't have the continual monetary power to compete against MS (who can pump money from a million places to feed XBox and flog a dead horse for as long as they want) or Sony (who can do a similar thing, heck aren't they still making PS1 games). Sadly if you have enough money to throw at crappy console (PS2 has the worst load times and most overrated Graphics EVER) you can keep it afloat until the masses buy into it because of a few good games (ie X-Box and Halo).

Re:They're losing money on every unit

[jadenite]

Volume doesn't mean shit if you are losing money, for example....

company A and Company B both have $10M in net worth, Company A sells 10,000 units of their product for a net profit of $1M Company B sells 1,000,000 units of their product for a net loss of $11M.... Who do you think is going to stay in business longer?

This is NOT a comparison of Nintendo, and Microsoft since I don't have their financial statements available Also, for the nintendo fanboys, microsoft has shown a willingness to lose money for several yars in other markets in the past in order to grow the business to the point where it is profitable, which seems to be what is happening with the Xbox.