Come the Revolution

GamesIndustry.biz has a piece looking at what game developers think will be required to ensure that Nintendo's Revolution doesn't go the way of the GameCube. From the article: "While this mutual exploitation between indies and Nintendo may grant the GameCube some stay of execution, the Kyoto giant's next home console will require a very different approach to marketing. Solid details about the Revolution remain sparse, yet Nintendo has stated it hopes to attract a different audience to the one being aggressively chased by Microsoft and Sony. This is the console that will support a back catalogue of twenty years' worth of Nintendo games, as well as new titles utilising the intriguing new controller."

Comments

Older is better

[From A Far Away Land]

I'd actually consider buying a Nintendo platform that supports Gameboy and NES games as well as the new stuff. Either that, or gives owners a license to run an official NES emulator on their PC. Donkey Kong trumps new stuff any day.

Re:Gamecube - premature death?

[Fred Or Alive]

Where are you?

I'm in the UK, and the article is pretty accurate, the 'Cube has dissapeared from most retailer's shelves (partly pushed out by the PSP, and ironically, the DS), and it's pretty much relegated to small amounts of shelf space in specialist games shops. I'm sure people get lots of play out of their 'Cubes, but Nintendo will probably have trouble selling more games and consoles when they can't pursuade shops to actually sell them.

Nintendo fans shouldn't worry totally, the cash cows of the Game Boy and DS are doing far better.

My $.02

[tekkou]

My opinion on this latest generation of video game systems is that MS and Sony may be trying to cram too much into a system. These things are supposed to play games first, everything else 2nd. Yes it's nice that I could use my PS2 as a DVD player along with playing games, but it wasn't a great DVD player, and when I had the money I bought one to take that function's place.

I'm very happy that Nintendo is willing to take a gamble and keep with their trend of making GAME systems. One only has to compare the DS with the PSP to find that a GAME system is what more people want. Yes there are people that like the PSP for all its media functionality, but should that be in a game system? Why not just buy a PDA for that? You'd have the ability to view a wider range of media in that case .

When I first heard about how Nintendo was planning on this new controller idea, having the back catalog of games, and keeping it just a game system I knew I wanted one. Nintendo has always been more focused on gameplay I feel. I did own a GameCube, and the Nintendo franchise game validated the purchase. I only wish I still had it for the upcoming Zelda game.

Personally I think that MS jumped the gun a bit with the 360. As has been mentioned countless times prior, it isn't much of an improvement over the previous XBox. I have a feeling that the PS3 might get pigeonholed into that same category (though I still will likely get one for Metal Gear, Gran Turismo, and other PS only series), but the Revolution is the one thing that I'm truly waiting for because it's the only one to promise doing something new and different.

Re:Go where?

[tukkayoot]

"The way of the GameCube" likely refers to the plumetting number of consoles sold. The NES sold 60 million units. SNES sold 49 million. N64 sold 32 million. The GameCube has sold about 21 million. Not a good trend for Nintendo, regardless of how profitable they are.

If the Revolution sells fewer units than the GameCube, it's going to be hard for anybody, even Nintendo fanboys and Nintendo themselves to see that as anything but a failure. As the article explains, they need move beyond their niche appeal and break into the mainstream somehow if they don't want their home console business to sink into the abyss. If the rate of decline of sales in this generation doesn't improve from the last generation, the Revolution will barely sell more units than the Dreamcast.

I personally think Nintendo will recover in this generation, though. That's what I'm hoping, anyway. The 360 launch debacle and the PS3 delay certainly can't hurt. Nintendo is in a position to pull off a huge upset if things fall into place.

Let me put it this way

[SpaghettiPattern]

I disliked the purple color of the Gamecube because IMO it was childish and ugly. It's only out of supply reasons that I got a purple one.

Then I played on it ... and boy do I like the Nintendo games.

Now I hope the Revolution comes in purple.