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Now, in business, you're not expected to break even the first year. This $500,000,000 in advertising will be amortized over a few years. And people, stop tlaking about $500 million being so much.

I also read an interview (months ago) with the NOA President who said that Nintendo is already spending about 80-90% of what Microsoft is on advertising. (I think they spend something in the range of $300,000,000 per year on advertising).

It's a big industry. $500 million will get you noticed, but they won't flood the airwaves. It'd be interesting to do a break-even analysis for Microsoft and see how many units they have to sell to becomne succesful. My guess is anything below 1.5 million units and it will be a complete failure.

The last paragraph highlights a comment from the president of Sega, Hideki Sato. The statment shows that the fault with their failure was not in the hardware or games, but in the lack of marketing. I have also seen other articles at The Register that confirm stories of arguing at executive levels. This bickering led to the lack of marketing, and hence the demise. And this demise is much to my dismay, as I am a avid Sega fan. NEED SOULCALIBUR! Any way...

Sega has done similar things in the past, as seen when they failed to market the Sega Nomad. The Nomad was essentially a portable Genesis, and it rocked. Information on it can be found here and here.

Sega has continually disappointed for years, making the same mistakes with several systems, including the Saturn, the Nomad, and the Dreamcast. I am at a loss for words at the mismanagement of this potentially groundbreaking company.

One thing I find interesting about this new console is the decision to use an 366 MHz Intel Celeron. I would assume that if Nokia wanted to really compete, they would use either a faster processor or at least the Pentium. I know that Linux would make excellent use of any CPU beyond a 486 (*grin*), but wouldn't the greater power be needed to compare to something like a 766Mhz Pentium 3? As Nokia has not released what kind of video processing/GPU/etc, we have little to compare to in the visual arena. Although looking good is not what determines how good a game is, it helps. So with what we currently know, I have some substantial doubts about this system.

The future remains uncertain....

Two things:

First, the GC is far more powerful and easier to develop on than N64. (Plus a lot of cool stuff, like the controllers finally have built-in "Rumble Pak" functionality and no longer require 2 AAA battery cells). Read any comparative review of the current game consoles, and you'll find that graphics ability is a huge selling point.

Second, the GC keeps Nintendo on the map. Like you've noticed, nobody makes SNES games any more, because there are other consoles with larger market saturation and with better capabilities.

I actually would have liked to see [comercial *] dev on SNES games continue as well. (Actually, so would have Nintendo; a quick look at the N64 manuals and the Nintendo website will show that Nintendo, to this day, publicly considers the SNES a viable starter system.) But like I mentioned, market forces ensured that the SNES died, just like those consoles that preceded it.

* [Homebrew freeware games are still being developed, thanks to the emulator scene.]

< tofuhead >
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I'm a little confused. You seem to be mixing two issues: the creation of the console and the creation of games for the console. What games does Sony actually make for their console?

When I go to Nintendo's page of games for the N64 sorted by ESRB ranking I see a decent number of games that are rated "Mature".

How exactly did you determine that Nintendo stopped making games for people over age 10? Did you complete some comprehensive survey of their game development studio or did you just decide that you hate Pokemon and Mario?

Details here on Nintendo's official GameCube accessories page, and IGNcube has a more in-depth look here.

Hope this is of some (somewhat offtopic) interest...

Details here on Nintendo's official GameCube accessories page, and IGNcube has a more in-depth look here.

Hope this is of some (somewhat offtopic) interest...

Sounds like that /back title was taken from the RAMBUS company plan.

"Voting": Rambus was a JEDEC member

"Suing": SDRAM patent disputes

"Retiring": With even Intel distancing themselves from RAMBUS, what else are they going to do? I don't think demand for Nintendo 64 Expansion Paks is too high nowadays, what with GAMECUBE on the way.

< tofuhead >
--

Because the GameCube uses a specialized 1.5 gb "GCN-ROM" disc that are basically unreadable in any other type of drive. :)

Specs on the GameCube are available here.

IBM also made the ppc gekko processor in Nintendo's gamecube, so they're not new to the game-console embedded-processor market.

It just goes to show that whoever strikes gold, it's the fellows selling the picks and shovels who really make a bundle. No one is sure which of the big console players will dominate the market in five years, but whoever it is, IBM will be selling their processors. That's a winning strategy by anyone's standard.

With no competition, there is little incentive to actually innovate, and the prices for the consoles will go sky high as your monopoly spends more and more money muscleing out any possible competition from the field.

The console makes relatively little money for the manufacturer (and none for the people that produce games for it) compared to what they rake in on the games they sell for it. As far as I know, this is true for every manufacturer who has ever produced a console, or a game for said console. (I wouldn't mind seeing counter-examples, if anyone has any.)

Pick a game theme on one of those consoles, and consider how many different versions of it there are. Two or three of each type of sports game (football, basketball, baseball), four or five different racing games (some brand name like Nascar, others with different exotic twists), and some genres occur almost spontaneously, and breed like rabbits -- for a while on the PSX you couldn't spit without hitting some variant of a skateboarding game.

Even games which have no other manufacturers' prior art to sell their offbeat concepts, still have to compete with the quality of the staid classic games for the consumer's limited cash, and that means they have to innovate like nobody's business. (Mmmmmm... Incredible Crisis)

On any given single console, there is still a great deal of competition: Each and every development company is looking to take that console that someone's produced, and squeeze every bit of fun, action, adrenaline, and pulse-pumping excitement onto a CD or cartridge using the SDK the developer has shipped them.

And they have to do this knowing that everyone else has received pretty much the same kit -- the ultimate in leveled playing fields. The only thing they can do is compete.

The system can be nothing but bells and whistles, or it can be plain. Developers will still try to wring the technotes for every pixel of power they can get. This means innovation, ladies and gentlemen, even if there's only one platform worth noting on the market.

In some ways, this competition between software producers is more important than the competition between hardware manufacturers. One of the biggest selling points of any hardware is the software that runs on it. It may also be worthwhile noting some aspects of the strategies of the hardware manufacturers:

Sony , when developing the PS2, tried to innovate their asses off. They did things no sane person would want to do to graphic hardware in order to get the maximum 'polygon-pushing power'. Consequently, as has been mentioned many times around here, the thing is something of a beast to program, but theoretically, when someone hits the mark and programs it right, watch out. This will end up, they hope, producing truly eye-popping games which will better sell their system.

Microsoft wanted to give X-Box developer and SDK primarily only to those developers who wanted to play by Microsoft's rules (read: bend over and smile like a shark. R.I.P. Bungie) -- get the creme de la creme of producers producing the biggest, brightest, most innovative games on your system, and the consumers will flock (n. a collective of sheep) to it, even if it's a dog turd with joystick ports.

And Nintendo is going with brand recognition and their successful merchandising lines (like the Pokemon phenomenon which, although the bottom is dropping out of the trading card market, still seems strong) to sell their next-gen console. Sure, it's a merchandising angle rather than a software angle, but guess what? The software that ties into that giant marketing machine will only run on their system. They're also promising a very easy to program system, to attract those developers that get frustrated with Sony's beast or Microsoft's attitude.
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Everyone who plays video games whether on the Nintendo or some other platform should write to nintendo@noa.nintendo.com and tell them how unethical this lawsuit is and how we refuse to buy Nintendo products unless they drop the suit and apologize. And if you don't think we can change their minds, just look at how the boycott RMS organized is hurting amazon.com.
I already sent my email off.

Of course it's a hoax; everyone knows that if Saddam was really worth his evil dictator worth in salt, he'd be waiting for nintendo's Game Cube.

He could rule the adults by linking up the Game Cube's to a geostatic topsphere ATG missle array, and he could rule the kids by kicking their ass at Pokeman Stadium

http://www.mp3.com/subatomicacorn

The article commented on PS2 developers struggling with programming the new hardware. This is what happened with the N64, and one reason for its lower sales compared to the PS1.

But regarding their upcoming system, Nintendo wrote, "Instead of going for the highest possible performance, which does not contribute to software development, our idea was to create a developer-friendly next generation TV game machine that maintained above-standard capabilities" (From http://www.nintendo.com/gamecube/ind ex. html)

In the end, it's all about gameplay. The graphics are just icing. This is why Starcraft still continues to sell well, despite being 2 yrs old and using 640x480 2D sprite graphics.

Rather than being the Betamax, the PS2 may be the N64 redux, while Nintendo captures the market with rapidly developed, fun games upon the 'cubes release.

The real 'X-factor', IMHO, is the X-Box (no pun intended). MS has shown savvy in which games it has produced and distributed, but many other consumer market attempts have shown less insight: no internet acceptance until late in the game, MSN, various attempts at entering the banking industry, etc.

It's going to be interesting.
-----
D. Fischer

The name isn't "Dolphin" anymore. It's GameCube... I thought everyone knew that by now. ;^)

Next up is Siemens, who from 2Q next year will be shipping their top model refridgerators with an interface to the new Nintendo GameCube.

"This is the best way to controll that macaroni and cheese dish who has been in there for just too long" a sales representative claims.

There will also be an option for online connection against a global server, wich lets the users peek into what others have in their fridge, getting tips for keeping the fridge clean, and even help neighbours and friends out keeping their fridge under control while they are out of town. "How many times have you not been away, and suddenly rememberd that you forgot to throw away the last piece of lasagna?" the sales rep. asks.



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Those CD-ROMs that it uses... maybe it is because of the image, but (to me) they look a little different than normal CD-ROMs....

Perhaps they are trying to curb what happened with the Playstation, in terms of duplication.

There is also the fact that Nintendo all but invented the idea of licensing games (avoiding the Atari anyone-can-make-a-videogame fiasco - see earlier Slashdot articles on the topic) -- perhaps developers will also have to license the ability to use the proprietary CD-ROM technology or format... I suppose this would be no different than it is now with the cartridge-based N64.

Lucas

It sounds nice, sure, but like the story says, I think it's going to be a little too late. Perhaps if it was out a little earlier, to compete with the PS2, it would have a good run, but I predict that it will not be all that hot (anyone remember the TurboGrafx16? - sorry, best link I could find).
Given that it's already a little underpowered, at least for high-quality gaming (specs), I don't think it has that long a life. My money is on the Nintendo GameCube and my lust for the rumored metroid game.

The PS2 system is tricky because of two main systems.

Firstly, it's designed with high bandwidth, and low cache. This is very different to the standard 'low' bandwidth and high cache. Whether better or not remains to be seen, but the fact is that by being very different, it is causeing problems for the developers

The other point is that some of it's much vaunted power comes from the vector registers. And (speaking from experinece) these require careful coding to get the best out of (such as doing the sum on 32 memory locations rather than just the required 5 can be faster). As far as I know, the only people who really have experience with this sort of thing are the supercomputer programmers.

Um, how many people write computer games and code on supercomputers too? Not darned many. Thus there is a lack of experienced deveolpers for the platform.

The N-cube specs suggest, to me, a more conventional design, although I would hardly call that page detailed or technical.

A more conventional design, means more deveolper experience, which, as you point out, means better games.

Time will tell, but I am wondering about the disk drive used in the cube. Anyone familer with it?

however, the controller absolutely BLOWS. how am I going to be able to play a fighting game on it? at least the n64 had the button arangement...

perhaps someone will just make a fighting game-oriented gamepad, and we'll all be happy.

oh well, if they make another Zelda game, and a Metroid game, I'll buy this system.

Here. Wireless controllers, online connectivity, Metroid. Could be interesting.

The 8-bit graphics of the NES seem laughable to the N64 and the Dreamcast, and so the mass market would dismiss these products right away. Clearly, there is no money to be made in keeping up these copyrights.

Nintendo keeps up its copyrights because (for example) it doesn't want people selling exact (emulated) clones of Super Mario Bros. to compete with its port of SMB (not the NFS wannabe from Microsoft) to Game Boy Color.

The point here is not that Dreamcast owners can play PSX games, nor that PSX2 owners will be able to play PSX games...
This is the mainstream gaming community EMBRACING EMULATION. (Something which Nintendo still claims is illegal!)
This is another step in the legitimization of emulation, and a chance for us to get un-tied to a particular console.
It's also the first step towards unifying the disjunct world of console gaming to a standard platform which (face facts people) will resemble the world of PC's. Instead of consoles, servers, PDA's and desktops running widely different operating systems on unreasonably different hardware, we'll see standard-conformant PC's tailored to particular purposes, which allows you, the consumer, to pick and choose exactly what best part of the computing world to take advantage of.

This just means that Sega is going to step up its anti-piracy campaign. (get paid) Nintendo of America Inc., for instance, doesn't even want players having ROM images of cartridges they own and even discredits freebeerware ROM development by claiming "emulators only support piracy."

Nintendo of America Inc., for instance, doesn't take kindly to amateur third-party development on its consoles:

Does Nintendo Think Emulation Companies Promote Piracy? Why?

Yes. The only purpose of video game emulators are to play illegal copied games from the Internet.

Nintendo's argument assumes that there are no legal copied games on the Internet, that no Nintendo-console-compatible games are free software or freebeerware. Nintendo also is indirectly slamming Sun's Java technology, an emulated platform commonly integrated into Web browsers.

ObTopic: Will Technopop be the same? Probably not. I assume that the standard GNU tools shipped with Free "BeerOS" 5 will be enough to make software for the Tight system. Is that right?

Nintendo's poor showing?????

As a side note, in November1999 (The only month I can remember details from), 4 of the top 5 selling console games were from Nintendo. They were Donkey Kong, + 3 Poke'mon games.

For all of 1999, 7 of the top 10 games were Nintendo (DK64 + Poke'mon + Super Smash Brothers) From www.gamedaily.com

Off-hand, I'd say that Nintendo is doing very well for itself. Don't ever underestimate the power of hordes of screaming children.

We want Poke'mon!!!!
We want Poke'mon!!!!
We want Poke'mon!!!!

I kept thinking of Nintendo's Nsider. They sound a whole lot alike after all.

If you were to look at Nintendo's IP page, you would find that Emulation is illigal. Yet, this is completly false. Big companies seem to have 'interesting' ideas about what is and is not legal.

Computers and general-purpose computer peripheral devices are not covered by the Audio Home Recording Act. This means they do not pay royalties and they do not incorporate technology to prevent serial copying. As a result, this also means that copying music onto a computer hard drive is not permitted.

There not coverd by the law, but that dosn't mean that they you arn't allowed to record onto them. All it means is that the RIAA dosn't make money for every hard disk. The law dosn't say what you can and can't do with your own equipment, all it says is that for every peice of recording media (analog or digital) that some of the money from the sale goes to the RIAA, beacuse it's posible to use it to pirate music. What the RIAA put on there web page is just a fanticy.

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

I've never even heard of this [Gameboy Advance]

Well, let me enlighten you to this wonderful piece of hardware:

Nintendorks.com (includes "exclusive" GBA picture ;)


DMGICE


IGN Pockets' GBA FAQ


Nintendo's Press Release

As for your question as to why it did better, the answer is games. The games on that sytem rock. It has my two favorite games (Tetrix and Super Mario Brothers Deluxe), a ton of cool RPG's and 2D games, and Pokemon is one of the fastest selling and biggest videogames of all time. It's consistantly number 1 and 2 on the weekly sales charts. The GB is far from dead, and since the GBA is going to have backwards compatiblity and bring the possiblility of internet connection to a handheld, it's going to keep on going.

http://www.nintendo.com/gb/smb/index.html

• Here
• Here
• Here

• No mention of RAM, but I'd take a look at what is available from ARM and assume it is about the same (I'd do it but I'm already late for something.).
  

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

(For more power, you can get the Gameboy Color, with 32 kilobyte RAM, 56 of 32000 colors, and a slightly faster CPU.)

xENTROPYx said: I hate to say it, but the color screens still suck power like a madman

Bollocks. My colour gbc lasts for weeks. I went on holiday with it and played for two hours a day, and it lasted a fortnight on two walkman batteries.

It's backlighting that eats batteries. Reflective colour LCDs don't use backlighting so it ain't a problem.

Light emission = heat emission = energy drain

Light reflection = no heat emission = no energy drain

--

It was a mistake in the translation. It was covered in an Ask Dan article.

In our excitement about this announcement, we had a slight mis-translation of the Japanese press release. The Game Boy Advance will be able to display 511 simultaneous colors, from a palette of 65,535. However, as developers have shown with Griffey and other Game Boy Color titles, it is possible to create the appearance of more than the 56 colors normally possible by changing the palette during retrace. This makes it possible to show as many as 224 colors simultaneously on Game Boy Color, and the same trick should yield at least 4,096 possible colors on Game Boy Advance.

Actually, that was a mistake in the press release/specs. According to Ask Dan

In our excitement about this announcement, we had a slight mis-translation of the Japanese press release. The Game Boy Advance will be able to display 511 simultaneous colors, from a palette of 65,535. However, as developers have shown with Griffey and other Game Boy Color titles, it is possible to create the appearance of more than the 56 colors normally possible by changing the palette during retrace. This makes it possible to show as many as 224 colors simultaneously on Game Boy Color, and the same trick should yield at least 4,096 possible colors on Game Boy Advance.

That they can't control what ain't theirs. They never did respond to my email challenging their so-called Legal FAQ. Ah, well, they'll be back another day, so keep on working! If this message made no sense, shoot me, or don't, I don't care.

Subject: Nintendo Boycott!
Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 01:15:12 +0200
From: Hroi Sigurdsson
To: nintendo@nintendo.com

For your actions against http://www.snes9x.com/ and your general attitude expressed in http://www.nintendo.com/corp/faqs/legal.html, I have no option but to boycott your products and warn future potential Nintendo customers about Nintendo's barbaric business practices.

Your statements in http://www.nintendo.com/corp/faqs/legal.html are for the most part bogus and do not enlighten readers of legal facts but only goes to show how Nintendo thwarts truth, common right and sense in the name of commerce. Stating that emulators are illegal is an outright lie! If an emulator is a cleanroom product it is perfectly legal. You can only patent mechanisms, but not concepts and no Nintendo code (=mechanisms) were used in the emulator (implementation of concept of running a specific instruction set).

And stating that linking to ROMS from a homepage is a legal offence, is completely bogus. (Try suing Yahoo/Infoseek etc. for linking to illegal ROMS).

Your scare campaign is only scaring off customers. And I will do what I can to scare your customers away from you (and I do know a few Nintendo users).

Scrapping his SNES,

Hroi Sigurdsson
hroi@get2net.dk

Email noalegal@noa.nintendo.com and let them know what you think of this.

While you're at it, you might want to point out the inaccuracies in their legal FAQ.

"An emulator is a software program that is designed to allow game play on a platform that it was not created for."

You may recall that a few years back, Nintendo released a device called the Super Game Boy. This plugged into your SNES and emulated a Gameboy. It was a hardware/software program that is/was designed to allow game play on a platform that it was not created for.

I'm sure many of you are confused over this like I am - is Nintendo really selling an illegal product? I recommend you write to them at noalegal@noa.nintendo.com if you are as confused as I. ;)

Some more links to various other sources
IGN64
Nintendojo
More Nintendojo
Nintendo

Looking around Nintendo's site, I found this press release that talks about the new chip. Apparently, the chip is being called "gekko." Mozilla, anyone?

Dysprosium