Ready for the Revolution?

[Use Your Illusion 0]

 

http://media.cube.ign.com/articles/615/615...mg_2788923.html

 

That's it, folks. The first real picture of Nintendo's Revolution.

 

Revolution will be "two-to-three times more powerful than GameCube," according to Nintendo, which also acknowledges that the next-generation race isn't solely about new technologies. By contrast, Microsoft's Xbox 360 console is 13-15 times more powerful than the first, according to the publisher. And Sony says it's PlayStation 3 is roughly 35 times more powerful than PlayStation 2.

Nintendo also revealed that using Revolution's new Wi-Fi connection, gamers would be able to go online to a free gamer-matching service. Interestingly, in a move similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service, Revolution users will be able to download classic and new Nintendo games over the Internet. Nintendo cited such examples as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Sunshine, which suggests that Revolutionaries could have access to games for all the publisher's previous consoles.

[Guest Vitamin X]

How.... totally ordinary.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

The actual conference is a few hours away yet. I'm not quite sure what the hell to make of this '2-3 times more powerful than Gamecube' comment. What the hell does that result in? XBOX LEVELS? Yes, in today's generation it is not as important to be the almighty super-powerful console, but JESUS at least TRY.

 

I'm very interested to see what the heck Nintendo does to cover its ass on this one.

 

Pretty slick design though, I think I like it best out of the three.

[dubq 0]

Unless there is a slew super-extra-awesome exclusive games for this system, I'm sticking to the PS3 or Xbox360. Really, the only place that Nintendo excels in my eyes is the handheld market [yes, I prefer the DS to the PSP].

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

There is a poster on alt.games.video.games.gamecube that summed up my thoughts on this:

 

Hmmm, it's sleek alright but looks like a DAMN INTERNAL PC CD-ROM DRIVE!!!!

[AndrewTS 0]

No controller shown, and it's not going to be all that hot in regards to power. Hmph.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I guess this will be the "Vertical Console Era".

[BUTT 0]

When they say 2-3 times more powerful, they're probably being more realistic than Sony and Microsoft's claims about how powerful their systems are.

[Eclipse 0]

I am LOVING it so far. Though the design does look like a CD ROM. I heard that's STILL A PROTOTYPE system though.

 

I love how this system is DEFINATELY gonna sell! It's basically backwards compatible with a couple of generations of Nintendo gaming! I am DEFINATELY picking this up..

[BUTT 0]

So, for Revolution we apparently have:

 

Wireless controllers

Smash Bros. for launch

Metroid Prime 3 confirmed

Download all of Nintendo's NES, SNES and N64 games

 

I'm liking it

[BUTT 0]

By the way, I refuse to believe from what was shown of Perfect Dark Zero that Xbox 360 is 15 times more powerful than the first one.

[AndrewTS 0]

When they say 2-3 times more powerful, they're probably being more realistic than Sony and Microsoft's claims about how powerful their systems are.

Valid point. We know how they downplayed the GameCube's power, making people think it was technologically inferior. In reality, it smokes the PS2, and while it's not as powerful at the X-Box, most of the multi-console titles not nearly as good or the same on the GC as they do on X-Box.

 

However, honesty doesn't sell systems.

 

We're probably not going to see the controller for another month or so, hm?

 

In theory, this should be simpler to develop for than the PS3, but Nintendo isn't in an enviable position right now in regards to 3rd party support, although they've been trying to mend many of those relationships.

[Guest BrokenWings]

Download all of Nintendo's NES, SNES and N64 games

Wait, I didn't hear this.

 

That means that if I get the Revolution I can download and play No Mercy?

 

I'm holding off comment until I see the controller. Otherwise it's nothing special.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

I would think you would be able to download 1st party games. It would be hard to acquire old sports games and WWF games.

[Exslade ZX 0]

Download all of Nintendo's NES, SNES and N64 games

Wait, I didn't hear this.

 

That means that if I get the Revolution I can download and play No Mercy?

 

I'm holding off comment until I see the controller. Otherwise it's nothing special.

No. From what I've read I think, that statements not even correct. (I'll see if I can find it) But instead it said, they'd have a few old games that they would possibly have for people to download from the internet, such as Donkey Kong, and Supermario Sunshine I think. So it's not EVERY game, but instead, a few select games

 

Here it is..

 

Nintendo also revealed that using Revolution's new Wi-Fi connection, gamers would be able to go online to a free gamer-matching service. Interestingly, in a move similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service, Revolution users will be able to download classic and new Nintendo games over the Internet. Nintendo cited such examples as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Sunshine, which suggests that Revolutionaries could have access to games for all the publisher's previous consoles.

 

And yes..its' also in the first post..

[Big McLargeHuge 0]

Does every system in this Gen have to look like some generic car stereo? I thought Nintendo would do something different, but I guessed wrong.

[razazteca 0]

Does every system in this Gen have to look like some generic car stereo? I thought Nintendo would do something different, but I guessed wrong.

Just wait 6 months after launch then you will see that Nintendo will have all the colors from the 64 pack of crayons.

[AndrewTS 0]

I think the Revolution will let you play Gamecube games you have on the current system, but any of the cart stuff you'd have to download. However, likely they'll offer the Gamecube content as well.

 

However, finally I'll be able to play great classic NES titles and I won't have to hunt down an NES or the original cartridge. I hope it's not just 1st party stuff. I want Castlevania III, Lolo, and Little Nemo durnit.

 

This controller better kick lots of ass, though; one every bit as capable of playing Mario 64 and the new GC Zelda as it is Super SF II.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

They're setting themselves up for a touch-screen controller, what with all those different control pads that need to be emulated, and I'm not happy about it.

 

Of course, I'm pretty much not happy about the whole damn thing. Leseser HD support and far lesser CPU, but hey, you can now download games (possibly at cost) that you can ALREADY do with file sharing and copies of NESticle and SNES9x. If I wanted to play it on my TV, I'd just hook up my Mac Mini.

 

After all that out-there talk, it's more conservative than they implied it was. Congrats, N, and goodbye.

[AndrewTS 0]

They're setting themselves up for a touch-screen controller

 

You're misinformed. They've said over and over and over and over again--no, they aren't.

 

Congrats, N, and goodbye.

 

Lalalala, I'll just pretend Sony didn't completely kick MS's ass this generation, I'll forget that MS only edged out the GC this holiday season because of Halo 2, and I'll pretend that MS have a chance in hell of stealing back considerable market share this generation. Lalalala.

 

Face it, the console business is, now, and for the considerable future will be Sony's world. Nintendo and MS just live in it.

[Guest Vitamin X]

By the way, I refuse to believe from what was shown of Perfect Dark Zero that Xbox 360 is 15 times more powerful than the first one.

You should have looked at the Ghost Recon shots, then.

 

Those definitely prove it.

 

Lalalala, I'll just pretend Sony didn't completely kick MS's ass this generation, that MS only edged out the GC this holiday season because of Halo 2, and I'll pretend that MS have a chance in hell of stealing back considerable market share this generation. Lalalala.

 

Xbox is the only console that's shown back to back growth annually over the past couple years, and it sure as hell wasn't all because of Halo 2. Fuck, I've had my Xbox for about 2 years, probably longer, and the most I've given the Halo franchise is a rental for the first one.

 

Making the X360 a holiday launch might give it more of a push than releasing it later like Sony will. Microsoft has a decent plan, except that the PS3, not only with a more powerful system but including their already immense game library, has a lot to compete against. I doubt the monster that is Microsoft will give up that easily.

 

Come on people, where's your sense of national pride?!?! (Except for guys like UYI obviously)

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Picture

 

Thats a better, clearer picture. Its slanted..

 

From Joystiq:

 

# Release is sometime in 2006.

# Prototype shown is larger than final unit.

# Nintendo is still determining final colors for the console.

# All-Access Gaming, which refers to backwards compatibility to 20 years of Nintendo games, NES, SNES, N64. We don’t know particulars of how it’ll be accessed or what, if any, the cost structure might be.

# Downloadable to 512MB of flash memory.

# SD memory card slot.

# Wireless controllers.

# Two USB 2.0 ports.

# Built-in WiFi.

# WiFi used to interface with the DS.

# DS likely to enhance future games.

# Self-loading optical drive that will play 12cm Revolution discs and smaller GameCube discs

# Self-contained attachment for playing media content, including DVDs.

 

So ultimately what they showed is just a prototype and is subject to a lot of change.

And it will be smaller. I dont know about anyone else, but I dont need a box the size of a first generation DVD player just to play games. The X Box 360 and PS3 are only as big as they are because they want to do more than just freaking play games on them. In the case of the X Box 360...just get a freaking computer, its basically the same at this point.

 

As far as "The Revolution will be woefully underpowered" I dont think thats a problem. It will take 2 or 3 years for developers to pull out the "power potential" of either the XBox 360 or PS3, and by that time, they'll be out hyping the XBox 720 and the PS4. There might be a few games for each console that will pull off the full potential for those consoles, but it wont be for 3 years at least.

 

 

 

Plus they unvieled the Game Boy Micro. That thing is pretty awesome.

[iggymcfly 0]

This just reminds me of what I really want. A friend of a friend that I was hanging out with a couple months ago had a super-modded X-Box with emulators on it for hundreds of Nintendo, Super Nintedo, N64, Playstation, etc. games. They were all just downloaded right to the hard drive, and they played fine with the X-Box controls. I would love to have the technological expertise to make that work for my gaming system.

 

Of course, I've been home for a week and a half, and I haven't even bothered to hook up my PS2 yet, so I guess, I'm not all that concerned.

[AndrewTS 0]

Xbox is the only console that's shown back to back growth annually over the past couple years, and it sure as hell wasn't all because of Halo 2. Fuck, I've had my Xbox for about 2 years, probably longer, and the most I've given the Halo franchise is a rental for the first one.

 

I'd say the Halos (which have almost always been one of the top selling games for practically the entire X-Box's life span), X-Box Live, and several of the X-Box's big name exclusive titles are the reason for that, perhaps also the superior multi-console versions.

 

PS2 sales tapering off doesn't really mean anything whatever.

 

GC's major titles have been so far apart that's perfectly understandable.

 

Making the X360 a holiday launch might give it more of a push than releasing it later like Sony will. Microsoft has a decent plan, except that the PS3, not only with a more powerful system but including their already immense game library, has a lot to compete against. I doubt the monster that is Microsoft will give up that easily.

 

The PS3 will be hanging over MS's heads quite a bit. A holiday release window is good for MS--we saw how well it worked for Sony--and if they can keep up with demand they'll probably get a respectable base installed in time. However, I don't see many XB360 titles out that are going to steal away Sony's customers. Perhaps ones that will get an XBox 360 as well? Likely. I might get all of the systems if they have a lot to offer though, so I have no big stake in seeing any of them win, but MS is such an underdog here it isn't even funny.

 

Come on people, where's your sense of national pride?!?! (Except for guys like UYI obviously)

 

It's a friggin' multinational corporation vs. another multinational corporation. Them and Nintendo all have a long and storied history of corruption with many a dead body, conspiracy, and unscrupulous business practice among them.

[Fro 0]

I want to see the whole package from Nintendo before I pass judgement. I was quite disappointed they didn't show any trailers for Revolution games.

 

It certainly seems like they're going to be last to the party, so for their sakes, they need some real innovation (and meaningful exclusive 3-party support).

 

However, everything they've shown at this point has been quite good.

 

They still have a few months to show all before 360 comes out though.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Come on people, where's your sense of national pride?!?! (Except for guys like UYI obviously)

 

It's a friggin' multinational corporation vs. another multinational corporation. Them and Nintendo all have a long and storied history of corruption with many a dead body, conspiracy, and unscrupulous business practice among them.

Good point. Too bad Japanese developers don't see it that way.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

You're misinformed.  They've said over and over and over and over again--no, they aren't.

Then how are they going to emulate so many different controllers, from the NES 2 button + pad arrangement to the N64's bulky layout to the Gamecube's kidney shaped buttons?

 

A generic controller-shaped device with a screen showing you the button layout for that console's controller is the only thing I can think of.

 

Face it, the console business is, now, and for the considerable future will be Sony's world.  Nintendo and MS just live in it.

 

Well, I don't think Sony is going to lose majority market share or anything, but I don't think they can lead for "the considerable future" from this perspective.

 

Why?

 

THEY SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT ATARI

 

THEY SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT NINTENDO

 

"________ controls so much of the market, even with Colecovision/Genesis breathing down their neck, they'll never let go of majority market share."

[AndrewTS 0]

Then how are they going to emulate so many different controllers, from the NES 2 button + pad arrangement to the N64's bulky layout to the Gamecube's kidney shaped buttons?

 

A generic controller-shaped device with a screen showing you the button layout for that console's controller is the only thing I can think of.

 

A current Gamecube pad has analog support, a d-pad, 4 face buttons, L, R, and a Z button, plus the C-stick (which replaces the c-buttons in the GC ports of OOT/MM). A GC controller is good enough to play NES, SNES, and N64 games. If they managed to build onto that design without compromising the functionality of the a GC controller, then there's no real problem.

 

Technically, you don't even need digital support anymore in most games, because an analog stick can simply take over digital functions, but Sony and MS are keeping it, because if nothing else, it allows for 4 possible extra buttons if a game requires it.

 

Well, I don't think Sony is going to lose majority market share or anything, but I don't think they can lead for "the considerable future" from this perspective.

 

Why?

 

THEY SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT ATARI

 

THEY SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT NINTENDO

 

"________ controls so much of the market, even with Colecovision/Genesis breathing down their neck, they'll never let go of majority market share."

 

And Atari and Nintendo both were beaten out by a Japanese competitor who was able to drum up extremely strong third party support, expand the the industry for their markets (not just steal market share from their competition).

 

What's MS' distinctive competence/competitive advantage? Will a first-mover advantage into higher-end internet support really be enough to overcome all their disadvantages?

 

The closest situation I can think of right now is Sega, after the Master System. The Master System was vastly more powerful than the NES, but they couldn't match the 3rd party support (especially with Nintendos' cut throat exclusivity agreements), the marketing of Nintendo, or distribution.

 

With the Genesis, they launched first, won a lot of customers over, and quickly built themselves an impressive user base, thanks to the better-looking and playing games, some exclusives, and even some decent marketing for a while. Sports games were a big part of their early lead as well.

 

Nintendo rushed the SNES into production, eventually managed to meet and exceed Sega, but they were extremely competitive.

 

Now, in a lot of ways, MS is in a hell of a lot better position than Sega was, but they're not going to have the same Japanese support Sega got, they're not even close to acquiring the level of support Sega managed to (PS3 has tons of developers at work already), the X-Box 360 has about 3-4 months of a PS3-less market, which isn't a whole lot, and Sony still have a little time to iron out their online strategy.

 

So yeah, MS having no chance in hell is a bit of an exaggeration, but I don't see a crash coming up like Atari was a victim of, nor a huge jump in medium in MS's favor like cart to CD or CD to DVD. It's placing a lot of expectations and assumptions on X-Box Live.

 

Sony's approach with PS3 may be conservative, but it's certainly not complacent, like Nintendo's was. Nor are they taking huge risks like Sega did.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Technically, you don't even need digital support anymore in most games, because an analog stick can simply take over digital functions, but Sony and MS are keeping it, because if nothing else, it allows for 4 possible extra buttons if a game requires it.

Also, fighting games. I can Hadoken pretty well on an analog stick, but not many of the other moves.

[AndrewTS 0]

Technically, you don't even need digital support anymore in most games, because an analog stick can simply take over digital functions, but Sony and MS are keeping it, because if nothing else, it allows for 4 possible extra buttons if a game requires it.

Also, fighting games. I can Hadoken pretty well on an analog stick, but not many of the other moves.

It depends on the stick.

 

Neo-Geo Pocket Color's clicky control stick is awesome for fighting games. GC's C-stick is somewhat similar, but I haven't really played any traditional fighters on it, so I can't say how good or not it is for, say, a Soul Calibur.