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Nintendo Businesses Entertainment Games

Nintendo Revolution Details Emerge 581

Posted by Zonk from the you-say-you-want-a-revolution dept.
Pyrohazard writes "Nintendo has posted some details on the Revolution to their official site, finally giving us some insight into what the console will be like. From the site: 'It will be about the thickness of three standard DVD cases and only slightly longer.' This makes it the smallest Nintendo console yet! It will also be able to stand up, similar to the PS2, and the Xbox 360. It will be backwards compatible, and it will also play '12cm optical disks in the same self-loading media drive'. It also states that it will have a very quick start-up time, and be very quiet. It finishes by stating 'Get ready for the Nintendo Revolution in 2006!'" C|Net has an article up arguing that Nintendo is making an error in missing the 2005 Holiday season.
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Nintendo Revolution Details Emerge More

Nintendo Revolution Details Emerge

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  • Very Quiet (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:37AM (#12535788)
    It also states that it will have a very quick start-up time, and be very quiet.

    Aiming to capture the market for game-playing wabbit hunters.

  • For your viewing pleasure (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://onefed.com/media/NintendoON.wmv [onefed.com]
    • It's fake. But if it were real, who would NOT buy one?

    • This is a Confirmed Fake (Score:4, Interesting)

      by _KiTA_ ( 241027 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @02:48PM (#12537064) Homepage
      This video has been making the rounds, it's a confirmed fake made by a college graphic artists, he hid "HIRE ME" and his email address inside the video on a few frames.

  • Are they making an error ? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EpsCylonB ( 307640 ) <eps@@@epscylonb...com> on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:40AM (#12535806) Homepage
    I guess the big N are counting on this console once again appealing to hardcore gameplayers, especially since you can't watch DVDs on this.

    Are they making an error ?, possibly but depsite selling less consoles than sony and about the same as MS, the gamecube was supposedly very profitable. THe margins were supposedly higher and nintendo reckoned that the gamecube was never sold at a loss despite its low price.

    In short Nintendo don't neccesarily have to shift more consoles than Sony and MS to stay in the console game.

    • Re:Are they making an error ? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Luigi30 ( 656867 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:42AM (#12535817)
      DVD players are a liability, because it's easier to play warezed games on a DVD-based console than one with a custom drive.
      • Actually I misread TFA, 12cm is the same size as DVD's isn't ?, we don't know at the moment whether it will be able to play them.

        On the one hand it seems silly not to include it, on the other you have sony pushing bluray, DVD might not be much of a feature in 2 or 3 years time.

        • On the one hand it seems silly not to include it, on the other you have sony pushing bluray, DVD might not be much of a feature in 2 or 3 years time.

          In 2 or 3 years time, I (like most people) will still have my DVD collection, and I'm pretty sure I'll still be watching them. That's going to be the case regardless of what happens with the next generation of DVD technology.

          DVD on a console may not be a big deal in 2006, but DVDs themselves are certainly not going away just yet.

          • I think it all depends on how quickly blu ray, digital broadcasting and HDTV take off.

            • Re:Are they making an error ? (Score:2, Insightful)

              by Anonymous Coward

              It's going to take a while, but even if Blu Ray movies went on sale tomorrow, not many people are going to replace the DVDs they already have. After all, it's the same physical size, DVD quality is 'good enough' for a lot of people, and there's no increase in convenience like there was going from VHS to DVD or cassette/vinyl to CD.

              Going back to your original point, having a device that connects to a TV, reads 12cm discs, but does not play DVD/CD would be absurd. I'd be very surprised if Nintendo didn't in

        • On the one hand it seems silly not to include it

          If your video game console and your movie player are in the same box, and you want to play a game, then you have to sit on your @$$ and wait until an older sibling finishes watching a 12-hour Meg Ryan marathon. There's a reason why Nintendo has consistently priced the GameCube $50 lower than the PS2 or Xbox.

      • But doesn't that make the DVD player an asset? If you'll remember correctly, the PlayStation gained its massive popularity due to the ease of pirating games for the console. The Xbox came out, and it made it even easier (say hello to copying onto the hard disk), and then that became popular.

        Meanwhile Nintendo's copy protection effectively never got cracked, and look where the GameCube ended up... nobody cared about it except the people who could see the games for what they were.

        • Well, if your goal is feeling like you're on the winning side of a pissing contest between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, then certainly the added popularity garnered by tossing in a DVD player is a huge asset.

          On the other hand, if your goal in buying a Nintendo system is to play it and enjoy it for the toy that it is, then a DVD player only makes your toy more expensive.

          Nintendo's not overly concerned with being number one - they want to make good games, and they're turning enough of a profit to allow th

    • Re:Are they making an error ? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by zeroduck ( 691015 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:53AM (#12535901)
      I don't think that the addition of a DVD player would add much. When the PS2 was released, not everyone had a DVD player. Now, almost everyone has a DVD player, and if they don't, they're extremely affordable.

      • Re:Are they making an error ? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Txiasaeia ( 581598 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @03:04PM (#12537184)
        Speaking from somebody who's had to buy three "extremely affordable" DVD players in as many years (I apparently have terrible luck, even tho I buy first tier players), Revolution with DVD capability is extremely attractive to me. Extremely. As in, buying one from Best Buy and buying an extended warranty on it.

        Right now, I've got a DVD player and a Gamecube. I've also got a receiver to amplify sound b/c the sound on my TV absolutely sucks (but that's another story). I've got to use a KVM switch (dunno what they're called to switch between DVD and gamecube, but you get the idea) to manually switch between the two systems when I want to go from one to the other.

        Also, when my current DVD player breaks down, I can pay a bit (???) more and get a Revolution. In other words, I'm saving about $100 off the purchase price. There is absolutely no downside that I can see, especially since mini-DVDs can currently be used in conjunction with a mod chip to play burned Gamecube games right now anyway (so risk of piracy is the same).

    • Re:Are they making an error ? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by FLAGGR ( 800770 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:58AM (#12535932)
      I guess the big N are counting on this console once again appealing to hardcore gameplayers, especially since you can't watch DVDs on this.

      Uh, EVERYONE has a dvd player now, who cares. Nobody bought an xbox for watching DVD's (not to mention the required 50$ remote) I don't know a single non-gamer (the majority of my friends) who watches dvd's on their xbox or ps2.

      Not to mention, adding this drives up the price and drives up the complexity, which drives down the quality (I'm not saying the DVD funtionality is what causes xbox and ps2 drives to break so often, but complexity always makes things less stable)

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re:Are they making an error ? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by FLAGGR ( 800770 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @12:23PM (#12536103)
          Then why did the drives on PS2's suck so much? Those damn crappy stabalizers broke, the lasers fucked, the whole shebang. The Xbox has also had a fairly bad reputation with its drive. The Gamecube, with its custom drive? Works perfectly. I guess Nintendo should've bought an off the shelf dvd drive to use in the gamecube, right?
      • ummm for the record - I know people who bought a PS2 when they first came out for watching DVDs - DVD players werent that common (or cheap) yet, and it was an easy way to kill two birds with one $300 device.
    • Back when the PS2 was in development, I think DVD players were still $150 and up; so the appeal of having DVD playability was a definite value-add to the game console; it was like subracting $150 off the price of the PS2, because it could serve double duty.

      However, nowadays DVD is so common that CompUSA is selling DVD players for $15 [compusa.com].

      So, why would I care about DVD functionality? To save $15 off the game console? Woot.

      Now, if it had something else, like PVR to DVD-R functionality, that would be a value-ad
    • nintendo reckoned that the gamecube was never sold at a loss despite its low price.

      I'd love to see a quote on that. There was an interview on IGN with one of the Nintendo VPs who said they were losing a few dollars a unit after the price drop to $99. This was, by the way, according to IGN, the only time Nintendo ever lost money on console hardware.

    • There was a GameCube/DVD combo. It was called the Panasonic Q. It sold well.

      The GameCube modchip lets you boot DVDRs. It's a DVDROM drive. It's just got a custom disc layout/filesystem.
  • I'd argue that Nintendo might be better served waiting until *after* the Christmas season. There's been several "OMG I must have!" Christmas toys that nobody can find, everybody's going onto Ebay and bidding hundreds of dollars for.

    Then there's the games/items that come out in say, January, and do well. This strategy has served Blizzard very well with their "ship when its done". In some ways, Summer is actually a better launch date (kids getting out of school) and using that as a steady segway into greater sales.

    Of course, this is just my opinion - I could be wrong.
    • I was thinking along those lines. but then i got to thinking they would just be denying themselves a large important avenue .
      They may get lost amongst the rush but they could still fix that in the period following the holiday seasons with a tripple A title or some new gadget for the Reveloution.

    • Re:Missing holiday season that bad? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by learn fast ( 824724 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:54AM (#12535903)
      I'd argue that Nintendo might be better served waiting until *after* the Christmas season. There's been several "OMG I must have!" Christmas toys that nobody can find, everybody's going onto Ebay and bidding hundreds of dollars for.

      You see, not being able to get it makes people want it more. It's fairly standard marketing practice to actually artificially make your product more scarce, because it makes people want it more.

      Many of those fad Christmas gifts were hard to find... because it was all planned that way by the people making them. Intentionally making shipments erratic, etc. There's no reason why they couldn't flood the market with the product... but then nobody would want it as badly. Of course once the Christmas season they give up on the charade and just ship them normally.

      Remember when Gmail was "invite-only" and everyone that you know couldn't get an invite fast enough? Again, articially-induced scarcity.

      Nintendo is losing big by missing Christmas, a time when demand is typically quintupled. They would miss it only if they had no other choice.

  • Fan-made Video (must see) (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Xeo 024 ( 755161 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:42AM (#12535821)
    Check out this [jamesedwinsmith.net] fan made video. It's really well done.

    mirror 1 [onefed.com]
    mirror 2 [ign.com]

    Article about video [ign.com]

  • So far so good (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FidelCatsro ( 861135 ) <fidelcatsro@NOSPAm.gmail.com> on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:43AM (#12535831) Journal
    I do agree with the cnet artical that nintendo are going to miss a major sale period here if it is not out till 2006 but they may as of yet pull it forward .

    Looks like they are taking a leaf out of the mac minis book with the form factor ,Which is a very good thing as we don't need another loud large monster console.
    Its wonderfull they have confrimed backwards compatability which will be very important in giving them a good start with a cataloug of games though they may be missing out here if they don't include some form of DVD playback.
    I have argued a few times that its not the features that sell a console but the games , but all things being equal otherwise the features can make or break the sale.

    I am awaiting news of the conectivity with the DS , this is pure idle speculation .Though let me put my pundit hat on , besides the normal conectivity ala the GBA and the gamecube i suspect the reveloution may have the ability to download the data from the cards and allow you to play GBA or DS games on the big screen using the DS as a wireless controler (with the touch pad screen perhaps still working as normal ) and perhaps multi player DS games can be played with Reveloution controlers for some titles which dont have a touch screen (unless nintendo take a leaf out of the dreamcasts book and include a screen on the controler , albeit with touch pad functionality.
    That is pure idle speculation though ;) so dont cite me on it.

    • Re:So far so good (Score:3, Interesting)

      by nick_davison ( 217681 )
      I have argued a few times that its not the features that sell a console but the games , but all things being equal otherwise the features can make or break the sale.

      The Gameboy came out when Nintendo had its old seal of approval, ensuring that a lot of truly classic games were released for it.

      While Nintendo still only had the GBA, Sega released the Gamegear. Atari released the Lynx - both vastly more technically able systems. Where are they now?

      Even after their demise, when Nintendo released the Gameboy

  • Actually, I think it's pretty bright... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by aendeuryu ( 844048 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:44AM (#12535837)
    I think it could be a smart move. Think of it. The XBox and the PS3 will be going all out to steal each others' thunder, and the consumer market for consoles will be split. If Nintendo can handle staying out of the spotlight for a little while, and then show up the next year with a console superior to the other two and good lineup of games, all the attention will be focused on them. As it is, you could argue it's too early for a second XBox and a third Playstation. Nintendo's timing could be perfect.
    • I think it could be a smart move. Think of it. The XBox and the PS3 will be going all out to steal each others' thunder, and the consumer market for consoles will be split.

      Except all signs point to the PS3 being released in 2006 also.

      I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony launch the PS3 AFTER the Nintendo "Revolution".

      Of course, MS could always encounter some of their typical delays, and all three consoles could launch in '06 :)

  • Backwards compatability - this will help (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PenguinOpus ( 556138 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:47AM (#12535855)
    It's interesting that all 3 console manufacturers chose IBM PPC processors this time around. It means that game developers programming in assembly language will only have to learn one. Too bad there aren't many left who do. (A fact of life when the bottlenecks move to memory/art/game-logic).

    Because the GameCube used PPC, it looks like Nintendo will be the only one with an (relatively) easy backwards compatability story. The PS2 could perhaps be emulated since it was only a 300Mhz MIPS processor, but I pity the person that has to write the emulator for the pipelining stages on the VUs. Microsoft has not said whether they'll be backwards compatible, but I predict the answer is no.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • It means that game developers programming in assembly language will only have to learn one.

      Really? I assumed that the Cell (PS3) and the PowerPC (Revolution, Xbox 360) were pretty different, architecturally.
    • Why do you predict the answer is no for backwards compatibility with the X-Box 1?

      Microsoft own a little piece of software called Virtual PC for Macintosh that lets x86 code run on the Power PC chip.

      Sure it's a little sluggish on G4 systems but the triple core 3.2GHz PowerPC they announced should surely be able to reach 700MHz Celeron speeds.

      The only real issue is emulating the Nvidia video extensions either in s/w or on the ATI card. Nvidia already seem miffed over loosing the XBox 2 deal so they may no
    • The PS3 does not use PPC. It uses the cell architecture, and while IBM was part of the STI that created the Cell (which also includes Sony and Toshiba, as the 'S' and the 'T'), which in no way is the power pc archetecture.

      • The PS3 does not use PPC. It uses the cell architecture, and while IBM was part of the STI that created the Cell (which also includes Sony and Toshiba, as the 'S' and the 'T'), which in no way is the power pc archetecture.

        ...except the cells have a PPC core [realworldtech.com] to handle basic processing and the feeding of instructions out to the cell cores, which handle your vector operations and floating point mathematics. This is a "new" PowerPC core which is "a two issue, in-order, 64 bit processor that supports 2 way SMT". It allegedly has a somewhat longer pipeline than other PPC processors (to allow higher clock rates) so it can be expected to perform somewhat more poorly clock-for-clock than the G5.

  • Whats the Revolution? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bradee-oh! ( 459922 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:47AM (#12535858)
    Didn't Nintendo's president say in a press conference just a few months ago that the Revolution will actually have some feature that is "Revolutionary" that no one has seen before and will change console gaming forever? I remember a slashdot article about it but I cannot find a link to the specific "story" I'm thinking about.
    Perhaps something [gamespy.com] about the controller?
    Or perhaps some obscure feature [ign.com] that we'll hafta wait longer to see?

    I was hoping to see something about that in this article but I guess I will hafta wait longer... If anyone has a link to what I think I'm talking about, I'd appreciate it. :)
    • I'm putting my stock in the Aries rumor.
      http://ps3.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=482&st= 0 [ipbhost.com]

      Gyroscopes in the controllers (gyroscopes detect revolution, don't they? >-) ), pressure sensing grips, voice controls, downloadable demos for DS and Revolution, and of course online play.

    • Re:Whats the Revolution? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Man In Black ( 11263 ) <ze-ro@shawCHEETAH.ca minus cat> on Sunday May 15, 2005 @02:54PM (#12537107) Homepage
      Back when the N64 was in development, Nintendo kept saying that the controller was something amazing and revolutionary, and kept it really hush-hush until they decided to unveil. They're pretty tight-lipped about stuff like this, so don't expect to see anything until Nintendo actually WANTS you to see it.

      On the plus side though, the N64 controllers were revolutionary in a number of ways... it was the first major console to use analog sticks (Well, since the Atari 5200 I guess), it had slots on the back for memory cards and rumble packs (an idea later adopted by Sega and Microsoft), the odd three-staved design allowed it to be held in a number of different configurations (an idea which never really caught on), the C-buttons sort of led to the Gamecube's C-stick, and the system did four-player out of the box (although I suppose this is more a feature of the system rather than the controllers). I know a lot of people didn't like the N64 controllers, but they did have a good amount of influence after all.

  • No MTV Special (Score:5, Funny)

    by rollingrock ( 653505 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:54AM (#12535904)
    There's not going to be an MTV special since The Revolution won't be televised. (rimshot)

  • I'm praying... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Nimrangul ( 599578 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:55AM (#12535911) Journal
    I'm hoping that this thing doesn't end up like the VirtualBoy - Nintendo has said it's trying a lot of new things with this console in snippets around the Internet, they may go too far with the strange "features".

    It is good to maintain backward compatibility, Nintendo will have an easier time getting people that own a GameCube to buy their new console - just as Sony had an easier time getting people who owned the Playstation to buy the Playstation 2. This will give them an easier time with launching this new system.

    Not only that, but as the new console generation pops up starting this Christmas, people will take into account which system has the most enjoyable games - if Xbox 360 doesn't have a solid number of good games at release time and isn't able to play Xbox games, they may find people holding back to get a Playstation 3s or Revolutions because of the already present game catalog.

    I'm rooting for Nintendo, they've had some extremely fun games on the GameCube with a massively higher ratio of good games to bad when put alongside the Xbox or Playstation 2. The Mario sports games have all been excellent and enjoyable, rather than a pretty simulation of the sport like the EA and Sega sports titles carried by the competition.

  • I'm glad at least one of the companies "get it" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rokzy ( 687636 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:56AM (#12535917)
    if I wanted a big, loud games machine I'd use a PC.

  • None of the new consoles will make 2005 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Andy_R ( 114137 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:57AM (#12535925) Homepage Journal
    If any of the big 3 does actually get into the shops this year, it will be a miracle, but even if they do rush some samples out the door in order to win the marketing race, they certainly won't have the volume to fulfill the Christmas season demand in all territories, let alone a decent games line-up.

    All the new machines will arrive in British shops mid 2006, at high prices, and a round of price cuts will happen in the lead-up to Christmas, when games start appearing in volume.

    2005's Christmas console race is already decided. The PSP will be in the shops with a lot of games. Any next-gen machine won't have the manufacturing volume or the games line-up to compete.

  • Out of step... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15, 2005 @11:59AM (#12535939)
    It's too soon for a new console. The games run fine on the old ones. If it's able to offer some mindblowing new content along with the intro, Nintendo is smart to wait for the 'compelling need' to drive it's sales through the roof.

    There's also the aesthetic angle. Cultural preferences are rapidly moving toward Nintendos form factor and will be peaking in 18 months, not 6.

  • Real Innovation == focus (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gathas ( 588371 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @12:08PM (#12536001)
    I wonder if the real "innovation" we are going to see with the Revolution has to do with the business side, namely that this box will be better focused in its purpose than Xbox360 or PS3. Perhaps in addition to being small, it will be significantly cheaper than the other boxes. I think if you look at where alot of game systems go (with the exception of Slashdot users and gadget freaks), they are not hooked up to the main TV in a house but to some secondary TV in a kids playroom, den, etc. Some of the media hub features discussed for these boxes are really overkill and not worth paying for if you just want a really good game system. I'll let my DVR evolve into a media hub and let the game system do what it does best, play games.

  • The CNet article... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fondue ( 244902 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @12:12PM (#12536032)
    ...is pretty clueless. Microsoft are the only console manufacturer rushing to get a machine out this year, as they see it as the only way to steal any market share from Sony. Sony and Nintendo are quite happy to keep pushing the five systems that they have on the market at present, and have no pressing need to rush out new systems to respond to Microsoft's stopgap.

  • Early launch may not help (Score:4, Insightful)

    by doctor_no ( 214917 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @12:14PM (#12536041)
    I'm unconvinced that 2005 launch will benefit MS as much as they think. This holiday season will already be mighty competive with PSP and Nintendo DS. Both handhelds will have a good selection of decent games by Nov 2005, and it will be the first holiday season for the PSP. Atop that, Sony will likely sell the PSP without the "Value Pack" option, which may bring down the price of the console to $199. Plus Grand Theft Auto and Grand Turismo (amoung others) will be out by then.

    The Xbox 360 will also have to compete with people's willingness to wait for the PS3 and Nintendo Revolution. This may or may not be a factor depending on what Sony and Nintendo can deliver next week at E3. Remember, an early lauch didn't help Sega much with the Dreamcast (or the Saturn, which they forcefully lauched a few months early in the US to get a headstart on the PS).

    If you also consider that the Xbox's life span was relatively very short compared to other consoles (launch 18 months after the PS2, and lauches ~12 months before the PS3). Many consumers that are not hardcore gamers, esp ones that have bought an XB in the last year or two, may feel perturbed that their recent purchase is already obsolete. To compound that, MS (as well as Sony/Nintendo) have to compete with other hot gadgets like the iPod that weren't around during previous console lauches that may appeal more to their core market(young-male adults) than gaming consoles.

  • Sorta old news (Score:3, Insightful)

    by earthbound kid ( 859282 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @12:15PM (#12536055) Homepage
    This information has been floating around the gaming sites for a few days now, but oh well. The really interesting stuff about what makes the Revolution a "revolution" has yet to be revealed however.

    There's some interesting, but not ground breaking stuff that has been confirmed, like wireless controllers, DS connectivity, 802.11 internet connection, and free online gameplay, but the really interesting stuff is still just speculation. For what it's worth, my guess is that the "revolution" part of the console will be that the controllers have built in gyros. I've been playing WarioWare: Twisted since it hit the streets in Japan, and let me tell you what anyone who has played that title can tell confirm: twisting is the future. There's a great part of WW:T where you get to play the original Super Mario Brothers game by turning the Game Boy to the side to move forward while the world spins around under your feet. It's how the game was meant to be played!! I suppose the Nintendo critics will call a motion sensor a gimmick, but I really believe it has the ability to put some fire under the industry's feet.

    Of course, there's a lot of other speculation that I'm not too sure about. Broken Saints claims that the Revolution will somehow display real 3-D on your TV screen, I guess using special glasses or something. That sounds unlikely to me. I've also heard that the Revolution will have a DS like touch screen controller or one that is somehow reprogrammable by the game, but I don't want to think about the ergonomics of that all. Pressure sensitive buttons does sound like a good idea, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to hear that.

    One interesting thing about Nintendo versus Microsoft is the different things that people focus on in their announcements. With the Xbox 360, everyone is talking about the 3.whatever GHz PPC chip. With the Revolution, everyone is talking about possible changes to the way games are traditionally played. It just goes to show the Microsoft is still more interested in the technology side of things, and Nintendo is more interested in the "innovation" (or, if you believe the detractors, "gimmickry") side.

  • What I like about Nintendo... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Illissius ( 694708 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @12:19PM (#12536079)
    ...is that they treat games as art, rather than cheap entertainment. There's a huge amount of overlap, to be sure, but the difference in emphasis makes all the difference. It could be argued -- probably correctly -- that the masses want cheap entertainment and not art, but still, if Nintendo could cultivate a sort of elite Apple-esque image, rather than their current childish Disney-esque one, that'd work well for them, I think...

    They've been saying how they realized that the look of the console matters. Hopefully this means they've grasped the larger concept that *image matters*, perhaps as much as everything else put together (they can have the best games out there, but if it's seen as an uncool thing to own, people won't own it*). However, from the rather narrow stuff I've heard from them (only talking about making it look physically better, nothing about the larger picture of *why* it needs to look physically better), I'm sadly doubtful...

    * people suck

  • Wait a minute.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by PhotoBoy ( 684898 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @12:32PM (#12536164)
    So Nintendo is making a big mistake not releasing their console this year, and Sony don't get mentioned even though their console is slated for 2006 too?

    True Sony have made noises about releasing the PS3 this year, but they did exactly the same thing to spoil the Dreamcast's launch. And even though they were about a year after the DC, Sony still had crappy release titles.

  • Great News! Will Nintendo Leapfrog Microsoft? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by richman555 ( 675100 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @12:42PM (#12536247)
    I think you will find that despite the smaller form factor with the Nintendo Revolution, it will probably still be on par with the PS3 and Xbox 360 given the extra time they will have in producing it. I will be amazed if even the PS3 is as large as the Xbox 360. Additionally, I beleive that the addition of multiple numbers of CPUs, all running at different Mgz clouds the overall power of the system, and makes a systems speed difference very negligable. I think this holiday season is the least of Nintendo's concerns. Nintendo has already stated that they are going after Sony as the top dog in the race. Stepping onto the market later is actually a good move and I think the Xbox 360 is coming to the market way too early. We have seen this happen with the Sega Saturn and the Sega Dreamcast. I also am strangely getting the notion that Microsoft is aiming its targets at Nintendo, and Nintendo is aiming theirs at Sony. And Sony is just content to be at the top. Why not try to challenge Sony? In the end, it is very possible there will be 2 leaders this time around, Sony and Nintendo.

  • are they all goin in circles (Score:3, Funny)

    by jlebrech ( 810586 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @01:22PM (#12536532) Homepage
    Are all these new console companies goin round in circles, one is called 360, the other is revolution, what next?! a console called elipse!

  • All consoles going IBM PPC? Days of X86 numbered? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by aristotle-dude ( 626586 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @04:10PM (#12537541)
    With all of these consoles going with PPC are the days of the X86 platform numbered? Don't most people buy PC's for games?

    With these consoles coming out with HD support, fast multi-core CPU's (PPC), I'm wondering if Intel and AMD are worried that they might loose market shared to the consoles especially if they supported web, IM and email through optional keyboards/mice.

    Will Apple receive a 3+ Ghz multicore processor soon from Apple?

    Will this lead to more games being ported to the Mac "first"?

  • DVDs? I hope not. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Elyscape ( 882517 ) <elyscape@gmTOKYOail.com minus city> on Sunday May 15, 2005 @05:37PM (#12538069) Homepage
    I'm alarmed by the prospect of the Revolution using DVD discs. Why this fear? I'm afraid that its limited storage space will limit game designers.
    Right now you might be thinking, "Are you insane? DVD-9 discs can store 9 gigs of data! What do you mean, limited?" Well, here's what I mean.
    As most people probably know, both the Xbox and the PS2 use DVD discs. They both support DVD-5 and DVD-9. The support for DVD-9 indicates something; some games are too big to fit on one DVD-5 disc. This can be conclusively proven by looking at some recent games, like Xenosaga Episode II [ign.com] (see the bottom of the page, "Lasting Appeal"), which use multiple discs. At smallest size, these games are unable to fit on a single DVD-5 disc. At largest, they're too big to fit on a single DVD-9.
    That's a lot of data.

    I recently read in an article (probably in Game Informer [gameinformer.com], though I can't find it at the moment) that many recent games, including Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater [ign.com], only barely miss filling a DVD-9.
    That this is on the PS2. A current-gen system.
    I think that says something.

    What I'm getting at here is that games are getting bigger and bigger. There's no way around it. As our technology improves and our systems become capable of bigger and better graphics, we must supply more and more data in order to make said graphics.
    If a PS2, whose capabilities are far eclipsed by the next-gen systems, almost requires multiple discs, how will those next-gen systems fit all their data in the same space? Better graphics require more data: bigger textures, more polygons, more custom shaders, etc. So how will it all fit?
    And bear in mind that this isn't even taking into account the data needed for the actual game. A lot of code and other data is needed for the actual game. Furthermore, the Revolution is supposed to be, as Nintendo says, "revolutionary". How much extra code will it take to do cool things with these "revolutionary" features? A lot, I imagine.

    This poses a problem. Where will all that data go? It has to go somewhere. Sure, wonders can be worked with compression, and yes, Nintendo has somehow managed to shove DVD-5 games from other systems into the 1.8 gigs offered by its proprietary format, but there is a limit to how small things can get. Furthermore, too much compression will result in decreased performance, which is a bad thing.

    This is definitely a big problem. Sony got around it by flinging enormous Blu-Ray discs into its next-gen system, aided somewhat by the fact that it partially owns that standard. For Nintendo or Microsoft to use Blu-Ray would require licensing the technology, and you can be sure Sony would charge them up the wazoo for both the drives and the discs.
    That's a problem.

    The way I see it, both Microsoft and Nintendo are in trouble if they use normal DVD drives on their next-gen systems. Nintendo possibly more so, depending on the "revolutionary" aspects of their device, but this doesn't change the fact that they're both rather screwed.
    For Microsoft, it looks like it's already too late; the Xbox 360 specs [xbox.com] declare that it has a "12x dual-layer DVD-ROM". There is still some hope left for Nintendo, though, as they've only announced [nintendo.com] support for "12cm optical disks", which could be nearly anything.

    Here's to hoping that Nintendo chooses something better than DVD-9.
    • Heh. Funny watching all the comments. "Yeah, but it's all video!" "Who needs FMV?" "Games are small! It's just all video."

      I worked on Everquest: Champions of Norrath, and we took up an entire double-layer DVD (to the point where we had to modify the international version - the voice files were too big due to the extra languages). The entire thing was textures. Gigabytes and gigabytes of compressed textures.

      More space never hurts. Some games don't need it - if the PS2 had better hardware, I could have done

  • zerg (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Lord Omlette ( 124579 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @05:40PM (#12538085) Homepage
    If Nintendo can come up w/ some way to top 4 Swords, then it's all good.

    I'm not too concerned about consoles or whatnot, but the idea that the Revolution can play GameCube games really appeals to me. This will save me space and money.

  • Strike a blow against marketing. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Shanoyu ( 975 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @09:20PM (#12539392)
    For years, Sega always had to be FIRST FIRST FIRST FIRST when releasing anything, and they always had to hit the holiday system. Sega CD, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast. First, first, first, first first. Now they don't make consoles anymore.

    Being able to hit the holidays is utterly unimportant for the vast majority of console releases. It's much more important to have a library of games available when the 4th quarter hits, and to build up a buzz among the hardcore gamers that should trickle into mainstream interest.

    Basically, releasing a console before it's "ready" is always a bad idea.

  • Just for kids (Score:3, Insightful)

    by el_womble ( 779715 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @07:00AM (#12541504) Homepage

    I'm not sure if I'm alone in this but I always thought of my GC as something a little bit different. I use my XBox for 'serious' games and PC Ports because I own a Mac, and to be honest £100 for an XBox seemed a lot more attractive than £1500 for a decent games machine.

    I bought my GC for party games and genuine original content. I loved Monkey Ball, Doshin, Pikmin and Double Dash. The GC proved without a doubt that there was more to modern gaming than how many polygons you can process per second and how accurate your AI and physics engines are. I think thats what made it better for adults. When I was a kid I wanted more realism and violence, now I want more fun and originality.

    This is why I'm excited by the Revolution as there will be something in there that is not obvious by the hardware specs, that will make it a worthwhile purchase - fun games.

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