Nintendo responds to alleged Revolution specs

"36. Posted Dec 9, 2005, 10:56 AM ET by Truth
Im am tired of people saying graphics don't matter. If graphics never did matter we would still be stuck in the 2D ages. Don't get me wrong, a great game requires excellent gameplay, but why can't developers focus on both gameplay and graphics?"

That's exactly what Nintendo is doing. They'll HAVE great graphics (maybe not the best, but great nonetheless) and amazingly fun games to play. They'll have an innovative new way to play games, backwards compatibility, free online, and low costs (considerably lower than the competitors). What friggin' more do people want?

"44. Posted Dec 9, 2005, 11:46 AM ET by Cheapskate
Has anyone discussed the price of Nintendos WiFi for the Revolution? Will it be free like the DS? If so, there is another savings over the 360, and while it's not a major cost, it does speak volumes about how Nintendo and Microsoft take care of their users differently."

If Rev. online is anything as good as DS WiFi, it surely will be great. We'll see, but I'm looking foward to it.

To the other guy who said he plays DS more than anything else right now - I'm the exact same way. I rotate between three or four DS games and I'm playing MarioKart online on a nightly basis. I'm already playing that damn thing a hundred times more than any Xbox Live game I've played in the last two years (except Halo 2 - and even Halo 2 I've put on the backburner now because of Mario Kart DS).

Nintendo knows what the hell they're doing. I'll have a Rev. on launch day and will be laughing as my friends will be playing Doom 4 with the exact same rooms and the exact same lighting and the exact same enemies and guns while I'm actually having fun playing new and exciting games.

Hevy says: "I think Ninty sees the Microsoft and Sony strategies of trying to out tech each other as a strategy to see who can lose the most money."

LOL, I just had flashbacks to how the Soviet Union collapsed on itself trying to win the "Star Wars" SDI battle against the US.

But back on topic, the price point alone makes it magnitudes more desirable than either the X360 or PS3. Nintendo's not competing with them anymore--the Revolution's in a completely different market sector. I can see how it could be marketed as "You're here to buy a XBox 360 or PS3. For the cost of one peripheral for those systems, why not pick up a another whole game console instead?"

I have to agree with a comment above: A X360 in half the homes, a PS3 in the other half... a Revolution in all of them.

Graphics do matter to a degree however 2D will always have a place as well thats why we see great games on the DS that are in 2d and 3d.

Gameplay is whats important and Revolution will have it in bucket-loads. Just look at the DS vs PSP, Ninty is spanking the PSP right now because of inovation and gameplay. There will be an updated DS next spring and that will further cement the DS at number 1 as it will look cooler, something they need to do to attract older gamers.
The revolution will be the same story, people will be looking at the cool graphics of the PS3 and the 360 but they will be bored sooner with the game play. The REV will has so much fun appeal and your girlfriend may wanna play too, now thats a PLUS in my book

Nintendo's statment only has validity if Revolution game prices cost less or = to the current $50 game price. Otherwise, it's just playing the marketing card.

I wonder if similar arguments were made when color TV came out. For me, the Three Stooges was better in black and white. Moreover, colorizing old movies didn’t make them any better or more enjoyable. I do not own HD yet, but I cannot imagine that I would not still watch the 3 Stooges on it in black and white and low resolution and still laugh just as hard.

I am probably just a little old, but entertainment hasn’t gotten better because technology is better. Take Star Wars, how many people really think the last 3 movies (ep. 1,2,3) were more enjoyable then the first three movies (ep 4,5,6)? And when Lucas add the computer generated stuff into the re-release of ep 4,5,6, YUCK!

The most played games for me have always been about game play (story, control, & challenge). For example, Monkey Ball is one of my all time favorite games (this generation); I have played it on the GC, Xbox, & GBA. Graphics and story do not differ much between the home consoles. Nevertheless, none of my friends will want to play it on the Xbox (even though it has more levels) because they do not like the controller and controls, I feel the same way. I never play it on the GBA because the controls are terrible compared to the GC not because the graphics are sub par.

I will buy the console that gives me the best Game play at the best price. Sure if I had more time and money then I know what do with then I would buy all three systems. However, since I am dating, my game time and funds are limited and I need to be more selective with time/money.

Confess, how many of you will play Bejeweled, Tetris, or Solitaire/FreeCell for hours on you super expensive PC?

So who is paying for the Ninty WIFI? All that infrastructure (servers, link ups, data flow costs etc) have to be paid for by someone? Is the price of this new Rev FREE online going to come from the consumer in higher game costs?

"44. Posted Dec 9, 2005, 11:46 AM ET by Cheapskate
Has anyone discussed the price of Nintendos WiFi for the Revolution? Will it be free like the DS? If so, there is another savings over the 360, and while it's not a major cost, it does speak volumes about how Nintendo and Microsoft take care of their users differently."

Yes it'll be free and the data fairies will pay for it all... Back down to earth kiddies, Ninty is in this to make $$$$. Running a LARGE online service costs LOTS OF $$$$$. So, again WHO is going to pay for this service/data flow/servers/network admins/anti-hacker mods watching out etc etc?????

YOU ARE by buying their product. Case closed. If they dont make any money on it, then you'll see a fee system like MS Live (and PS2 with their online games) has. Same thing goes for the DS, YOU are all paying for the network bandwidth (the DS's original price, mario kart's price etc).

And personally, I've played MK online with a buddies DS and I cant believe all the hype... Its a freakin 3" screen...LOL WOW, we can race against other people... (Project gotham YEARS ago)....LOL.. Yeh, new... The hype machine rolls along...

Free WIFI...LOL.. thats funny... I'll have to tell our Netadmins here at work about that one... LOL...

Have fun kiddies...

Wow, Kevin, you're cool. Can I be you?

ha~

@ Tucker

So condescending!
With proper antialiasing there's no reason the Rev couldn't produce graphics on par with standard def movies. When you have half the lines to render you can render scenes with more and better effects.
(Halflife2/Doom3 on my PC look WAY better at 800x600 with all the effects turned on and antialiasing maxed out. Try it yourself!)

When you have limited computing resources at your disposal it becomes a "resolution versus effects" battle. There WILL BE tradeoffs.
XB360 is pumping higher res but I still don't see any soft shadows (notoriously CPU intensive) or any really cool lighting effects...

Not saying that I have all the answers but I think Bowser has a point and didn't deserve such "let me tell you how it is, kid" treatment.

HD, Media Center Features = Gimmicks

Dual Screens, 3D Controller = Innovation

HD doesn't matter for a variety of reasons. For one, noone cares. The majority of people who will be making next-gen purchases don't know what HD is. They never will. They don't know what 1080p means. All they know is HD TVs look better than "regular" TVs. In regards to the next-gen consoles, the only question they will ask is "Does this have the right hook-ups to connect to my TV?". Noone cares except people extremely interested in technology or gaming (like people here). Everyone else could care less. They just need a TV and something to play fun games with.

But I guess more importantly is that HD doesn't make the games any more fun to play. Nor does better graphics. How many times does this need to be proven to people? The N64's graphical quality destroyed the PS1's. And what happened? Nintendo lost market dominance. Of course this wasn't the graphic's fault- Graphics had nothing to do with it. What about this gen? The PS2 doesn't even look any better than the DreamCast. The PS2 is by far the weakest system this generation, but with complete dominance and one of the most successful consoles ever. You would be kidding yourself if you think people are going to be swayed by HD next-gen and not graphical ability this-gen. It's not true. They are swayed by neither because all the systems "look cool" to them.

The fact of the matter is, THE PEOPLE BUYING STUFF DO NOT CARE ABOUT TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS. If tons of great games come out for a system and everyone tells their friends "wow this is awesome!", their friends will get it too and the console will be successful. The gap in technical superiority between the PSP and the DS is more defined than HD and non-HD will ever be. And DS is winning that battle. Technical ability is a complete irrelevancy.

nintendo fucked up again, first with keeping on cartridges, then using the shitty cube disc, and then the No online policy (which obviously got them no where). and if nintendo thinks gamers dont want HD, then they are WRONG again....

Just like to point this out:
http://forums.nintendo.com/nintendo/board/message?board.id=revolution&message.id=672642

Really does go to show that for the most part HD is kind of useless, and it really helps show why Nintendo doesn't need such strong hardware.

It bothers me how people just adopt Sony's word as 'the law'. Pretty graphics are great and everything, but there;s more to gaming than that.

"So who is paying for the Ninty WIFI? All that infrastructure (servers, link ups, data flow costs etc) have to be paid for by someone? Is the price of this new Rev FREE online going to come from the consumer in higher game costs?"

We are. Retro downloads. Pure profit for nintendo, no matter what they charge, really.

"I think some of you are being shortsighted on the HD issue. Yes, today HDTVs are "expensive" (I bought mine for $600 a year ago), but in 2 or 3 years they will be the standard and you will have a hard time finding a normal TV. So while you don't have one today, you might in a few years. These consoles are designed with 10-year lifespans, so to ignore HD based on 2005 penetration numbers is not necessarily a good long-term strategy."



LIFE SPAN OF TEN YEARS YOU MEAN 5 YEARS

"So who is paying for the Ninty WIFI? All that infrastructure (servers, link ups, data flow costs etc) have to be paid for by someone? Is the price of this new Rev FREE online going to come from the consumer in higher game costs?"

god you guys are idiots. Nintendo waited until it was affordable for them to set all this stuff up, and also affordable for the customer to use. paying for online ala WoW is a real hassle.

futhermore.. to the HD comments, my parents just got a nice new HDTV.. and watching football on that thing is amazing. but think about what Nintendo has been saying.. to develop the games with those kind of graphics takes more time, more money, and more RAM.

So what Nintendo is doing is going the other way.. which means more devs can put their offerings on Rev. For example, the RAM issue is directly related to REvs not needing as much RAM due to HD.

And better graphics do not make the game more fun, interesting, challenging, etc. FF8 had way better graphics than FF7 but no one thinks it was a more memorable game. 8 was dogshit.

Despite the PS2 not being as powerful as either the GameCube or the Xbox, it's still where you get the most buyers for multi-platform games. This is why Soul Calibur 3 is for the PS2 only. Why is this? Because the PS2 has a higher user base.

It's looking like Nintendo's aiming to make the Revolution the PS2 of the up-and-coming generation: Underpowered, but with the highest user base. Once you've got that, it really doesn't matter that your games look slightly less shiny than those of your opponents.

# 54

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 2.5ghz and a PCI-E Radeon X700 Pro and I still play Bejewled, the PC version of FF7, X-COM: Apocalypse, StarCraft, and some other "out dated" games.

That's not to say that I don't play newer games, I go to a LAN party for UT2004 and what ever else we can find almost every weekend, I just enjoy the old games. Now if you excuse me, I'm off to play Sam & Max: Hit the Road.

just tried some XBOX360 games and I'm very disappointed.....
Horrid graphics (relative to my PC), lots of jaggies, nowhere near the photorealism they're banging on their chests for.

PS3 had better live up to the hype.

Few thoughts I have related to this.

Thought 1:
Graphics definitely play a big part at first, but it will not be a definitive factor. It reminds me of good old Myst, which was supposedly the best game in the world when it came out, because of its graphics. I recall the major hype.

Thought 2:
Nintendo seems happy to get the "niche" market among hardcore pool of gamers so long as they get into the mainstream of the general public. In this regard, PS3 and 360 may very well be the "niche" market (of the general public).

Thought 3:
Nintendo does not plan to compete on the same turf as Sony/MS, meaning one-to-one comparison (as it used to be) would probably not lead to an accurate prediction of the future at this point in time.

Thought 4:
How serious am I about gaming? Hard question to answer. At 28, I have many other things to do in life. I love games, but I also love trips abroad, spending time with my gf, buying cars and other future plans that make up my social life. In this regard, spending a lot on games (including an investment in HDTV for gaming reasons) is a little unrealistic. I already spend quite a lot on PCs, which cover a lot of ground in computing terms. I've talked to my friends about this at work and in the neighbourhood, and most are softcore gamers who agree with me.

Finally:

No doubt I will eventually get all 3 consoles next gen as I'm not particularly attached to a certain brand, and I want to at least get a taste of all big games. But I can see Nintendo's point of view very well, in that if they were to target the general public, a lot of things they're saying is accurate.

#64, I think you're exactly right. Being first this time will be their biggest advantage. By the time others will come out, it will have matured, updates will have been made (hopefully), prices will drop, and programmers will write games to utilize the multiple chips available. I still think Nintendo may do well though, if they can keep costs low ($150-200) with hopefully cheaper innovative games. If they can, they have my money.

How often do most families replace their tvs? Can I fairly safely assume 10 years? That's been the case in my family anyway. No matter how much cheaper HDTVs get you're not going to see anything more than 40-50% adoption by 2010. That's the US, basing my prediction of the way people hype HD here at joystiq. In Australia I think it'll be closer to 10-20%, probably less. Everyone else is going to be watching digital TV using settop converters on their old 480i/p televisions.

Really the only reason MS + Sony are hyping HD is that it's the only way they can differentiate their machines from the previous generation. The games play the same, this media center stuff is already being served by media-center PCs, everyone has a DVD player now.. so why buy a $400-500 console? HiDefintion, it's TEH FUTURE! Nintendo is changing the way we plays games, that's their next generation. Sony + MS are offering us sharper graphics, big wow.

Nintendo have the right idea, I'll be picking up a Revolution immediately. Perhaps I'll pick up the slimline PSthree when it's price is under $AU250.

I was playing the x360 and was not impressed. I'd been waiting for such a long time for it to come out. I was playing Call to Duty and I noticed the graphics were better, but then I realized that I play Halo all the time for other reasons besides the graphics. I think once any system can do a 3d environment like you can on Halo, its much more important to have great gameplay than to have amazing rendering. When Im shooting at Covenant forces I really could care less if I can see their irises. As long as they look real enough for me to distinguish them from the environment.

And another thing. If x360 (and ps3) use a lot of processing power just to get the games in HD. Maybe the Rev will actually look better because not having that in HD will lend more rendering power to lower resolutions. Im still in college so Im years away from a good HD tv.

PS I was going to buy the x360 after xmas. But after seeing the RCs for the Rev last night I cant wait for the Rev to come out.

Something which many PAL TV owners dont appreciate is that HDTV is far more important to the US than it is to Europe.

A PAL TV picture is much clearer than the US standard, with around 1/3 more pixels than NTSC.

As a rule, Americans tend to have big (40"+) TV's in the living room but sit quite far back from it. In the UK - people have smaller TV's (typically 28") and sit closer (smaller living rooms!). Also, there are many more widescreen TV owners in the UK. Most US TV's are still 4:3.

If you sit close to an NTSC picture, particularly a big screen, you get bad pixelation and banding over the whole screen. Something PAL TV owners just dont get.

The move to HD is a big step forward for Americans and I predict that its take-up will be much bigger in the US than in Europe, simply because they are used to a picture of such bad quality and will see a massive increase in clarity.

Not having HD output will not be a huge problem for the rest of the world, but the US will probably demand it in the long run. NTSC just wont cut it.

Regardless - I am eagerly awaiting the Revolution and will get one on release. The concept of this is really something to look forward to. If I want Hi-res I will just play on the PC.

Re: #63. "So who is paying for the Ninty WIFI?"

Dont forget that its "free" to play all games on the Steam network on PC. People can set up their own servers for games like Counterstrike and Halflife. Novaworld's "Joint Ops" is free to play on line too. Maybe the same could apply to Revolution games?

Its only really the MMRPG games which you have to subscribe to on PC as they are using one huge "server".

Im sure the downloads will help pay Nintendo cover their costs - but I would like to be able to play peer-to-peer games on the Rev. Like having your friends in your living room all connected via a LAN.

Nintendo may well have the best strategy this time round. They've played their cards close to their chests having realised that this has created as much or even more hype than Sony and Microsoft's spec wars. They're trying to appeal to a wider variety of people with an easy interface and low cost. They've learnt from the N64 vs PSX and PS2 vs all wars, and now are confident that the majority of their money is going to come from people who don't know much about specs.

I think the most important lesson they've learnt though is the 3rd party lesson from the GameCube. It had little 3rd party support, so it sold less consoles. Thus it is claiming that developing ports for multiplatform games on the Revolution will be easy. And, being non-HD, will be the cheaper option. I hope that the games stay at a similar price as the current gen (£30 in England if you buy online) though an extra £5 wouldn't be totally unreasonable.

Please can someone tell me the specifications for the nintendo revolution and the regular xbox i just wanna compare if you know what i mean.........

I read somewhere that the strategy Nintendo is taking is that someone buying an xbox360 or a ps3 will still buy an mp3 player or a palm pilot. Putting the Revolution in a much lower price range will make it much more atractive to gamers with other platforms at the onset of its hardware launch instead of at the end when hardware goes through its inevitable price drop. I just bought a gamecube to go along with my ps2 specifically because of its lower price point here at the end of its life cycle. Every system has good games on it and with the Rev's new controller, it can be an affordable curiosity to any other platform owner. It is seriously conceivable that every 360 and PS3 owner can own a Revolution as a second console. Nintendo is aiming to reach everyone with this system and is using the price point to almost piggyback on the other two consoles. Nintendo could end up being number 1 in consoles despite not having the best graphics or hardware and its brilliant. Nintendo makes money, first and foremost. They pull in more profit that the big two, and the Revolution is only going to help, while seriously being the coolest console out there.

This is it for nintendo. If they mess this up they are threw. This revolution could be there dreamcast. AKA there last machine. People are right nintendo makes some great games. I think its time for nintendo to hang up the hardware and start makeing games for the top notch hardware. They would make way more money with zelda for ps3 and 360. Also it would look Godly.

I love nintendo games, but this machine sounds like a retro machine rather than a step forward.

VIDEO GAMES, FUCK YEAH! NINTENDO REVOLUTION, FUCK YEAH! PORNO, FUCK YEAH! CHEAP GAMES, FUCK YEAH! DISNEYWORLD, FUCK YEAH! BEING IN THE GAME RATHER THEN CONTROLLING IT, FUCK YEAH! CANCER, FUCK YEAH! 1ST PERSON SWORD FIGHTS, FUCK YEAH! DISNEY WORLD, FUCK YEAH! LESBIANS, FUCK YEAH! EASY-TO-USE STRATEGY GAMES, FUCK YEAH! AIDS, FUCK YEAH! MORE COMPANIES=MORE GAMES, FUCK YEAH! DEMOCRATS, FUCK YEAH! MENT FOR REGULAR CONSUMERS, NOT RICH ASSHOLES, FUCK YEAH! FUCK YEAH, FUCK YEAH!.....xbox360....womens' rights......ps3....

VIDEO GAMES, FUCK YEAH! NINTENDO REVOLUTION, FUCK YEAH! PORNO, FUCK YEAH! CHEAP GAMES, FUCK YEAH! DISNEYWORLD, FUCK YEAH! BEING IN THE GAME RATHER THEN CONTROLLING IT, FUCK YEAH! CANCER, FUCK YEAH! 1ST PERSON SWORD FIGHTS, FUCK YEAH! DISNEY WORLD, FUCK YEAH! LESBIANS, FUCK YEAH! EASY-TO-USE STRATEGY GAMES, FUCK YEAH! AIDS, FUCK YEAH! MORE COMPANIES=MORE GAMES, FUCK YEAH! DEMOCRATS, FUCK YEAH! MENT FOR REGULAR CONSUMERS, NOT RICH ASSHOLES, FUCK YEAH! FUCK YEAH, FUCK YEAH!.....xbox360....womens' rights......ps3....

First off I currently own an Xbox360 and plan on buying a Revolution (aka Gamecube 2.0 hehe Love zelda)



Man, You Guys are all sick Bastards Really SIC..arguing over High Def.....BS...

I have owned so many consoles, that I know for a fact that the order of importance is as follows(0-7, 0 being most important and 7 be less)

0)Duh you(the gamer is always first, if the gamer doesn't like the controller old Duke for the xbox, or that stupid D-Pad on the Cube, then they will move on, I ditch my cube and the Duke)

1)Graphics (admit it some 8bit games are really fun to play but you dont want to stare at them forever, High Def is a welcome site, Yes expensive, but worth it. Hey its the futre, its coming sonner or later might aswell be now)

2)Gameplay (if the control system sucks, so does the game, cause its to difficult or frustrating to play)

3)Multiplay(4 ports always rule compared to 2, F*#K Sonys PS2 milking gamers for that stupid MultiTap Crap!!)

4)Sound (sorry folks the beeps and bops are to horrible to mention, Please 5.1 should be the Dam Standard across the board for every game).

5)HD(No not High Def, Hard Drive, Damit Screw Memory Cards, their a freaking Rip off man)

6)Online (the service should be free, except for MMORPGs and Downloading new levels and shit like that, only Multiplay should be free, that way the companines can make a fair amount of money)

7)The internet(Yeah I know its not supposed to be a part of gaming, but it is. News, codes/cheats, Reviews, Previews, Forums, Stupid Kiddy Fanboys Bitching about everything, Dam I Love the Internet)





8)This Website(For allowing us gamers to express ourselves ...thanks)



WTF

Well I am definatly going to get a revolution sence it is going to be around 99-140$ which has been stated on alot of gaming sites.

There is also FREE online did I mention it is FREE the one of the reasons the x-box didnt get so many people to like it was that they were retarted and made online cost money.



I am not going to pay a monthly fee to play against other people even if I realy want to I can't aford it, im cheap, and I hate when companys are jerks and make it so you have to pay cuzz they want a bunch of money.



Also the controler/remote for the revolution is going to be fun to play with. Also if you dont want to get use to the controler they are making a shell for it so you wount have to play with a remote if you dont want to.



The other feature is that the revolution will be able to play old games for download for the NES, SNES, N64, GC games, and the GC CD's even though you have to pay a fee for the games which I kinda of hate I am sure it wount be very expensive maby like 00.25$ to 10.00$



And it is differnet did you see the PS3 it looks almost like the PS2 just a differnet color and a different shape for the system and controler, at least they could make a different controler after all these years that one is boring. And the x-box 360's controler looks just like the last one complicating and a twin to the last one.



I could care less for HD-TV yea it is great I am not saying it isnt it is just not needed for a few more years.

The x-box might have good graphics and stuff but I have heard a few times that the fan is loud and you have to turn up the volume on your tv all the way in order to hear certain games, that is very stupid if that happens.



Any way I hope that revolution stays unlike the GC where it got ignored by companys. It probibly will sence the system will have online and be very fun. I cant wait to get mine and hope that alot of 3rd party companys make games for it. So then we will get good games insted of a bunch of kiddy games that the GC had seriously they hardly had any good teen games on it.



I am going to get one as soon as I can I might even pre-order it and maby pay extra just so I can play SSBR (Super Smash Brothers Revolution) with its online play I cant wait for all the good games.