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GameCube Successor For E3 2005?
Yorrike writes "An article over at GamesIndustry.biz states that, contrary to previously debunked rumors, Nintendo is preparing its next-generation console for public view at E3 2005, which is only 15 months away. From the article: 'Minagawa went further than that, however, giving a bit of insight into the company's thinking on the next-generation N5 platform: 'Like our Nintendo DS portable game machine, our home game machine must offer an experience that can be enjoyed by adults, children, or women,' he commented, and then revealed that 'we would like to show this at E3 next spring.''."
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
our home game machine must offer an experience that can be enjoyed by adults, children, or women
Women aren't adults in Japanese culture, or is this just a mis-translation? Or just a Freudian slip on Minagawa's part?
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
Never been to Japan, have you?
I haven't either, but from those I've talked to who have, apparently women are not adults in Japanese culture. Not kids, but not really adults either, at least not by western standards.
The article mentions rumours that both the xbox2 and the N5 will IBM cpus and ATI vpus. It could be very interesting to see what happens when Nintendo and Microsoft's opposite business philosophies battle it out for our consumer dollar with such similar hardware.
There is an old adage which goes, "when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one." To try and target EVERY demographic is silly. Pretty much what Hollywood is doing to movies today. Every movie has to be either dumbed down, or edited to be a PG-13 movie to appeal to the masses....
"Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
I don't think the lack of DVD playback hurt them all that much. When the PS2 hit it was a big selling point for it, but the next Nintendo machine doesn't need it at ALL. When the PS2 hit a DVD player was $100+ but now a new system isn't really needing DVD playback due to the cheapness of DVD players. In fact it would help Nintendo MUCH more if they KEPT the same format and had some backwards compatability built in. At least that's MY opinion.
CharlesP
wordtrip.com
I keep seeing people speculation that Nintendo is going to rebrand the Xbox2 since they are both using IBM cpus and ATI graphics. Now considering that Nintendo ALREADY uses IBM cpus and ATI graphics and the rumers that Xbox2 wont be backwards compatible and will drop the hard drive wouldn't it be more accurate to say Microsoft may be rebranding the next Nintendo machine for Xbox2? Now I don't think this will happen but I find it funny that Microsoft goes and creates a system that seems like a faster Gamecube (PPC, ATI graphics, No HD) and sudenly people accuse Nintendo of ripping off Microsoft's design. Reminds me of some recent patent cases.
"such as too much focus on first-party software and not enough focus on third"
Though I agree with this, it has nothing to do with the Gamecube. Rather, it's business policy. Yes, they need to change it, and the next system would be a good time to try that, but remember that Nintendo is making a personal fortune off the GC even though it's not #1.
"lack of DVD playability (let's face it, there's no good reason for them to make their game discs that small)"
You lost me here.
a.) You can buy a DVD Player for $40. You don't need your game machine to absorb this capability. It might have helped the PS2, but this next time around it's not going to be much of a BFD.
b.) There's no good reason for making the discs that small? What are you smoking? They're not as succeptable to accidental damage, they're far more portable, and who'd really be that surprised if GameBoy 3 played those discs?
"not enough focus on online games, etc."
Online games are not making or breaking the PS2 or XBOX, and they certainly didn't prevent the Dreamcast from tanking. Nintendo did not make a mistake here. What would have been a mistake is if Nintendo did include broadband capabilities + the ability to play DVDs, and the machine was $100 more expensive as a result.
"Derp de derp."
"Women aren't adults in Japanese culture, or is this just a mis-translation? Or just a Freudian slip on Minagawa's part?"
:P) When somebody says "adults" when referring to the game market, men are typically imagined. Vice City is geared for adults, but who's picturing numerous women playing it?
I think he was just reflecting what is on people's minds. (No, not that women are sex bunnies
He wasn't saying "Women have a different place from adults and kids." He was saying "Just in case we're not clear, we mean women as well." I really hope nobody of the female gender took offense to his comment, I really don't think he meant anything bad by it.
"Derp de derp."
One of the main problems Nintendo had with moving to an optical format was load times. An 8mm disc at high rpm has a much smaller load time than a standard DVD, due to the laser having to move a much shorter distances in order to access data.
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
well i'd be surprised(if gb3 played those). by the time they release anything that would be called 'gb3' it doesn't matter if it plays gc games or not(for them anyways).
the main reason why it may have been a good cut to go for the small discs is that it's not easy to pirate.. it also conviniently chains every developer to using nintendo manufacturing for the discs probably(afaik they're the sole manufacturer of gameboy carts at least), whereas i suspect existing dvd/cd manufacturing lines are easily used for ps2/xbox.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
An 8mm disc at high rpm has a much smaller load time than a standard DVD, due to the laser having to move a much shorter distances in order to access data.
These days, the difference in access time is a matter of seconds, and is minimized by smart programming. I didn't believe this excuse back when Nintendo used it to justify the usage of ROM chips for the N64, and I don't believe it now.
Rob
Not really...
I'm sure he meant exactly what he said...now to clarify just why he said it. Females (Women) are generally considered a seperate market from kids and adults... And for what ever reason, these 2 demographics are what the market has catered to (this probably has to do with the higher ratio of male-to-female developers than anything else)...
Anyhow, in the recent past, companies have started to see that women are a virtually un-tapped demographic.
So, what Nintendo is really saying is that "We are targeting the traditional markets, but we are also targeting the female market"...
Now, this is not to say that women do not play games right now, it's just that they are mostly outnumbered by the men...
"They're pretty hard to damage, but really easy to lose in comparison. I think most people would much rather accidentally damage a $50 game than accidentally lose it."
I haven't heard of anybody losing GC games because they're so small. I have heard of people ruining standard size CD's/DVDs because they simply dropped them. That surface area is a killer, and many have lost their movies to it. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think your reasoning defeats mine.
"Who cares about that if the system they play on isn't portable?"
Nintendo does. And since they make the rules, they're the only one that matters. Sony's already using a very similar media in their next portable. If Nintendo jumps on that bandwagon, they'll have a much larger library to start wtih. If they go that route, you'll most definitely care.
"I would. Nintendo doesn't tend to show that much insight lately, even if the technology is likely to be able to support that sort of thing in the near future."
Insight? Nintendo's the one leading the innovation parade. I do agree that it's not all that likely they'll do it, but not because of 'lack of inisght', but rather too much of it. If they did it, it'd likely be because Sony forced their hand. Otherwise, I think they'd avoid it. Besides automatically making the machine battery hungry and needlessly expensive, it'd make it too big. It wouldn't be that strong of system in the marketplace for those reasons. They'd have to making something GBA sized with comparable battery life with a "Anyway, you missed the only obvious reason Nintendo would have for making discs that size--copy protection. Which I personally think is a pretty weak reason."
That is one of their big reasons for using that. They've made that clear. Gee whiz, you get a bunch of other benefits out of it too. You seem to be painting the picture that Nintendo doesn't think these things through. If that's the case, why is the system so small, and why does it have a handle to make it easier to carry around? Try doing that with a machine with a 5" disc. Even the Dreamcast, as compact as it is, is akward to move from room to room compared to the GC.
"Derp de derp."
Anyway, you missed the only obvious reason Nintendo would have for making discs that size--copy protection. Which I personally think is a pretty weak reason.
The size doesn't help with copy protection. Small discs are available.
The copy protection is done via a barcode printed on the inside of the disc, just before the data starts. The barcode has to be printed on the disc during manufacturing - it can't be burned on. That can be done with large discs just as easily - it's part of the DVD standard, although I've never heard of it being used anywhere else.
The 64-bit battle is over dude. The only two contenders were the Atari Jaguar and the Nintendo 64 (note: that is not spelled "Game Cube"). The winner of that era was the 32bit Sony Playstation.
Consoles are currently 128bits of fun.
As an owner of an xbox and a gamecube, I can honestly say, without a doubt, the cube has better load times in general. There are some publishers that don't take advantage of this and don't optimize their load times for either system.
the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
What is this?: http://consoledatabase.retrofaction.com/consoleinf o/nintendogamecube/
f o/sonyplaystation2/
How about this?: http://consoledatabase.retrofaction.com/consolein
We are talking about consoles. While I will agree with the other person who posted a follow up to my reply, consoles are still classified, in bits, by their graphics capability (read GPU). The CPU doesn't really mean anything in console land other than to process input and manage the system overall.
Maybe that makes me an idiot. Or, maybe, that makes me someone who grew up with older consoles.
If you want to look at it this way then the (su)Xbox is a step ahead at 256-bit.
How is this tired Nintendo=Sega argument remotely insightful? I'm going to repeat the (also redundant) response of:
I've only heard this from friends who've visited Japan, but my understanding is that the gaming market is near 50/50 so it can be done. The female population in North America and Europe represents a HUGE untapped market, and while Sony and Microsoft are both putting all resources into the young adult male, this leaves the door wide open to capture the young adult female (and the kids market is nicely cornered off by Nintendo). Not to say that Nintendo should avoid the adult male market; Metroid Prime and Eternal Darkness are good.