The Revolution's Power And Launch Date

IGN is reporting on new details for Nintendo's next-generation console. They have discussion of the Revolution's graphical power, and some reflection on when the console might launch. From the former article: "Based on the information studios have relayed to us, Revolution is truly poised to cater to an altogether different game market than either Microsoft or Sony with their Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles respectively. Nintendo's machine will simply not deliver the same graphic horsepower as its competitors. Revolution is all about the controller and what it can do for gameplay experiences. When Revolution was initially unveiled, a Nintendo executive said it would be 'two-to-three times more powerful than GameCube.' The company never commented on Revolution's horsepower again and we were later told that the initial statement was incorrect. However, according to development houses, that description accurately sums up Revolution's power. "

Comments

The gamecube is good enough

[sycomonkey]

Maybe I'm just not picky, but I haven't really been terribly upset with the Cube's graphics. In fact games like Metroid Prime 1 & 2, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Resident Evil 4, and it would seem the new Zelda are just graphically stunning. (in fact Wind Waker was too, in a completely different way). Three times that is almost overkill. The Xbox 360 I would say, from what I've seen, is barely hitting that metric, except of course it can do HD, which really only matters for 5-10% of gamers anyway. Sure it's early, and I'm sure by the time we're almost done with the 360 it'll far surpassed anything I can differentiate (would anyone have possibly imagined a game that looks as good as Shadow of the Collosus could have come out of the PS2 when it launched in 2000?), but we're hitting the photorealistic barrier pretty hard as it is. There's only so much more graphical power is going to be able to accomplish. However, hype is everything, and having an "underpowered" console isn't going to help Nintendo regain their hardcore group. It seems like they've given up on them anyway. Which is fine, they aren't terribly good gamers anyway. With online I'm going to have to interact with fellow Revolution gamers and it will probably be a good thing that it won't be filled with the sort of people who eat marketing hype like candy and actually care about graphical powers that might possibly result in a fractionally better looking game.

Re:The gamecube is good enough

[Evangelion]

Why do people continue to compare Xbox360's graphics on a 480i NTSC TV to other consoles? It has a native resolution of 720p for a reason.

Because that's what 90% of the population has?

Re:The gamecube is good enough

[sycomonkey]

"Why do people continue to compare Xbox360's graphics on a 480i NTSC TV to other consoles?"

Because that's the TV I have. And, for your information, I have seen 360 gaming on an HDTV. Higher resolutions are really nice, I'll agree, but not $1000-for-a-new-TV nice. It looked pretty good, but I wouldn't call it a more than 3xGCN. Possibly twice as good. (this was some basketball game). But the practical issue is that even if the 360 is capable of HD, nobody actually has HD, so it's virtually pointless, at least right now.

Furthmore, my point was that even if it is 3x better of 10x better, it can not possibly accomplish the same jump as the PSX/N64 -> GCN/PS2/XBox/DC jump. We're hitting the ceiling, and graphics power that costs twice is much is going to provide a fractional increase in perceptable graphics improvement.

Re:The gamecube is good enough

[DarkYoshi]

The reason uncanny valley exists is because nobody cares about emotion, only likeness. If you compare most current games to Ocarina of Time, Link looks the most human, (well, Hylian) because he has human emotions. The guys in the other games look like blow-up dolls. Nintendo jumped ahead, creating "uncanny mountain" with Ocarina of Time, making characters amazingly realistic with very limited graphics capabilities.

Re:The gamecube is good enough

[IpalindromeI]

My perception is that almost everyone has one.

It's because you associate with people that have similar interests as you (ie, care about nice looking TVs) and are at a similar financial level (ie, can afford nice looking TVs). Another reason is that the media industry wants you to think everyone has one so that if you didn't, you'd feel left out and think you needed one.

Re:Survey Says...

[rAiNsT0rm]

It all depends on your perspective, but I agree. I've spent years on the game industry side. To them the "hardcore" market is the exact opposite of what you or I would define it as. They define the hardcore market as their target demographic right around 18-30yr old immature/fanboy types. The ones who wait in lines for 12+ hours for a game launch, or who eat up the average crap games/sequels like candy.

My definition of the hardcore gamer is someone like you or I... I use the term "True Gamer" for this demographic. True gamers are looking for innovation, fun, game design, gameplay, and pushing the envelope. Not graphics, MHz/GHz, and RAM/Hard Drive space. We aren't interested in media centers and convergence... just games, good games.

While it has got a ton of press now, I used to use Katamari Damacy as the tell-tale sign. Before it got all the press, the original people who had a copy of KD were true gamers. Also, folks who own and still play the Dreamcast fit into this category. (or still have a working and hooked up 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, etc.) People who have a love for the games, not the technology. I could never have told you what processor or how much ram my NES/SNES/GENESIS had... I knew 8-bit/16-bit but that was all that concerned me.

I use it all the time but it is the truth. Last year the number one game sold for the holiday season was not on any of the current gen systems... it was the hand held retro controllers that plugged straight into your TV and contained 6-12 games. Outsold all console game sales combined! This coupled with the fact that online flash/shareware games are seeing massive sales numbers means that there is a large untapped audience out there hungry for a simpler, fun, game system. This audience dwarfs the "hardcore" gaming audience in number and dollars... Nintendo has them square in its sights.