"Revolution" officially named

[dubq 0]

Sega had several failed *consoles*, that's the problem.

 

In the grand scheme of things, the Activator is no worse than the U-Force or Power Glove.

 

However, the 32X, Sega CD, and the poor handling of Saturn eroded Sega's rep to the point where a good console was doomed fairly quickly (Dreamcast).

 

You can count the 32X & Sega CD as gimmicks, IMO. They were essentially... actually.. they were add-on's that plugged into the Genesis.

[dubq 0]

Nintendo announced today that the DS Lite ships June 11th in the Americas, and will be for a MSRP of $129.99.

 

Sorry, Anya, no pink, just white initially.

 

They need to allow special ordering if you want different colors, with the option of personalization. I'd love an emerald green DS Lite with my name on it.

 

In Japan they have white, navy, and ice blue. Not sure about any others.

 

EDIT: These are obviously fake, but if only...

 

http://ryle.the.forest.free.fr/ds_lite/ds_lite_pink.jpg

http://ryle.the.forest.free.fr/ds_lite/ds_lite_green.jpg

 

 

The best thing about the DS' "operating system" (for lack of a better term) is that it's exactly the same no matter where it's released. So if the Japanese get a black one (or other colours) before North America, you can always take advantage of exhange rates and just order a Japanese model and change the internal language once you receive it, which is what I did with my DS.

[AndrewTS 0]

A green one doesn't exist, and on top of that most import sites charge a lot extra.

 

Unless you're thinking of some way to order direct, and cut out the middleman, perhaps using Paypal to pay?

 

Still, it's white or wait, so I guess I'll go with white.

[claydude14 0]

Nintendo is on a similar path with the nunchuck controller, download games, and its revolutionary concepts that the general public will refuse to pay $$$ for.

Revolutionary concepts like the DS's touch pad. The DS has sold like a kazillion units. I'm sure someone smarter than I can pull numbers. Get the Japan numbers, too.

whoopty flippy do! The kiddies had to get a new system to play Pokemon....DS Lite Black I choose you!

Ok, there was a new Pokemon game. Do you see the other top sellers? Brain Training, Brain Training 2, Brain Training English... non gamers and older people are eating the DS straigh UP over there. If you think that's all cause of a Pokemon title, that's not even one in the main RPG series, you're delusional.

[AndrewTS 0]

Silly clay, doomsaying and bashing is cooler than constructive criticism.

 

You can count the 32X & Sega CD as gimmicks, IMO. They were essentially... actually.. they were add-on's that plugged into the Genesis.

 

They were systems with their own semi-exclusive libraries. I think as "gimmick" more along the line of the 3D glasses, but we're getting into semantics, here. You can call XBox Live a gimmick, after all.

 

Sega's problem was that they couldn't let the Genesis simply go away, but they weren't ready to just throw a seperate console out there because the Genesis was their biggest success ever.

 

However, the add-ons basically limited potential buyers to the existing Genesis user base, which was vast. However, the cost of a Genesis + the cost of the upgrades--it would scare away buyers if the crappy game libraries didn't. Plus, it isn't like the Genesis itself had such a solid architecture that a mere add-on could do wonders. Grainy video on a system that can only display 64 colors on screen? Come on, now.

 

The "32 bit" 32x was like...um...a faster SNES with like a souped up FX chip built in, at least based on the actual games.

 

Nintendo Eschewing online play for the ill-concieved GBA-to-GC connectively gimmick was a poor idea by Nintendo, although they're beginning to make up for it on DS.

[Hoff 0]

Hi, my name is razateca, and I ignore sales figures in favor of poor insults.

[The Man in Blak 0]

Let's bypass the doom-mongering for a second. Who is realistically going to challenge Nintendo in Japan?

 

Short of Microsoft buying the entire country of Japan and replacing all of its citizens with monkeys trained to buy MS products and fling shit at Sony employees, they don't really have any momentum to speak of with the Xbox 360. They've already probably blown their chance.

 

Sony has a much better reputation overseas, but there are tons of red flags being raised about the PS3, specifically the price point. Sony may remain viable with releases like MGS4, but I can't see them making a strong enough move to overtake years of momentum, credibility, and goodwill that Nintendo has built up over there.

 

The way things stand now, I think Nintendo takes Japan, which pretty much keeps them in the game no matter what happens in North America. And, if the Xbox 360 continues to underwhelm and the PS3 doesn't duplicate the splash of its predecessors, the Wii could represent a great opportunity for Nintendo to really get back into the console race in America.

[dubq 0]

A green one doesn't exist, and on top of that most import sites charge a lot extra.

 

Unless you're thinking of some way to order direct, and cut out the middleman, perhaps using Paypal to pay?

 

Still, it's white or wait, so I guess I'll go with white.

 

 

eBay stores, dude. Mine actually worked out to be the exact same price (after exchange and shipping) that I would've paid in-store over here.

[AndrewTS 0]

As long as Sony is willing to throw money at the PS brand, they're going to be around and will likely stay #1.

 

At the moment, it seems their biggest mistake is Bluray.

[SilverPhoenix 0]

On the Sega 1st party failure, I don't blame the SEGA CD so much. Why? Cause the Genesis was still selling at a fever pitch, and while it was mostly useless, it didn't so much harm Sega's Reputation that it caused Nintendo to win the 16-Bit wars by the thinnest of margins when 1996 was said and done (that was done by the software and "Play it Loud" marketing blitz that invaded the television screens in '94). I still attest to this day that Sega would've been fine if it just left well enough alone with the stupid decisions with the Sega CD. What really ruined Sega was.

 

1) The 32X being released period. Having such a stopgap for those who didn't want to jump into next generation was a horrible idea.

2) The Saturn not having a real 3D chipset, while this was probably the least of their offenses, stuffing one in there was still a bad idea.

3) Not winning the Square and Enix wars for Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VII over Sony, which their 3D chipset had a hand in.

4) Releasing the Saturn in America as a "surprise" in May of 1995 for $399 with probably the worst launch lineup possible (Daytona was embarassing.)

 

5) Sega USA being adamant about showing the "3D capabilties" of the system and left the best software to rot in Japan.

6) The whole entire Working Designs mess, which doomed almost every single RPG to rot in Japan as well.

7) Abandoning the System in 1998, with almost no software to speak of until Fall of 1999 with the Dreamcast.

 

8) EA witholding support from the system, which basically shifted the power from the developer to the 3rd Parties...escpecially EA in America and Square/Enix in Japan.

 

9) E3 1999, and the PS2 showing. No games were shown, just tech demos. Tech Demos that looked so good, that it blew away the Dreamcast, making it look like a underpowered system in comparison. But when the acutal games came out, the differences were not so great, if any at all. But the perception was already there, and most everyone "waited" for the PS2.

 

All 9 of these problems lead Sega to the point where it was no position to market the Dreamcast properly. With all of those factors in place (escpecially the cash factor), the DC was tragically stillborn, even with probably one of the greatest 2 year runs of software up till probably recently, it was never going to be enough. The DC never had a chance.

 

As how this relates to the Nintendo Wii....Even though the Gamecube has been a "disaster" as far as market share and perception goes, Nintendo has two things that Sega didn't have with the DC

 

1) Money

2) A source of Money in its portable systems

 

Also, while Nintendo's Brand Reputation has take a HUGE hit from the 90s, Nintendo's brand name is still worth 500000 times more than Sega's was in 1999, and as much as I personally don't like Nintendo's decisions from '94 on, they're not going anywhere. One could argue that Nintendo could easily make consoles forever, and still turn huge profits as long as they dominate the portable market, and produce their hardware and software to gurantee huge returns.

 

The Wii shows that on one hand, Nintendo isn't happy with just that. They're aiming for the mass market in a different way than Sony and Microsoft are. And in my opinion, people will either love or hate this thing. There will be no inbetween in a few years.

[AndrewTS 0]

1 and 5 could pretty much be thrown together as "left hand not having a freakin' clue what the right was doing."

 

The 32x was conceived in Japan, as the "Jupiter," a 32-bit standalone that would offer a slight boost over the SNES and Genesis. It gained support back when the cartridge/cd debate was a serious consideration, but Sega-Japan decided..."naw, let's go with cds."

 

However, some of the Sega engineers who worked on the Jupe took it over to Sega-America, and the idea was reworked as an enhancement for the Genesis rather than a standalone.

 

That's why they both use the 2 RISCs, and by the time SOA was going forward with the 32X, SOJ was already well into the development of the Saturn.

[Scroby 0]

I figured I'd put this here instead of starting a new thread about it. Time posted a intresting article about the Wii.

 

Intresting Wii Article

 

E3 06: Zelda Wii sword fighting, next-gen WarioWare confirmed

This week's issue of Time partially pulls back Nintendo's veil of secrecy; Wii tennis game confirmed.

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot

Posted May 7, 2006 6:23 pm PT

LOS ANGELES--At its press conference on Tuesday, Nintendo will officially unveil its next-generation console, the Wii. It is expected that executives will demonstrate the console's full set of functionalities, which is known to include the now-famous "nunchaku" motion-sensing controller. The company will also likely reveal the official titles of previously announced first-party games, such as Super Smash Bros. and Metroid Prime 3, as well as possibly revealing some new Wii titles.

 

Today, though, some of Nintendo's press-conference thunder was stolen when the first copies of Time arrived on newsstands. The May 15 issue of the magazine has a lengthy article on the Wii, titled "A Game for All Ages," by technology correspondent Lev Grossman.

 

Grossman traveled to Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto, Japan and was shown the Wii by legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. The reporter was especially impressed with the Wii's controller. "It's part laser pointer and part motion sensor, so it knows where you're aiming it, when and how fast you move it, and how far it is from the TV screen," he said. "There's a strong whiff of voodoo about it."

 

More importantly for Nintendo fans, the Time article revealed several key pieces of information about Wii games. First, Grossman described playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii. "Now I'm Errol Flynn, sword fighting with the controller, then aiming a bow and arrow, then using it as a fishing rod, reeling in a stubborn virtual fish," he said. While Nintendo confirmed the much-anticipated GameCube title would have some Wii functionality, this is the first official description of what that functionality is.

 

Time also revealed the existence of not one, but two previously unknown Wii games. First up was the first next-generation installment in the popular WarioWare series. While he didn't give a title for the game, Grossman did describe its gameplay in detail. "In one hot minute, I use the controller to swat a fly, do squat-thrusts as a weight lifter, turn a key in a lock, catch a fish, drive a car, sauté some vegetables, balance a broom on my outstretched hand, color in a circle, and fence with a foil," said Grossman. "And yes, dance the hula."

 

Besides discussing how the next Madden NFL game will play on the Wii, the reporter also describes playing an unnamed tennis game. "The controller becomes a racket, and I'm smacking forehands and stroking backhands," he said. "The sensors are fine enough that you can scoop under the ball to lob it, or slice it for spin. At the end, I don't so much put the controller down as have it pried from my hands."

[Use Your Illusion 0]

Jesus Christ.

 

Me. Zelda. Wii. Launch.

[razazteca 0]

Now that the Revolution has been renamed the Wii does that mean that the Gameboy Evolution will be renamed the WiiDS?

[Exslade ZX 0]

Now that the Revolution has been renamed the Wii does that mean that the Gameboy Evolution will be renamed the WiiDS?

Weeds.

 

Lol.

 

>_>

[Ravenbomb 0]