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Nintendo Revolution Details Emerge
Pyrohazard writes "Nintendo has posted some details on the Revolution to their official site, finally giving us some insight into what the console will be like. From the site: 'It will be about the thickness of three standard DVD cases and only slightly longer.' This makes it the smallest Nintendo console yet! It will also be able to stand up, similar to the PS2, and the Xbox 360. It will be backwards compatible, and it will also play '12cm optical disks in the same self-loading media drive'. It also states that it will have a very quick start-up time, and be very quiet. It finishes by stating 'Get ready for the Nintendo Revolution in 2006!'" C|Net has an article up arguing that Nintendo is making an error in missing the 2005 Holiday season.
It also states that it will have a very quick start-up time, and be very quiet.
Aiming to capture the market for game-playing wabbit hunters.
I guess the big N are counting on this console once again appealing to hardcore gameplayers, especially since you can't watch DVDs on this.
Are they making an error ?, possibly but depsite selling less consoles than sony and about the same as MS, the gamecube was supposedly very profitable. THe margins were supposedly higher and nintendo reckoned that the gamecube was never sold at a loss despite its low price.
In short Nintendo don't neccesarily have to shift more consoles than Sony and MS to stay in the console game.
Water cooling doesn't mean the xbox360 is faster. It could be designed crappy, with bad airflow. Hell, if the revolution is that small, it wouldnt need water cooling. Also, the water cooling could've been added to make the xb360 sound that much powerfull, a marketing ploy, which if true, you've fallen for.
Check out this fan made video. It's really well done.
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Article about video
I do agree with the cnet artical that nintendo are going to miss a major sale period here if it is not out till 2006 but they may as of yet pull it forward .
,Which is a very good thing as we don't need another loud large monster console.
.Though let me put my pundit hat on , besides the normal conectivity ala the GBA and the gamecube i suspect the reveloution may have the ability to download the data from the cards and allow you to play GBA or DS games on the big screen using the DS as a wireless controler (with the touch pad screen perhaps still working as normal ) and perhaps multi player DS games can be played with Reveloution controlers for some titles which dont have a touch screen (unless nintendo take a leaf out of the dreamcasts book and include a screen on the controler , albeit with touch pad functionality. ;) so dont cite me on it.
Looks like they are taking a leaf out of the mac minis book with the form factor
Its wonderfull they have confrimed backwards compatability which will be very important in giving them a good start with a cataloug of games though they may be missing out here if they don't include some form of DVD playback.
I have argued a few times that its not the features that sell a console but the games , but all things being equal otherwise the features can make or break the sale.
I am awaiting news of the conectivity with the DS , this is pure idle speculation
That is pure idle speculation though
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
I think it could be a smart move. Think of it. The XBox and the PS3 will be going all out to steal each others' thunder, and the consumer market for consoles will be split. If Nintendo can handle staying out of the spotlight for a little while, and then show up the next year with a console superior to the other two and good lineup of games, all the attention will be focused on them. As it is, you could argue it's too early for a second XBox and a third Playstation. Nintendo's timing could be perfect.
It's interesting that all 3 console manufacturers chose IBM PPC processors this time around. It means that game developers programming in assembly language will only have to learn one. Too bad there aren't many left who do. (A fact of life when the bottlenecks move to memory/art/game-logic).
Because the GameCube used PPC, it looks like Nintendo will be the only one with an (relatively) easy backwards compatability story. The PS2 could perhaps be emulated since it was only a 300Mhz MIPS processor, but I pity the person that has to write the emulator for the pipelining stages on the VUs. Microsoft has not said whether they'll be backwards compatible, but I predict the answer is no.
"(Update 05/13/05) I have had a couple of readers that commented on Microsoft stating that the Xbox 360 was "water cooled." While this might be technically true, it carries a very heavy marketing spin in order to glom onto an enthusiast technology. To be succinct, the Xbox 360 is not water cooled in the way we, meaning just about every computer hardware enthusiast on the planet, tend to think of water cooling. The Xbox 360 motherboard we were shown did have a CPU heatsink in place that utilized a heatpipe. Yes, a heatpipe does have liquid in it and some H2O as well, but is usually primarily ammonia. In a heatpipe, the liquid at the "hot" end vaporizes, and is moved to the "cold" end of the heatpipe by a pressure differential and convection. Once the heat is transferred to the fins in the cold end, the substance condenses and the process repeats. The CPU cooler we saw on the Xbox 360 processor looked very much like this CPU cooler seen at Plycon except the Xbox 360 cooler was taller than wider and only utilized one copper heatpipe tube."
Link -> http://www.hardocp.com/articleprint.html?article_i d=768
Given the size of this beast it may well be that there is practically no air gap inside the box. This would enable Nintendo to use the whole surface area of the box as a heatsink.
If this is designed correctly you could make convection currents work for you and turn the whole room into your air space.
Aside from that it does sound like the big N is going for user experience inplace of raw power. Lets assume that it is a small cute box that will provide maybe twice the performance of the current GameCube (unlike the order of magnitude promised by the xbox 360 and PS3), can be sold at rock bottom prices, say $150, on launch day and acts as a centeral hub for mad multiplayer DS parties.
I'd say thats a winner.
I'd argue that Nintendo might be better served waiting until *after* the Christmas season. There's been several "OMG I must have!" Christmas toys that nobody can find, everybody's going onto Ebay and bidding hundreds of dollars for.
You see, not being able to get it makes people want it more. It's fairly standard marketing practice to actually artificially make your product more scarce, because it makes people want it more.
Many of those fad Christmas gifts were hard to find... because it was all planned that way by the people making them. Intentionally making shipments erratic, etc. There's no reason why they couldn't flood the market with the product... but then nobody would want it as badly. Of course once the Christmas season they give up on the charade and just ship them normally.
Remember when Gmail was "invite-only" and everyone that you know couldn't get an invite fast enough? Again, articially-induced scarcity.
Nintendo is losing big by missing Christmas, a time when demand is typically quintupled. They would miss it only if they had no other choice.
There's not going to be an MTV special since The Revolution won't be televised. (rimshot)
It is good to maintain backward compatibility, Nintendo will have an easier time getting people that own a GameCube to buy their new console - just as Sony had an easier time getting people who owned the Playstation to buy the Playstation 2. This will give them an easier time with launching this new system.
Not only that, but as the new console generation pops up starting this Christmas, people will take into account which system has the most enjoyable games - if Xbox 360 doesn't have a solid number of good games at release time and isn't able to play Xbox games, they may find people holding back to get a Playstation 3s or Revolutions because of the already present game catalog.
I'm rooting for Nintendo, they've had some extremely fun games on the GameCube with a massively higher ratio of good games to bad when put alongside the Xbox or Playstation 2. The Mario sports games have all been excellent and enjoyable, rather than a pretty simulation of the sport like the EA and Sega sports titles carried by the competition.
I'm sick of following my dreams - I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
if I wanted a big, loud games machine I'd use a PC.
It's too soon for a new console. The games run fine on the old ones. If it's able to offer some mindblowing new content along with the intro, Nintendo is smart to wait for the 'compelling need' to drive it's sales through the roof.
There's also the aesthetic angle. Cultural preferences are rapidly moving toward Nintendos form factor and will be peaking in 18 months, not 6.
You don't have a DVD drive already? Their 40$ you cheap basterd, my dvd player was cheaper than the xbox dvd remote. Everyone has a dvd player, and nobody bought a xbox to play dvd movies. Nobody. I heard japanesse people bought the ps2 as a dvd player because it was cheaper at the time, but it wont be this time. The reason some developers didnt like the cartridge format is because n64 carts were like 8mb, and a cd is 700. Square likes cutscenes, which wouldn't fit on a cart. The Revolution uses 12cm discs, and theyre blu-ray discs if I recall. They will have equal, or near equal (possibly higher?) capacity then the xbox (still uses standard DVD's) and who knows for the PS3. Also, 99.99% of games dont use the full DVD disc anyway, so the gamecubes smaller (2GB?) discs weren't much of an issue. As I said before, the Revolution uses 12cm disks, with a higher capacity. Think before you post.
I wonder if the real "innovation" we are going to see with the Revolution has to do with the business side, namely that this box will be better focused in its purpose than Xbox360 or PS3. Perhaps in addition to being small, it will be significantly cheaper than the other boxes. I think if you look at where alot of game systems go (with the exception of Slashdot users and gadget freaks), they are not hooked up to the main TV in a house but to some secondary TV in a kids playroom, den, etc. Some of the media hub features discussed for these boxes are really overkill and not worth paying for if you just want a really good game system. I'll let my DVR evolve into a media hub and let the game system do what it does best, play games.
...is that they treat games as art, rather than cheap entertainment. There's a huge amount of overlap, to be sure, but the difference in emphasis makes all the difference. It could be argued -- probably correctly -- that the masses want cheap entertainment and not art, but still, if Nintendo could cultivate a sort of elite Apple-esque image, rather than their current childish Disney-esque one, that'd work well for them, I think...
They've been saying how they realized that the look of the console matters. Hopefully this means they've grasped the larger concept that *image matters*, perhaps as much as everything else put together (they can have the best games out there, but if it's seen as an uncool thing to own, people won't own it*). However, from the rather narrow stuff I've heard from them (only talking about making it look physically better, nothing about the larger picture of *why* it needs to look physically better), I'm sadly doubtful...
* people suck
Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively.
I think you will find that despite the smaller form factor with the Nintendo Revolution, it will probably still be on par with the PS3 and Xbox 360 given the extra time they will have in producing it. I will be amazed if even the PS3 is as large as the Xbox 360. Additionally, I beleive that the addition of multiple numbers of CPUs, all running at different Mgz clouds the overall power of the system, and makes a systems speed difference very negligable. I think this holiday season is the least of Nintendo's concerns. Nintendo has already stated that they are going after Sony as the top dog in the race. Stepping onto the market later is actually a good move and I think the Xbox 360 is coming to the market way too early. We have seen this happen with the Sega Saturn and the Sega Dreamcast. I also am strangely getting the notion that Microsoft is aiming its targets at Nintendo, and Nintendo is aiming theirs at Sony. And Sony is just content to be at the top. Why not try to challenge Sony? In the end, it is very possible there will be 2 leaders this time around, Sony and Nintendo.
Nintendo seem to be doing very well for themselves in the 'pathetic' third place. They're certainly turning a profit on the GameCube, unlike Microsoft for example, and have the best first-party games on any system, bar none.
There's no need to have a games library as large as, for example, the PS2's - how many of that system's games are really worth buying? There are plenty of simply excellent games available for the GameCube, and so long as Nintendo keep it up, I'll gladly buy their next system.
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
Back when the N64 was in development, Nintendo kept saying that the controller was something amazing and revolutionary, and kept it really hush-hush until they decided to unveil. They're pretty tight-lipped about stuff like this, so don't expect to see anything until Nintendo actually WANTS you to see it.
On the plus side though, the N64 controllers were revolutionary in a number of ways... it was the first major console to use analog sticks (Well, since the Atari 5200 I guess), it had slots on the back for memory cards and rumble packs (an idea later adopted by Sega and Microsoft), the odd three-staved design allowed it to be held in a number of different configurations (an idea which never really caught on), the C-buttons sort of led to the Gamecube's C-stick, and the system did four-player out of the box (although I suppose this is more a feature of the system rather than the controllers). I know a lot of people didn't like the N64 controllers, but they did have a good amount of influence after all.
-"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
"When the N64 came out, companies like Square could not release their games on the N64 due to cartridge format."
As pointed out numerous times already, FFVII used all that space for FMV. They very easily could have made that game for the N64. They chose not to. Back in those days, textures were around 4k. Even 8 - 16 megs is a lot of k's. The music was all midi. The characters were simply polygonal, most using goraud shading instead of textures. Etc. There would probably have been a few comporimises, but FFVII could have made it into an N64 cartridge.
"In reality, their proprietary format drives up cost for developers to use on their system. "
True for the N64, negligible for the GameCube. The reason the proprietary format for the N64 was expensive was because cartridges are just plain expensive. Optical media, nah. Make the disc a little smaller, change the format a bit. That wasn't anything but a minor change to the production facility. If it did cost more for the developers, it's doubtful it was by much. It was CERTAINLY nowhere near the difference between producing a CD and producing a catridge.
"And since Nintendo is continually losing market share to the XBox..."
Ugh. I hate getting into this argument. Are we talking world or USA here? The GameCube might be number 3 in the USA, but it's also killing the XBOX quite soundly in Japan. You may be thinking "so?" but imagine what the executives at Nintendo are thinking. Money's money. Even at 3rd place, Nintendo themselves produce AAA titles. Nintendo is going to react to their profit margins, not their market share. If Nintendo were to turn into Sony, would they really make more money? Sell systems at a loss? Produce cookie cutter games? Do nothing to ensure the market doesn't collapse like it did in Atari's age?
"I think Nintendo should really re-eveluate their stance on media drives."
The media drive isn't going to make the difference. It's the games. If Nintendo wants to give Sony hell, they'll need broader 3rd party support. At this point, the media won't make a difference. (assuming it has reasonable storage, anyway.) They need good hardware. They need good marketing. And they need killer apps at launch to get a few million into people's homes. From there, more developers will come out of the woodwork.
That is: IF they want to do that. The downside here is that store shelves get flooded with games. The problem is that Nintendo makes a killing on its first party titles. Less shelf space means less attention to their own products. Don't get me wrong, either way they make money, but they create a huge mess in their wakes.
"Derp de derp."