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Nintendo's Busy Week
GameDev.net has a wrap-up from Nintendo's busy week. They touch on the release of development kits, production delays for the DS Lite, and the ongoing DS vs. PSP war. From the article: "It seems Nintendo, who have in the past tended to rely heavily on first-party games, are eager to elicit support from third-party developers. According to some big-name developers who have had their kits for some time there have already been several versions of the kit: the first was just the console and a wired controller, while the second had a few minor tweaks and the third a boost in CPU power."
But nothing beats the ol' 8 button NES gamepad! http://www.retrousb.com/
[Insert Witty Sig Here]
"Nintendo itself has not yet commented on a Revolution price point, except to confirm that it would sell for less than $299. However, if the price of Revolution development hardware is any indication, the system could be very cheap indeed. Studios tell IGN that Revolution SDKs sell for about $2,000, which is thousands of dollars cheaper than a PSP SDK, let alone an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 one."
t ml
http://revolution.ign.com/articles/690/690730p1.h
It pretty much looks like an iPod.
The only thing holding me back from a definite DS Lite purchase (and preorder when they become available) is the fact that I just don't have much opportunity to game outside the house very often, and I feel a little silly playing a portable game console at home, when I could be playing games on my 21" TV or my 19" LCD monitor.
Although the unique games on the DS may make it worth it, I almost figure I might as well just hold out for the Revolution (which I am definitely preordering, barring the event that everybody who is privledged with a Revolution preview ending up saying the controller doesn't work well) which will surely offer many unique games of its own.
That, plus I just got an iPod for my birthday and I'm going to have enough trouble figuring out when I'm going to use it ... I'm not sure I want my DS Lite competing with it for my time! I wish my birthday were several months later, then I could have just asked for the DS Lite (I didn't ask for the iPod). :\
When exactly did this monopolistic past happen?
Nintendo had a monopoly on video game consoles in North America from roughly 1985 (end of the first 8-bit crash and release of NES) through early 1990 (rise of Sega Genesis). Nintendo had a monopoly on video game handhelds in North America from roughly 1989 (Game Boy) through early 2005 (rise of the PSP).
For what it's worth, Matt Casamassina from IGN seems to be hearing similar things, as he's posted on his blog. He is a Nintendo-focused journalist, but he's far from a Nintendo fanboy, and IGN has strong ties with the industry. I think it's safe to say that the reports of developer interest are indeed accurate.