Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo Releasing Wireless Router for Revolution
nmaster64 writes "Nintendo is really pushing their Nintendo Wi-fi hard, completely reversing the anti-online mentality they've held in years past. Nwizard.com reports, "Nintendo will soon be producing a router that will allow access to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Network on both the DS and the Revolution. The router plugs into a USB 2.0 port and transfers your computers internet connection wirelessly into your next-gen Nintendo devices." It should be noted this story came at almost the same time as Sony announced they dropped the PS3's router functionality." Update: 07/13 06:20 GMT by Z : Please note there is no source referenced for this "story", and this could in fact be some guy's pet theory.
How is it a router if it has to plug into a PC to use its internet connection and not nativley negotiate it coming in?
Wouldn't you just buy a router dedicated to handle both connections sepratley? They are not that expensive these days.
Nice troll, but the Revolution, just like the DS, will work with any 802.11b/g router. This is just a cheap solution for those without a wireless network already in their home.
Does this mean Nintendo is going to make a comeback into being relevant again?
Nintendo was always relevant. Sure their sales were never as big as Xbox or PS2, but Nintendo had a great niche market that generated good revenue. They didn't need huge sales numbers. Nintendo has always made quality games and always been part of a niche market.
This wireless will only add value to an already great, present, niche market. They know what they are doing.
I can't understand why Sony would want to withdraw WiFi from the PS3 spec, though.
Probably because they can't deliver what they've promised, just like with the PSX and the PS2: a mouthfull of hype and buzz, but in the end half of the features are pulled, and the performance is nowhere near the initial announcements (remember how the PS2 would be '100 times faster than any PC on the market' at the time it would be launched. See the PS3/Cell buzz right now...
Nintendo however not only 'reverses the anti-online mentality' but also reverses Sony's marketing practices: stay silent and keep your feature set undisclosed until its really sure what the final product will be like, this way not disappointing their future customers.
Still Sony seems to be winning over Nintendo... Which IMO is a pity, not only hardware-wise but also software-wise...
I'm getting the impression that for this generation of consoles, Nintendo's decided to sit out of the marketing hype war that Sony and Microsoft are enaged in. Then, whenever either of those two companies admits to overhyping their product, Nintendo swoops in and shows them up by announcing a previously-unknown feature (such as this).
The Genesis, NES, and TurboGraphx16 werent online (well, the Genesis was with XBand eventually), and some of the most innovative, playable games were released on those 3 platforms.
Super Mario Bros 3, Earthworm Jim, the original Metal Gear, Final Fantasy - a long laundry list of original titles.
Here we are now in the wireless age and I cant count how many shooter titles are on the Xbox, or generic RPG titles are available on the PS2. The GC clearly still holds rank with gameplay innovation, but interestingly they sit 3rd overall in the worldwide console battle.
Its kind of sad, really. The market seems to be more concerned with whether or not I can get on the net with yet ANOTHER device, instead of making games compelling enough for me to WANT to get online with it.
...both interiorlly, and exteriorlly.
"...completely reversing the anti-online mentality they've held in years past."
Since when did Nintendo have an anti-online mentality? All I have ever read Nintendo executives say is that the market was not ready and would only be ready at the tail end of the GameCube's lifecycle, so it didn't make financial sense for them to go out of their way to support it on the GC.
So far I'd say they were pretty accurate. The XBox Live subscription level is about 2.5% of the worldwide sales; 350,000 subscribers out of 13.7 mil sales. Those numbers are from 2003 and late 2004 respectively. The fact that Microsoft hasn't published their subscription level for XBox Live since 2003 is pretty telling that they are in the very situation that Nintendo did not want to be in. They brought a product to market before the market was ready. It was just successful enough that it is going to be a pain to support, yet it isn't successful enough to be cost effective.
The problems with Nintendo are much simpler than that. They pissed off all their 3rd party support with the N64 (expensive cartridges instead of cheap optical disks, and other stupid moves). And a lot of those third parties were still a little upset because Nintendo made some fairly anti-competitive moves during their NES monopoly marketshare days.
Also, while gaming in general began to market heavily towards the teenage male demographic with games involving gore, violence, and less clothing, Nintendo generally just kept making the games they wanted to make, and with Mario and the like they took on the aura of "kiddie games."
With all of that, Nintendo's marketshare has dropped significantly, and Sony and MS have become major players. In my opinion, however, Nintendo's games are generally just as high quality as they ever were. And they're definitely the most innovative of the big three.
Halo made the Xbox, no argument there. The PS2 is not riding high on the coattails of Katamari Damacy, its real killer app was GTA3, although it already had plenty of market share by that point.
*shrug* It's my anecdotal evidence vs yours at this point, but I thought the gamecube Mario Kart was a real improvement over the N64 version. I have all three of the current consoles, with a similar number of games for each, and the gamecube easily sees the most play. Not to mention that, except for Burnout3 on the Xbox, I can't get my girlfriend to play anything other than the gamecube.
I hope Nintendo keeps doing what they've been doing(with a few minor exceptions maybe). And hopefully as the gaming community continues to mature, more people will rediscover how Nintendo does a good job of making fun games.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I can't understand why Sony would want to withdraw WiFi from the PS3 spec, though.
/router/ functionality.
That's because they are not removing the WiFi from the PS3. They are removing the
Originally it was supposed to have 3 extra Gbit ethernet connections on the back allowing you to use the PS3 as a networking router. I guess they came to their senses and figured out that no-one wants a console to be a router when a dedicated router which is quiet is dirt cheap.
I think misunderstood that: the Revolution has built-in WiFi and Nintendo is selling a WiFi router so PCs can access that WiFi net... they use their own WiFi network
The Nintendo DS uses 802.11. This USB wirelessy thing is almost certainly going to just be a totally normal 802.11 router, just it plugs into USB instead of sitting between your modem and computer the way a Netgear would.
You have probably heard that Nintendo has some kind of "propreitary wi-fi protocol". This is true. However this protocol is used for DS to DS multiplayer. Like, if you have two DSes in a room. This "propreitary" protocol will also, as you note, probably be used to connect the DS to the Revolution.
However, when the DS needs to go onto the internet-- i.e. when you buy one of the online-enabled games such as Animal Crossing or Mario Kart coming later this year-- it switches to 802.11 TCP/IP.
I think we can completely assume that the Revolution will work the same way.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts