Late Night Consoling

Jesus, stop talking about nintendo already!

The revolution MAIN selling point for me...

is full backwards compatibility and the ability to get ALL games from SNES and up.... at least thats what I'm hoping will happen...

Excuse the post for i was merely taking a stab back at the guy who blatantly called me an MS Sheep when my requirements for HD were long before the 360 came around. I am just merely stating that most of the people who say HD doesnt matter, have not seen or experienced HD. And yes, I stand by that quite possibly a majority of households will have HD capable sets in 2 years time. Prices are dropping so quick its simply dumb to not pick one up when looking for a TV replacement.

I love how there are so many people (on the net, not just here) that seem so dissapointed with the specs of the Revolution. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with a system that has twice the power of the cube? It's not like the Gamecube is a poor system, and there are plenty of games on it that look fantastic. Do you know why? Because people have spent time making good art assets. No matter how high the resolution or number of polys is, if the art direction is crap, the game will still look crap.

I have gone on about this before in other threads, but it is surely quite obvious that a hastily slapped together high resolution art will look worse than lovingly crafted low resolution art. For god's sake, look at WoW, only one of the most popular games in the world right now. The graphiccs aren't technically incredible, but Blizzard have done a wonderful job with the assets, so the game is quite gorgeous.

Presumably if you are producing a high budget title for the Rev, you're extra money and time are going to be spent on better things than creating bump maps, high resolution textures, and modelling the creases on a characters pants. I also think that because Xbox 360 and PS3 titles will have higher level of complexity, they will be more difficult to manage, and more prone to go horribly wrong if not managed very well.

I don't think Nintendo is making nearly as big a gamble as people think. I think they're making the most practical choice they can. The kind of money it takes to make a console as powerful as the 360 or PS3 is pretty staggering. Don't forget that Nintendo's only source of income is video games. They're not a megahuge company like MS or Sony that has a dozen other sources of revenue they can pull from to sink into the games division. Keep in mind that MS has lost money every year on the Xbox. Nintendo can't afford to do that. Their only choice is to make a radically different system.

By having a system that has such a dramatic difference in power than the other two, it ensures that almost everything that comes out on the Revolution will be an exclusive title. Developers will have a limited ability to release something like Soul Calibur II on all 3 systems anymore. That may seem detrimental, but I think it's a feater in Nintendo's cap. I have all 3 systems and if something comes out on all 3, I almost always get the Xbox version, so unless Nintendo had the most powerful system of the next gen, being a nearly equal cometitor wouldn't do them any good.

And since most titles that hit the Revolution will be platform exclusives, it's a sure bet they'll take advantage of the controller. You won't have some hacked control scheme from a game that was designed to be played with 2 analog sticks.

So here's my prediction. There will be households like mine that will eventually have all 3 systems, but that won't be the most common setup. The most common household will probably be a single console, and in those situations, I don't think the Revolutions numbers will be super impressive, but, in a household that has 2 next gen consoles, I predict that the most common setup will be either a 360 or a PS3, AND an Revolution. You know that everything that comes out for the 360 will also come out for the PS3, with a handful of exceptions for exclusive titles. At least in America. In Japan the PS3 is still going to win the numbers war hands down and the PS3 will have tons more exclusives over there. But any American made title released in the states will be released on both the 360 and PS3. So owning both won't make as much sense as owning one or the other + a Revolution, especially if they can enter the market at half the pricepoint of the other 2. And shooting for such a different market with a 'wussy' machine, MS and Sony isn't likely to regard them as a huge threat, so I'd be really suprised to see reactionary pricecuts on the 360 or PS3 the day the Revolution launches.

Has anyone any real numbers on the percentage of people equiped with HD?
I consider myself a serious gamer, I live in Europe (france), and I know exactly 0 people with a HD setup..

As far as Im concerned EVN if I had a HD setup I could seriously care less about that. MS and Sony could put that HD hype up where the sun doesn't shine and lower the retail price by 100$ and that'd be fine with me.

Dear Nintendo,

No High Definition, No buy.

Sincerely,


The captain of this muthaf'in ship

People here sure likes to criticize Nintendo. Even though they have always been the most profitable as well as having a lot of innovative and fun games.

It's not about innovation. The only thing that matters in the world today is money! Marketing rules all. Does nintendo have the marketing bulk to challenge Microsoft and Sony? Nintendo will be launching dead last and Sony hasn't even started the PS3 marketing yet. This innovation won't carry them to victory, insanely expensive and extensive marketing might.

Will innovation beat flashy graphics? I don't think so.

Hey Nintendo, theres taking a gamble and their is playing Russian Roullete for fun. I wouldn't have minded it if it werent ultra powerfull, I mean gameplay is the most important thing, but its got to at least play Far Cry. PEOPLE BUY SHINY GAMES, is it realy that hard to understand? Besides, I don't think you guys realise more horsepower isn't just used for better graphics. Oblivion is suppoesedly going to use a lot of cpu power for its new AI, which is part of gameplay, as is physics and ect. If the revolution can play: Far Cry, Half Life 2, and Doom 3 at max settings then I'll be happy.

Does anyone else think its odd that Nintedo is completely happy with shooting for 2nd or even 3rd place in the market? What can you say about a business that doesnt strive to compete with its competitors? Does Nintendo even see them (sony and ms) as competition? I think they are gonna get a wake up call next year. Nintendo like a kid thats perfectly happy with being C student in school. If I buy the system, it'll be for the same and only reason I own a Gamecube...Smash Bros. Sure, I bought the cube...but the Big N hasnt made any money off me in a looooooong time.

Dead or Alive 4 delayed again. :(
http://news.gaminghorizon.com/media2/1133933880.2937.html

no official comment yet though.

I was kinda iffy about the revolution, but $150 ? I'm in. I'm still up in the air about the remote, i mean i dont wanna wave my arms around for an hour, but we'll see.

They will always have a market regardless of how much power their console has.

What is the point Nintendo?
Wouldnt they be just as well off by developing games for the Sony or MS platform and selling their own "special" controllers? Sega doesnt seem to be devastated without a platform. The big N should wake up and do the same...

TRIPLE SIX STOCKS FOR THE MONTH OF December

I really enjoy this website, and I feel I'd like to give back to the community now and then. So lets make it every month. I'll do a little write-up with some opinions and observations on the industry. I'm also a HUGE sports fanatic, so here and there ill throw in a few sports picks :P. ESPN does something similair to this.

While im no expert on sports or gaming, I've been an huge gamer and sports fan my whole life. My house is basically all the big games and all the big sports 24/7.

BUYING :
Nintendo - The Marketings right, doesnt require a shift in lifestyle to play and is putting the emphasis on innovation and gameplay, this is the kind of company gamers dream of. Nintendo is shaping up more and more. At 150$, wow. Simply wow. DS Online Launch was great as well, very fun.

Tekken5 - I recently got to play Tekken 5 (Yeah I know, its been around awhile) in depth, and this game just oozes depth, oozes depth like Smash Bros. It's easily on my top 5 fighters game, and comes in a close 3rd with MvC2.

IGN - Way to make a revolution channel 6 months late. I normally wouldn't bother to buy, but you have actually had some interesting stuff on the revolution channel so far.

Super Mario Strikers - Okay, if you havnt had this yet, DO SO. I've had it for a weekish due to a friend that works at blockbuster and got it a little early. This game simply blew me away. Its a great way to spend some time WITH FRIENDS, and ill get to that later. But me and my friends are huge mario tennis/smash bros/baseball/kart players and we all loved this. But I sat down in my free time, and this simply doesnt measure up in single player wise. If you got the friends, and you got the cube. Buy this game.

SPORTS
Carolina Panthers - They've been my superbowl pick since the beggining of the season, and I think they're starting to come into stride.

Jermaine Taylor vs. Bernard Hopkins - Great fight. Anyone who missed it can see it again on the tenth on a delay cast.
Exclusive Delay Broadcast on HBO
Jermain Taylor vs. Bernard Hopkins 2 airs Saturday, December 10 on HBO at 10:00pm ET/ 7:00pm PT



SELLING :
Microsoft - The launch of november wasnt all that thrilling, the biggest hype is the seemingly endless amounts of money people will pay on ebay for a system. I personally have gotten to play the system alot, and while the controller is an upgrade and feels and looks nice, I just cant seem to jump of the bandwagon completely. Yes, the graphics are nice, but they arent worth 400 dollars, or 700 if I want to play with 4 friends. Tally in the Xbox live accnt money, a high res tv to enjoy the system, and as an college student I simply cant afford to play X360. BTW, this system, IS LOUD!

EA - Another month of "WTF, EA, how can you get away with this?" So many mishaps, so little time. Only so many times will John Madden climb you out of the whole you bury yourself in everytime you launch a new game.

SONY - Are you done with the PSP? Boy, im glad I dont own one.

RARE - Perfect Dark Zero dissapointed me in a way. Overhyped. Go back to making donkey kong games.

Need For Speed Franchise - Take the damn horse out behind the barn and shoot it already. This franchise is dying, and dying fast. You now spit out the NFS games like they're a flavor of the month. I swear it, they get worse everytime somehow. With the latest "most wanted" game, it takes the already dead horse and beats it some more by throwing in the SURPRISE, illegal street racing game attitude, yet again. Who makes it? Surprise... EA Games.

SPORTS
Philidelphia Eagles - Monday Night LOLBall?

Baltimore Ravens - Personally, they are my favorite team. I'm a huge fan of hardcore defenses and solid running games. 5 Years ago they were Superbowl Champions. Now... they're barely beating the Texans. I blame the quarterback and Jamal Lewis's so-so season. I wouldnt directly blame Jamal, because almost every defense is gonna run a full box vs. Kyle Boller or his backup. Ouch! So I gotta sell.

Bret Favre - Its time to hang up the towel. Start the rookie and teach him before you retire and abandon the organization that helped make you what you are. Pass on the legend of Bret Favre.



Until next time, ciao.

At that price I better see everyone of you in a SSB:online game!

I"m really starting to get bit the DS shackshack. I think after I come back from xmas vacation I'll sell my GBA:SP and games and maybe pick up a used DS.

EA in Singapore o_O

WTF is HoopWorld? We don't need this shit for 360.

Holy shi...... $149? $99? If they can launch at that price with some great titles I'm freaking all over it. Actually who am I kidding, I would have buy it if it were $300.

Although I'm a little disappointed about the rumored hardware, the same thing was said about the Gamecube, and that little box still produced some killer visuals so I agree that it won't be a significant difference between the consoles.

I'm super excited to see media on the actual titles!

For what it's worth, I've never owned a console in my life (been a PC guy, mostly strategy, some FPS, and adventure games) and I'm definately considering picking up the revolution at that price.

As well, a lot of the fan boys I know of PS3 and Xbox 360 say they'll get the revolution as their second console. I think this thing has got a shot if they market it right.

I heart Nintendo. Today I went to the Nintendo World Store in NYC and it was pretty cool. The little "museum" they have there really put into a nutshell what a strong creative direction the company has always had. In context of that small display, the Revolution really feels like the next logical step for them. I hope its great but I'm pretty sure it will be.

They also had a $500 bejeweled DS that I will never ever buy.

I am totally hypnotized by the weird game Nintendo is playing with their console development, and their presentation strategy. It's kind of refreshing to see someone totally deviate from the competition. As far as Xbox and PS3 are concerned, they just feel like watered-down PCs to me. Nintendo seems like it may offer a gaming experience I don't see in PC games. I hope.

You know, it'll take just one thing to sell me a Revolution.
A Castlevania game with a whip-swining mechanic.

Here's a bit of a devil's advocate question: if Nintendo doesn't care about performance and power and what not, why bother releasing a new console at all? Why not just release the controler for the Gamecube and make games for that? It's already selling for dirt cheap (and it's even cheaper to make), it's got a large install base, and it's got ports for broadband etc. Maybe do what Sony did with the PS2 and restyle the thing to be more appealing. Wouldn't that make sence?

And when it comes to the backwards compatibility, release a large memory card / flash card to store games on, and a disk with emulators on it.

I think the industry needs Sonys and Microsofts to push the boundaries of graphics and processing power, but I think there is certainly a place for a price-conscious, innovation and gameplay driven Nintendo. I know I am certainly interested in one, if for no other reason (and there are more than a few) than price.

My only fear with the Revolution is the introduction of "sub-standard budget-games." I guess this would fall under that Epic Games guy comments about "crappy gimmicky games" or whatever. But I can picture a budget system (which is cool) having a bunch of crappy budget games. And what I mean by that is like, $30 for 'Tetris Revolution! - move the pieces with the stick and turn them by turning the stick!' I mean, of course I wouldn't buy that myself but it could be a starting trend (especially if it ~actually~ sells well).

I guess I'm ~still~ in the mindset of putting traditional games on the Revolution but I still fear budget system = budget games :/

Mario FPS where mario and luigi are drug addicts in need of a quick fix of their favorite drug, commonly known in the streets as princess toadstool. The evil government and koopas are trying trying to whipe out the drug by snatching all the stach. What's mario to do!

Nintendo is playing the right cards in my opinion. It would be more of a risk to compete against Microsoft and Sony than claim the market those companies are ignoring, plus the chances of being picked up as a second console are much greater than the others. Like its been said before, it doesn't matter to them what place they are in as long as they are making a profit and brand recognition remains strong. In some ways their strategy resembles their handheld market. I can honestly say I think this will be one of the more successful consoles that Nintendo has release in the recent years.

Remo you just went crazy with the icons for the "EA in Singapore" story didn't you? You silly silly man.

I wonder if the Revolution would be easily moddable. I sure hope so because they are moving to standard dvds for gamedata. It might not work with Nintendo Live or whatever its called after modding but you could just go buy another one if they are that cheap.

I think the revolution could drive down the cost of games, it would be alot easier for a developer to get a small team together and make a shorter, but awesome game that effectivily uses the revolutions strenghts well and not have to charge the full $50 for it. While many ps3/x360 games will be up at that $60 pricepoint i think we could see alot of revolution games starting at the $40-45 pricepoint. That would certainly influence purchases and make the console even more affordable.

Nintendo is seriously striving to turn themselves into the Apple of the video game world. Not that that's a bad thing or anything... I don't know.

For $149.. I'm definitely in - without hesitation. I was willing to pay $199, but this is obviously better. I'll just buy more games. Thanks Nintendo :)

goddammit, now im convinced sc4 will suck. shanghai does nothing but produce shit. see: scpt in its entirety, sc3mp

Nintendos going to win the next gen or put a serious dent in both sony and microsoft. Go back and look at some of the initial comments about the DS, same comments are being made about the revo.

I know low prices are great and everything but I hope Nintendo doesn't get a blow and dwindle away by doing a $149 price point. I just now fell in love with the DS and I will definately be getting a revolution but it scares me to think they could go bye bye.

Yuji Horii definitely seems like a pretty cool guy...I hope he can/does push for a US release of DQ5's remake, and perhaps a modern remake of DQ6 (my favorite of the series after 8 and 4).

If Jackson were going to actually direct Halo, I'm sure he would have wanted to tinker or even perhaps rewrite the script, which would inevitable have the entire film delayed. Of course that would have been fine with me. I just hope he's able to continue his success, even if only an executive producer. (I'm assuming King Kong will be a definite hit - if you can call it an assumption. A sure thing, really.)