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The Revolution Will Be Globalized
Gamespot is reporting that Nintendo plans on a global launch for the Revolution. From the article: "Talking about the Revolution in an interview with Nikkei Business, Iwata stated, 'I can only say that it's coming out during 2006, but it will be after the current fiscal year. We hope to make it a simultaneous worldwide release as much as it's possible ... It [the Revolution] would be a complete failure if we didn't sell more units than the Nintendo GameCube'"
See this.
I quit!
Uh, it's direct quotes from Iwata, the CEO. Good job at reading the article summary, let alone the article itself.
I love this idea. I always disliked seeing games come out in Japan first,and having to wait until they get ported to the US, if the game even got ported at all.
...that is, Nintendo follows through and applies this policy to games as well. Why on Earth Electroplankton (quirky DS music-making "game") came out long ago in Japan and will get only a limited release in the 'States in January is beyond me, especially considering there is absolutely nothing to translate. In the past, the N64 DD expansion and its Mario Artist games never made it across the pond at all, and throughout all of Nintendo's history they've given Europe and Australia the shaft big-time, games sometimes coming out a year or more later than in Japan and/or the US.
:^)
Now if they'd only ditch their ridiculous region locking (to their credit, no Game Boy or DS system is reigon-locked, which I've taken advantage of several times) I'd be a happy camper. One step at a time, maybe.
I'm surprisingly excited about the Revolution... As much as I love traditional video games, I've got to say the idea of some wacky new directions has a lot of appeal. After getting a taste of that "brave new world" stuff on the DS, I'm pretty confident it's not just rhetoric. New experiences, here we come! Not that I won't be suckered into buying a PS3 as well, I'm sure...
I'm not an economist, but it looks like the buying power of the average US consumer isn't going to improve in the next year. People are more likely to take a chance on a $200 box then a $400 (or $600).
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
It would be great if a situation like this happened, but here in Australia, the Gamecube has pretty much been withdrawn from the market. The few stores that still have it (such as EB) have it at $99 AUD for a new console, when the XBox and PS2 are still above the $200 AUD mark. These remaining Gamecube consoles are not flying off the shelves, even though there are still over a hundred titles on the market for the Gamecube, and new titles are still coming out.
I've been holding off on getting a Gamecube, but the pricepoint means I will probably get one in time for Christmas. A loaner that I got my hands on saw the PS2 pushed out of the way while the GC was in the house, and saw the non-gamers in the house fighting over who got to play it next.
Hopefully the Revolution will make a bigger impact.
InfoSec that matters, when it counts.
As long as Smash Bros 3 (or whatever it would be called) comes out for the Revolution, I'll be buying it. I still avidly play SSBM for the GC--it's probably the most replayable game ever made. Other than Contra.
Grammar Lesson: you're is a contraction of "you are"; your means you possess something; yore means days gone by.
Now if [Nintendo would] only ditch their ridiculous region locking (to their credit, no Game Boy or DS system is reigon-locked, which I've taken advantage of several times)
Games designed for the iQue DS system, available in China, will not play on Nintendo DS systems sold in NZ/Au, North America, Japan, or Europe. Given that the iQue DS firmware is known to be twice as big as the multi-region Nintendo DS firmware, the current hypothesis is that there is an ideographic font in the iQue DS firmware, and iQue DS games error out if they can't find the font.
The major console makers use region locking for set-top consoles because publishers of games and publishers of the movies and TV shows that they're based on are willing to pay higher manufacturing fees to the console makers if the games are region locked. Region locking is usually left off for games (except in the case of TurboExpress/PC Engine GT, which is a shrunken version of the TurboGrafx/PC Engine console) because the demands of middle- and upper-class travelers outweigh the demands of the publishers in this case.
Region locking is usually left off for games
You meant "for handheld games", right?
"'I can only say that it's coming out during 2006, but it will be after the current fiscal year."
I think this is what most people were expecting; Nintendo's fiscal year ends in march (I believe) and to launch before this would be a bad idea because 1) nothing sells well in the first quarter of the new year and 2) we don't have nearly enough information about the Revolution yet.
Personally, I suspect that if Nintendo decides to launch in the second (or even third) quarter of next year we may see Nintendo create a Spaceworld like show in February or March to show off the Revolution; if they launch after that I expect they would just wait until E3 to demonstrate the Revolution.
Circumcision is child abuse.
According to this article from Nintendojo, the Nintendo Power Line (number listed in article) says that the Revolution will be launched in the "latter half of 2006". While it certainly isn't unknown for phone service numbers to have bad information, this does line up with the article.
I think that, unless the PS3 gets a large headstart, the Revolution will probably be out late September-early October. Enough to drum up interest for Christmas, and will allow it to be available for Black Friday in the States.
Funny, they said almost the exact same thing about communism.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I agree that it's frustrating( been waiting a long time for Band Brothers), but keep in mind it can be much harder to do simultaneous releases with certain software titles because of localization. For example, an adventure or rpg game could have hundreds of pages of text that needs to be translated, new voice actors and recording sessions, and potentially swapping out assets that may be offensive or not relevant the target cultures. Sure, you could do it simultaneously (and some games do), but it's much, much more work.
On the hardware side, I imagine localization isn't trivial, but it's much easier to translate the various splash screens, error codes and whatnot. I'm guessing the more difficult obstacle is getting production levels and distrubution network locked down. But Nintendo (and Microsoft perhaps), don't feel it'll be a problem.
The Genesis made Sega a lot of money. The 16 bit generation essentially ended with a tie. And though outside of Japan the Saturn did poorly, in Japan it was actually fairly successful (certainly moreso than the N64 was). Sometimes first to market is an advantage, and Sega is the proof of that.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
personally, i don't think this iof this as flame bait.
think of how much more money nintendo would have made if they sstarted the game cube at 250 instead of 199. not only that, they could have followed the price cuts by sony / microsoft step by step.
as it is right now, you can get a cube and a agame for it as a bundle for $99. that means the cube is only $50 bucks. while the PS2 and xbox has room for another round of price cuts. you can't really cut the cube further short of giving it away.
and yes, i agree that debuting your console at $100 cheaper cheapens the perceived value of your product. i would have sold it at $250 and packed in a memory card and an extra controller (both essentially a must anyways) that way the perceived notion is that it's more value.. not less product...
For example, an adventure or rpg game could have hundreds of pages of text that needs to be translated
Then what about games other than adventures and rpgs? Why don't, say, fighting games or platform games almost always see a simultaneous (or at least within a month or two) release? Why are games released in the UK but not in the US (e.g. Kuru Kuru Kururin and Payback for GBA) or vice versa?