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Nintendo To Debut Next-Gen Console At E3 2005
An anonymous reader writes "According to Reuters, Nintendo has indicated it will debut its next-generation console at next May's E3, as part of financial results in which the company showed net profit of 70 billion yen ($625 million) - this figure still 'fell by half in the past business year, hurt by disappointing sales of its GameCube console and currency losses, but [Nintendo] predicted earnings would bounce back this year.' The company also indicated 'target shipments of 3.5 million 'DS' machines', with Nintendo's Yoshihiro Mori saying: 'In order to have the DS out by Christmas, we plan to start production late summer or early fall and boost production every month.'"
It's funny to think about how many years it takes from the start of the development to the debut of the machine... I think this one has started quite early, before the GC launch probably, if you compare it to GBA SP, who had a glued-up prototype a month after the GBA was released! :O
I doubt it'll be here by Christmas. It sounds to me like Sony's trying to rush the PSP's development along as it is.
In any case, I don't like the price tag for the PSP: 300, 400 bucks? even at 200 it's pretty pricey. It looks kind of big too. I'm guessing the DS will come out lower in cost. Plus it plays old Gameboy games. This is one situation where I think Nintendo really has a superb edge.
This reminds me of the Nintendo/Sega battle. PSP will no doubt be better technically, I think, but the price and the lack of titles at the onset may hurt it. What would be reallty interesting is if the media for the PSP were compatible w/the nextgen PS3. I don't think that's the case but it would certainly give it an edge if it tied into its other products.
Still, I'm not a big fan of Nintendo. Their lack of networking support is a big annoyance. I was suckered into buying one of their network adapters, but there are no games for it. I really hope this doesn't continue for their next line of products.
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Generally speaking, in the past the announcement of the next gen product coincides with the current product hitting it's stride with the most high quality games.
Obligatory Penny Arcade link
It's almost a given that the first 24 months or so a console is out, most of the games suck, hard. Certainly their are a gem or two in the manure pile, but it takes about 2.5 years for a strong selection of high quality games to be available. By that time you can buy the console for around 1/2 the original cost, and get those few early good games on the cheap.
if Nintendo can launch a next gen console that is backwards compatible with the GC, then I think they'll be in great shape. I don't know what their plans regarding compatibility are, but maintaining it is definitely a good thing (e.g., phenomenal PS2 sales).
As for developers and a slew of games, they haven't been doing half-bad in this department. In the past couple of years, they've made deals with some of the bigger names and franchises (getting some Final Fantasy, some Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid), so developers definitely are seeing potential in the big N. Getting to market first with a new console and an exclusive or 2 from a big name (say a Mario game plus an established 3rd party franchise) would really push Nintendo along...
And finally the price, if I'm recalling correctly, Nintendo almost always has the cheapest hardware, both on launch (weren't PS2 and Xbox ~250-300 while GC was closer to 200?) and throughtout the sales cycle, so there's not much worry there.
The GBA and it's remote boot fixed that by letting you play with one cartridge (although you were limited by the GBAs memory). The DS is supposed to keep this feature. This means the new biggest problem is the cable.
The cables are unsightly, you have to carry one around, and they are "short". Sure they may be long, but in practice (like two people in a car or on a plane, one sitting in front of the other) the cable can seem short and get in the way. I've never played 3 or 4 player games, but I would imagine that it only gets worse.
The wireless is fantastic though. Not only do you not need to fuss with the cable, but they could do 8 player, or 16 player, or more! Imagine if you got enough people with a football game, you could have one person play each player on the field! Or do something similar with many other sports. There are many cool things that this opens up; and if it's WiFi/Bluetooth that could mean internet play too.
There are other little bonuses too. Bluetooth has a standard printer protocall (if I understand correctly) to allow cell phones and PDAs and such to print things easily. Think of just walking up your DS to a printer, pressing a button, and having your highscore table printed out, or the sections of the map you know in Metroid, or something like that. Add in that you could take a picture on a cellphone and Bluetooth it to the GBA to put you in the game. This plus the touch screen means the best Mario Paint game ever could be made. Real drawing, printing, saving (move files over BT), internet sharing (BT or WiFi), putting your picture in, etc.
The DS (and WiFi and BT) open up tons of cool opertunities. The tech demos that were shown and such are just the tip of the ice burg.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Wouldn't it be interesting, though, if the next-gen consoles determined what new DVD standard won out? Video games defining movie's media.
It's possible. If every PS3 and GC2/N-Sider/Whatever (Usually the code names are cooler (Dolphin), but oh well) could also play Blu-Ray disks, that would be a MAJOR boost. It would mean production facilites for both the drives and disks (drive costs down, provide volume needed to satisfy demand of some movie releases), and provide players for the format in MANY homes. This would mean that HD-DVD (or anything else someone comes up with) would be up against a formidable barrier to mass adoption.
Who says video games aren't important :)
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.