Reflections On The Revolution

Kotaku has been reporting from the Digital Interactive Entertainment Conference this past week, and they have a short piece on Industry giants talking about gaming on the Revolution. From the article: "Miyamoto keeps dropping his receiver, which is connected to an earpiece through which English is translated into Japanese. The perky student that greeted me at the door tells me that they didn't have money for a Japanese-to-English translator, meaning that I have to pay extra attention to what Miyamoto's saying right now. He's talking about the Revolution controller."

Comments

The Controller

[Eightyford]

What's to stop Microsoft or Sony from creating their own copy of this controller design?

Re:The Controller

[MBCook]

Nothing. Good ideas get copied.

Now that would be an obvious nod to Nintendo. It would also validate them and help the Revolution get games.

However, doing that will have one serious problem for MS and Sony (unless their version tops Nintendo's). We all know how well "required" accessories sell for consoles. look at anything from the PS2 broadband adapter, to the GC broadband adapter, to the Sega CD, to the PS2 HD, to the Sega 32X, to most any light-gun (Guncon, Menecer, Super Scope, etc), to the N64 memory upgrade. They just don't get the penetration to make them terribly useful. Most companies won't make designs that require them because "nobody owns one". So unless Halo 3 and FF XII require it, it will probably stay as an afterthought on the the PS3 and XBox 360.

This means more than likely games wouldn't support it, would "tack on" support (like some of the early DS games, where it just hurt the experience), it would need the controller but you could play with the regular (thus must people would think it was terrible because the control with the normal controller would be terrible), or you will HAVE to have the controller and you won't be able to use the old one (thus the price of entry is $30 higher and sales will suffer).

Nintendo has the right solution. I think we will see Sony and MS copy them, but it won't be until the PSP 2, PS 4, or XBox 720.

Re:The Controller

[MBCook]

Well, I thought a little more and there is one possibility that I should mention.

Both the PS and the Saturn got analog controllers after launch (ostensibly because they saw how good the N64's analog stick helped things). Now both controllers got a lot of use, much more than most add-on peripherals. The fact that those controllers started being bundled with the consoles did help quite a bit.

But the analog stick was obvious, and the control scheme was very close to the old d-pad (just more accurate) so the games didn't suffer as much if you didn't have one as the difference between the Revolution controller and a current controller. Plus the Sega controller had something of a killer app in Knights: Into Dreams.

My point is if they realize early enough and start packing in, they could adapt during the generation, but it would have to be near the later half of the generation (like the analog controllers). Short of a couple of killer-apps each (a new GTA might be able to do it for the PS3), Nintendo will have the lead in the controller area.

PS: Other things: U-Force for NES, any dance pad (and the running mat for the NES), that octagonal controller for the SNES/Genesis that could detected punches and kicks, the SNES mouse, the PS mouse, the Dreamcast keyboard, the power glove, and many others (note: I realize some of these were third party). And, most obvious of all: steering wheels. They have been around forever (arguably the paddle controllers for the 2600) and are obviously useful, but games are forced to allow normal controls because so few people own them.

Re:The Controller

[MBCook]

True. Nintendo introduced the analog stick. They introduced the rumble pack. They introduced the d-pad (before that you only had joysticks and possibly seperate buttons, they put it together in the classic + shape). They added shoulder buttons.

Before Nintendo what did we have? Little joysticks (2600), paddles (2600), and sets of buttons like a telephone pad (Intellivision). Of course, that idea didn't completely die (see the Jaguar pad).

Nintendo seems to bring it all to us. It gets refined by other companies (Sony added the 2nd analog stick, and introduced built in rumble as opposed to an add-on), but Nintendo is the master so far.

Other Mentions

[MBCook]

I can't wait for the Revolution. The PS3 and the 360 are nice, but they are more of the same. The Revolution is the one that really interests me.

However, I just saw a article on Kotaku that says a top guy from Valve is very excited about the Revolution (as is Kojima).

Plus, apparently Miyamoto hinted at that same event that there is still some big feature of the Revolution that is under-wraps. Considering what they've already showed us, I can't wait to see what else they've got up their sleeves.

El Controller & El Price

[Anonymous Coward]

Any word on what the revolution will cost? I'm hoping it's in to $200 range, that'd be sweet & affordable.

Also, what's the big deal about the controller? The only revolutionary thing about it that I've heard is that it's got a gyroscopic motion detector. Is there anything else, or should I be more excited about gyroscopes?

Re:El Controller & El Price

[NanoGator]

"but I don't think this is some miracle controller that we'll wonder how ever did without..."

Can't say I agree with that. I just tried to play the XBOX 360 demo game... err.. forget the name but it's a WWII game where ya run around and shoot etc. Couldn't stand trying to aim my gun. I ached badly for the Rev controller.

Re:Are you sure about that?

[Boogaroo]

I'm a bit tired at the moment, but I seem to recall there being two radio thingys to stick next to the TV.
Triangulation would be the method used, it's not optical. No way could an LED interface do what Nintendo is having these controllers do. The Power Glove was IR, I know(I actually did pretty well with the thing playing Zelda 2), but unless Nintendo's come up with magic to improve IR these are guaranteed to be RF.