Slashdot Mirror
Large PS3 Launch, Nintendo Resolutions
ConfusedFX writes "GameDAILY has published a news article featuring Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo's Executive Vice President of Sales. He had several things to say about Nintendo's 2006 strategy, one of which, 'We will sell more units than Xbox 360 did here in the United States in our launch window.' He commented about Xbox 360 owners spending nearly $800 at launch; he wants the Nintendo Revolution to be 'affordable' to the average gamer. Additionally, GameDAILY has posted an interview with Andy Parsons, senior VP of Pioneer Electronics, written by The Digital Bits. Some analysts expect the PS3 to launch with around 1 million units -- Andy says he's heard differently from Sony. 'If Sony ships the kind of numbers we expect them to this year, that will provide a very rapid growth of players out there hungry for titles. We've been hearing between 4 and 7 million units could ship.'"
Seriously, saying you'te going to beat the XBox 360's launch is basically like saying 'We are not retards, and we're not rushing our product to market.'
The XBox 360 had 400,000 units available at launch and has only delivered a couple hundred thousand since then; Nintendo (with the Gamecube) had 500,000 on launch day with 500,000 released that month (which I would expect to be the minimum we would see from the Revolution).
Also, Nintendo's Price point comments could probably be replaced with "We are trying to sell for as low as $200, but that seems unlikely, so we're determining whether $225 or $250 is a better price point; we're just going to tell you under $300 so that when we announce it at $225 or $250 you'll be happily surprised. (Plus if we're lucky enough to get the manufacturing costs low enough to sell it at $200, you'll probably mess your pants)"
It appears that the 360 is getting pushed off the mind of the public and everything is turning into Nintendo Revolution and Sony PS3.
Can anyone give a plausible scenario where Microsoft can remain relevant to the next gen race?
I am looking at the release list of games for the 360 over the next year and it looks like all the same type of games that the first xbox had. There doesn't seem any reason for anyone to buy a 360 who didn't already buy the first xbox.
The more I read about the supposed specs of the Revolution the more it sounds like it will, outside of higher resolution, easily outpace the 360 in performance. The dual 970ish CPU that is in the Revolution will easily outperform the 360 CPU - which looks like it has realworld performance around a 2 to 2.5GHz dual 970 system. And the custom ATI graphics system in the Revolution sounds like it will be much more advanced than the essentially current gen pc GPU in the 360 - outside of resolution once again.
Theres two plausible scenarios that can play out that'll serious help Microsoft's 360.
1. The PS3 launch is more or less as bad as the 360's. (Remember, they bungled the PS2 AND the PSP launches so it is possible) Between the 360's early foothold on the market and the lack of any first-gen titles that take advantage of the hardware (which is true for ANY hardware), the PS3 crumbles between the 360's early launch the Nintendo Revolution's 'we complement, not replace, the 360 and/or PS3' strategy. Throw in Sony's poor economic state and the fact that the PS2 is simply far too old to be of any contest and after 3 or so years, the PS3 is axed to cut losses.
2. Blu-Ray doesn't catch on for whatever reason, take your pick from too high costs to dislike of DRM to movie studios/customers do not support it (again, likely given Sony's past). Because of the added costs from the Blu-Ray drive and the lack of the same movie support the PS2 recieved with DVDs, the PS3 flounders since it cannot support itself solely as a video game system due to the extreme hardware costs. Again Nintendo survives with its video game-only system strategy and Microsoft survives either from HD-DVDs or it simply drives the PS3 off the market.