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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
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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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As for the Dreamcast, it launched a year+ early. It wasn't a "next-gen" system so much as a system inbetween generations. It was launched TOO early. If the DC had been released 3-6 months before the PS2, I bet it would have done better. I think it would have still died due to other factors, but it would have done better than it did.
And this is what Nintendo is trying to do. They want to launch about 6 months before the PS3. They will get a head start, but won't be seen as an inbetween generation.
As for the games, they did a decent job with the GBA launch, a good job with the GC launch. We've learned that more good games at launch means a better system, so the companies understand that. The PSP is supposed to launch with a bunch of games, not that "here is 3, and few care about the other two" that the N64 saw. Few games hurt Nintendo in the N64 days, I think they've learned their lesson. I also think that $150 or $200 would be a perfect price point to launch at, especially with Sony probably going near $250 or $300 with the PS3.
That's my take anyways.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
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.
The above is a test.
heh, had me wonderin up till there. =)
As for the mini-disc, while I think they may move off to a different format for the increased storage space (dual layer DVD, maybe blue-laser based DVD), I think that at this point the DVD player aspect of a console is worthless. When the current generation started, a DVD player was $150+. So a $300 PS2 could be thought of a $150+ DVD player plus a $150+ PS1 plus a PS2 so it was a deal. I used my PS2 to watch DVDs for 3 years. But at this point most people who want a DVD player have one, and I doubt that they are going to buy a console simply because it has DVD functionality. You can now buy decent DVD players for $40 or under, so I don't think the ability to play DVDs is a selling point any more.
Now if it plays HD-DVDs (or whatever comes after the DVD), that would be a different story. Sony might do this by using Blue-Ray (their DVD replacement) in the PS3 (my speculation).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
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.
I thought that the word on the street regarding Xbox Next was that it *wouldn't* be backwards compatible. New processor architecture, new graphics chipset (NVidia owning the IP to the original graphics chisp) would make including backwards comp. in the hwardware or software pretty difficult.
Did some news come out that I missed?
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Those are all sequels... not a bad thing for a good game. Just not what I call original. Good games come from two places:
;)
-Original innovation brought on by the will to be creative. This is usually not motivated by money.
-Sequel to something that was already good. Don't break something that already works. Improving on it is always a good thing (tm) though. This is largely driven by money as brand naming becomes a huge part. Do you think Nintendo would have renamed and branded Super Mario Bros 2 if the first did not do as well?
I am glad to say that Nintendo does have a head and they use it. I trust them mostly... they have lost some of my faith in the past (controller design is one...) but they stay on top of the ball in a business that is anything but smooth.
Sony: Hmm... hard to say. I've enjoy my PS2 a lot. I don't want a fight over hardware quality or cost. They do have some good development houses behind them... so you can dis sony but there are still some AWSOME games... that all said: I don't mind them but I will probably have to wait on the PSP because of price. I have to pay tuition... and boy does that become huge really fast.
MS: The Redmond army is here and they are going to take you out! Even if it means that you may have some fun in the process. There are good things that XBOX offers that the others don't. Like an online service that is unified. Harddrive for content. Built in NIC. You buy an XBOX and all you need next is a game. Not so true for the other consoles out there. (Assuming you have electricity, hands, and a TV). BUT!!! from what I've seen in the past history of this giant: Markets are taken then sucked dry once they dominate. Take for instance the Office market. MS Office costs a soul and a half now days just for one seat! Back in the day they had to worry about price and quality. They had a good offering over their competitors for quite some time. Now that is not so true but what can the world do now. I fear something similar might happen to games (XNA anyone?). I don't mind them competing but I am NOT going to see the day when they dominate the market and any sane gamer should feel the same way. For now I will play the occasional Halo when I can.
As you can see, consoles are as twisted as any political discussion you can come up with. Any of my points above could probably be argued. But I am one of those people who like to voice an opinion on things
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.
I've seen DVD players for 30 bucks. If nintendo put in a DVD player, it would cost an extra 30 bucks or more. A lot of people own DVD players, I think those people would prefer not to pay the extra cash for a feature they already have. Plus, some of that extra money just goes to Sony, since they license the technology. Believe me when I say DVD playback functionality will no longer help sell a significant amount consoles.
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