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Nintendo Spokesman Talks Next-Gen and MS
Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for an article outlining comments made by Nintendo VP of sales and marketing Reggie Fils-Aime. His comments confirm that Nintendo's next console will release around the same time as the PS3, and bashed MS for rushing to the next console generation. "Our focus is this: we will bring Revolution to the marketplace roughly at the same time as the competition," Fils-Aime told US website IGN. "We are driving our timetables based on what we believe Sony will do."
What is Microsoft's motivation here anyway. I mean... Right now all they can really boast about over the PS2 is that they have a years worth of hardware advancement better graphics, and even that isn't helping the bottom line. If they come out way ahead with the next generation machines and Sony maintains it's development lineup strength, they won't even have better graphics to boast about in the next generation. All you have to do to see that being first isn't what makes you successful is to look at the Dreamcast.
The only think I can think of is that perhaps they're still losing money on each Xbox they sell, so the pressure is on to get something with lower manufacturing costs out the door...
All the way up the corporate ladder, even the VP of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo knows that they are only playing catch-up to the big boys. "We'll do what Sony does" because god knows we can't afford anything else after fast-tracking the DS.
That's the spirit Nintendo! Cut your morale and business practices down, because everyone knows with that attitude you'll never be on top again.
Sigh...
I like Nintendo, I really do, but I can't help but watch this company fumble and bumble in every aspect of their company down the press releases. What happened to bravado and innovation they once had?
quote from the link:
speaking at the ELSPA Game Summit in London last June, former Nintendo Europe boss David Gosen said that "in every cycle, some manufacturer not profiting from the current cycle is eager to kick-start the next one..."
the signs are there:
M$ tried to steal the market by being the first cutting the price on their console Xbox, and now they're going for a head start to steal the nextgen console market..
IMO, aside from HALO, xbox doesn't have much to offer (pls no flaming,xboxers).. since the start, they jumped into a highly competitive market that needs carefully precised timing of release & strategy.
The way I see it, in global terms PS3 will have a breezy launch with slight competition from Nintendo and even less from M$
Think about it. In the 8-Bit days, the NES came out after the Sega Master System and Atari systems.
The 16-bit days, the SNES waited until after both the Sega Genesis and NEC's Turbografix-16 came out.
The 32/64-bit days, they waited to bring out the N64 long after the PSX and Sega Saturn. The same thing occurred with the Gamecube arriving just after the PS2 and XBox.
Nintendo likes to sit back and see what the competion comes out with and then trumps it shortly after.
Later to market isn't always a bad thing.
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
MS releasing the xbox2 so early is a slap in the face to thier customers. With the PS2, and DS, they commited to a long product lifecycle, giving thier customers more years of value and game development, while with the xboxii it's imho too early. I think nintendo tested the waters earlier with leaked reports of an early gamecube successor, but backed off because it wasn't well received EOLing the GC so early, but MS just doesn't seem to care about thier loyal customers of the current console.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
Where did that comment come from?
I really hate you Nintendo bashers.
NES was definitely better than the SMS and Atari.
SNES was unquestionably stronger than Genesis.
I'm sure some could argue the N64 was better than the PSX, but using cartridges really hurt the N64. I think the N64 was a weaker system because of it.
The Gamecube has much better hardware than the PS2, but weaker hardware than the Xbox. Although again, I'm sure some could argue that the GC's hardware has been put to better use.
For the record I have all three consoles. My Gamecube gets the most play time, followed by my PS2, then the Dreamcast, and finally my Xbox... which I use to play emulated SNES on.
Uhh... no. Speaking from the hardware perspective, they've had some superior features since at least the N64 days.
The N64 was far more powerful than anything else on the market before the Dreamcast. Sadly, the decision to go with cartridges more than balanced out this otherwise superior hardware.
The Gamecube hardware is on average as powerful as the X-Box, being better in some aspects and weaker in others. It's also almost universally better than the PS2.
I can't really speak for consoles before the N64, as I didn't really start following the hardware before then. But really, I don't know where you're getting your information if you think they traditionally have the weakest hardware.
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
Err..take that a step back, but a step further at the same time.
Considering how much they're charging for the hardware at this poing, they have to have the costs of screens at a low level at this point. So basically, why make people spend all the money for a DS? If the hardware can handle it, theoretically one system could pump out the screens for 8? systems, at least to a quality that would be good enough for an LCD screen. Then put on top of that having that screen be touch sensitve, as well, you can bring output to the TV.
Think about this. Goldeneye/random FPS. Each person with their own view of the screen. On the TV, you can have a cinimatic view of the going ons, security cameras, kill cams score list, etc.
That would be a revolution.
Then I guess Genesis developers just sucked.
All SNES games ran faster/looked better than their Genesis counterpart.
" They already have 2 unsuccessful consoles in the past few years, Gamecube and N64. Both of which completely failed to win over the 13 to 30 age group. They are hanging in by a thread."
Nintendo sold 30 million N64s, and that's a failure? Hanging by a thread? WTF?
Nintendo is making profit, a lot of it. They're not going anywhere any time soon. The only reason they appear to be 'hanging by a thread' is that Sony is significantly more successful than they are.
"Derp de derp."
Microsoft is. If they are aiming at Sony, they are going to miss.
I don't think Microsoft expects to make a decent profit on Xbox until Xbox 3. The reason they're going early is that they don't want to be in the same position as they were the last time around, where the launched when the PS2 was already firmly embedded. Of course, they also want to avoid the curse of the Dreamcast where everybody waits for the more-powerful Playstation that is coming along.
So - I don't think they'll be expecting to make a profit, especially at the beginning. They need to make the Xbox 2 at least as powerful as the PS3 (and preferably more powerful), and launching it earlier than the PS2 is going to mean that at first they'll be taking a huge hit on each console and will probably have to sell it at below cost.
However, you've got to look at the alternative - they certainly can't launch later than the PS3 - that would suicidal. The PS2 has such a big mindshare that they have to launch first - I imagine they hope that by the time the PS3 is coming out with its launch titles, the Xbox 2 will be getting its first second-generation titles, and that will be enough to win over some of Sony's customers...