Reggie Fils-Aime: "Nintendo's counterpunch is disruption"

(take note of the iPod mention and recall the very Apple-esque style of the new Nintendo DS Lite)

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getting sick of hearing these stupid comments.. look around you. all of the iPod competitors are ripping off that 'look' and the PSP tries to look like it too.. peep the white PSP in Japan and white earbuds.. peer the iTunes ripoff software..

my point is: you don't have to remind us. Technically, in this case, nintendo is ripping themselves off (look at the revolution)

Its kinda annoying how they can play the whole "innovation" card, and pretend they were innovators the whole time.

Not much of this "innovation" from nes to snes, from snes to n64, from n64 to gamecube. In fact, the only real innovation they had (power glove, virtual boy) flopped and were pushed away under the carpet.

Ill scan some of my nintendo power magazines to show you what they were saying about the virtual boy.

They invented the analog ministick.

Which is a notorious pain in the butt with today's FPS games.

#2:
Nintendo was the original innovator though. They invented the standard controller back in the NES days, then improved their first attempts with the SNES, followed by great innovations with the N64, namely they were the first w/ true 3D controls and also with rumble, followed by the Gamecube, which is innovative from some business aspects. Then of course there's the DS...

Ya know what's REALLY annoying? That dispite all that Nintendo has, if nothing else, TRIED, to do in terms of innovation, all Sony did was rip-off a 20+ year old device and attach it to their Playstation and suddenly everyone says they're "innovative" (i.e. EyeToy). Total bullshit.

So while I agree Nintendo may not have ALWAYS been as innovative as they proclaim, the fact of the matter is that they almost always pioneer new gaming technologies and ideas that other companies just immitate...

For the ONE MILLIONTH TIME - The POWER GLOVE WAS MATELL NOT NINTENDO!

Rumble pak on a console controller - innovative
Thumbstick on a console controller - innovative

The Virtual Boy was actually really neat if you played it. Too bad you looked like an idiot doing it.

Any fanboys want to prove his data wrong? From what I can find, he is correct. All this talk about video games becoming mainstream is just that... 'talk'. Games only became mainstream because of huge marketing budgets that Sony and Microsoft brought in.

The 'Blue Ocean Strategy' relates more to Nintendo's software focus. Make games for everyone and hit as many demographics as possible. Nintendogs. Brain Training. Animal Crossing. But 'Innovater's Dillemma' refers to the disruption strategy.

The DS contained two disruption strategies: the input and the display. The input was the touchpad and microphone. The display was two screens. The DS has proven that its disruptor technologies not only compete very well with superior hardware (the PSP) but also helps create more innovative games.

The Revolution will follow that same philosophy. The Revolution will disrupt the market in input and in display. The input we already know about: it is the Revmote controller. The last secret of the Revolution is about the display.

With both the PS3 and Xbox 360 marketing their consoles almost entirely on graphics, this is the big bulls-eye for Nintendo to disrupt. You already know how we play games will change. But at E3, how we SEE games will also change. (This was said by Merrick at TGS. Merrick, as we know, has a loose mouth.)

Nintendo's letter to Matt at IGN admitted that the 'revolutionary' part of the console has not been unveiled yet (which is why they will probably announce the console's name when this disruptor is unvieled).

The graphical disruptor will not be Parallax Graphics. It will not be Cubed Mapping. It will be the 'big gun'. Nintendo did not spend four years with ATi just to upgrade the Gamecube. The Revmote, as you can tell with the prototype phamplet pictures, was an idea already thought of many years ago.

Also, doesn't Reggie sound confident in this text? Nintendo has been acting quite cocky lately. This is suprising considering how the Gamecube fared.

So what is the Revolution? I don't know but I am certainly sure that it is a graphical disruptor. The DS had one. No Revolution screenshots have been unveiled. And graphics are what has to be disrupted since PS3 and Xbox 360 are putting almost all their eggs into the graphical basket (their controllers and games are identical to last generation).

Iwata: "You will say 'Wow!'"

Some of Nintendo's innovations:
D-Pad, Shoulder buttons, Analogue Stick. All are still standard today.

And for the last time, Nintendo didn't make the Power Glove. That was Mattel

This editorial pretty much echoes his recent speeches. I've never heard the term "disruptive technology" until he said it at a conference last year, but he seems to like it a lot.

It's hard to say if Nintendo will go on to make the impact they're hoping for. I can certainly see the potential, but until I see the games, it's all just spin on making their console look better.

I'm sorta annoyed that Nintendo seems to get the benefit of the doubt in everything they do. No one has seen a game, few have held the controller, and everyone is already saying how far behind MS and SONY are.

"how much of Nintendo's next-generation technology do you think will be adopted by the competition?"

Does it have to for nintendo to stick around?
If it did or didnt would it matter?
Would they let them (in reference to copyrights issues) if they wanted to?

Are also good questions.

What if nintendo was the only go to use this interface.... ever... and continued to do so in profitable fashion (maybe not translating into huge market share) while the other sony/ms continued to battle very much like they are doing now?

Would nintendo and this new interface they have designed be a failure if they simply werent competing on the same level as the other 2?

They have been screaming this blue ocean strat awhile now, what if they got there blue ocean while the rest of the market trudged along.

Look into your crystal balls but all your gonna see is fog. Nintendo could make a name for itself and "revitalize" the industry, they could tank and then go back towards the traditional gaming, but they also could carve out there little ocean and expand that a bit continuing profitably /w their "innovations". The market will decide its flexible enough for all options.

The gamecube has likely taught nintendo many lessons, one of those might just be they are going to be ok /w 20% market share plenty capable of making money and expanding bit by bit as they go. Obviously they are shooting to strike gold here and create the next ipod but even if they do that doesnt mean the entire gaming industry is going to conform to them or needs to for them to strike gold. All the speculation in the world means jack cause we know almost nothing about either the rev or the ps3 on this side of time. I'll cya guys in 2008 meanwhile ima play more civ 4.. if I put the game on rediculously long mode in a huge map I should beable to have traveled there by the time I finish.

At #8:
Trust me, for everyone that says the Revolution is the greatest thing ever, there's someone who says it's crap. (case in point: the prez of Epic games. I know, I asked him myself...)

I think we're all aware it may not work out as perfectly as we all want to believe, but you have to realize it's not the implementation it's the IDEA that sparks everyone's interest. It's something so fresh and new and innovative in a world that's getting more and more redundant and boring that it's worth giving them the benefit of the doubt for now.

Funny lookin' guy.

3D controls?:

As seen before in Tomb Raider for PS1/Saturn on consoles and eons before in Flight Sims on PCs with real joysticks

Rumble function?:

Force Feedback!

Thumbstick?:

Joystick!

Virtual Boy?:

3D-Stereo glasses on PC. (just as shitty)

Many won't believe me but driving a car with a full-blown joystick is alot easier than with any minimacrostick.

Whatever Nintendo/Sony invented - it was first seen on PC or elsewhere -period.

I think the real value in innovations is making it mass market compatible / affordable. If it doesn't sell it's just an enormous waste of human resources.

Which makes me think of the fact that no PS2 game in existence makes use of all the analog functions of the dual shock controller - the same goes for the so called Duke controller btw.

@4.
"Ya know what's REALLY annoying? That dispite all that Nintendo has, if nothing else, TRIED, to do in terms of innovation, all Sony did was rip-off a 20+ year old device and attach it to their Playstation and suddenly everyone says they're "innovative" (i.e. EyeToy). Total bullshit."

You could say the same about Nintendo.

http://www.joy-stick.net/reviews/other/dualstrike.htm

1999

I hate Reggie...He knows nothing about the industry and he acts like he does. I wish Peter Main had Reggie's job still :(

And why is Joystiq.com so pro Nintendo all the time. Joystiq always disses the Xbox360 and PSP, but it always seems that they put a positive spin on any Nintendo related news. Please try to be a little more unbiased.

#8, superior marketing?

If nothing else, but this much is clear...Nintendo is kicking Microsoft's and Sony's ass as far as marketing goes. It's really amazing to see in action. Microsoft and Sony are supposed to be the master marketers, but they're just getting KILLED by a company that isn't even competing on the same playing field. And they're doing it without going into the usual "our competitors are crap" routine like Microsoft and Sony. Much kudos to Nintendo!

I'm just hoping they'll deliver with the Revolution, because if they will, the Revolution launch will be awesome for us gamers.

We all know Nintendo is great, but lets keep it real and not let fondness cloud ones memory.

D-Pad : Was on several million consoles before the first NES was sold. Neither invented or innovated.

Analog stick: Practically every PC gamer had one standard for a decade before Nintendo got wise. Atari, SEGA and Vectrex all released analog sticks before the N64. One could argue that the N64 sold more units than those consoles, and therefore are the innovators. But then technically someone else could argue that it was Sony who made it mainstream since they sold many more times the hardware and software than the N64. It's just too messy of an issue to declare a real clear winner of inventor/innovator.

The Revolution controller however, looks crazy cool and is a real innovation deserving of a lot of praise. I'm sure it will bring back some the market share, and turn around the downward trend started by the N64 and continued by GameCube.

Via La Revolution!

How do you figure Nintendo is killing Microsoft or Sony for that matter in Marketing? Are you insane I haven't seen one Nintendo commercial on any channel. And if it was on one it was probably on Nickelodeon. Get things straight Nintendo hasn't been successful in nearly 12 years. That is a long time. They have failed twice over two generations. I remember reading NextGeneration Magazine talking about the then called "Ultra64", then I found out it's just a piece of shit with the same dumb cartridge based medium. Not to mention those horribly fuzzy graphics.Anyway back in 1997 they were talking about how it was going to blow away Sony and Sega. Man please that thing bombed. And to think you guys actually thought it was actually 64-bits (Wikipedia explains how it used two 32 bit processors). On to the Gamecube aka "Dolphin" they tried to hype the Cube and it worked to limited success. It was just another toy box for toddlers. The only good games were Prime, Windwaker, and all the other 1st Party titles. And guys when was the last time you seen a big Nintendo emblem during a sports game or during commercial break on a major network? Never. All Reggie Fil-Aimes Aka "Donkey Kong Evolved" is saying means absolutely nothing, not a damn thing. You can keep talking smack Nintendo but all you've shown is some funky controller that no one has any idea will be used. Show me some games. Show what the Revolution can do. Stop Hating on the very brands you are to struggling to defeat. How long will you use Mario as your crutch? Nintendo is a Cowardly Company, and it will be crushed and absorbed. End of Discussion. How about you make it 17 years Nintendo. Fail one more time and you will be finished. Just stick to portables. The DS is awesome.

#17
Nintendo Didn't invent the D-Pad for the NES. It was invented by Gunpei Yokoi(sp?)for Game & Watch. So it was in fact invented and innovated by Nintendo.

Longshotx,

Take a long deep breathe, hold it, hold it, and now, breathe out slowly. There now, is that better!

Anand--

It's so funny you say that--on friday I wrote about the PS3 Blu-Ray vs. Xbox 360 12x DVD, and I get comment after comment calling me a blatant Sony fanboy. In at least a half a dozen situations for each of the half dozen sentiments, I have been called a "(sony/Microsoft/nintendo) (fanboy/hater)."

Sometimes we write positively, sometimes we write negatively, sometimes we just write.

@ 18:

Nintendo doesn't need comercials to sell, they just have to slap on the word "Nintendo" and the product basicly sells itself. Nintendo won't be crushed or absorbed they'll do just as good as ever, what with all the features the Revo will have.

17; Nintendo DID create the DPad. Before the Game and Watch came around, portables had little analog sticks coming out of them.

Nintendo and Innovator should be one and the same. They are the catalysts of this industry. Look no further than their track record. To put it simply, both hardware and software is largely influenced by Nintendo. I'm sorry, I've spoken about Nintendo's innovations for far too long that I'm simply not in the mood to go into details. But you have to trust me, Nintendo are, without a doubt, the most influential company in this industry. You'll have one hell of a time in trying to prove me wrong.

#22 Nintendo is not like Sony in that its name alone can push out millions of systems. Its the kids that push the majority of its sales, that and Pokemon.

"but how much of Nintendo's next-generation technology do you think will be adopted by the competition?"

Thats a good question, and it depends on just how much of that so called next-gen tech is successful. Sony and Microsoft will def take what people loved from the Revolution the generation after this. Only they will improve upon it much like theyve done in the past.

Im starting to realize why we need Nintendo around, though I will never waste money on another one of their consoles. Im def looking forward to Nintendo's next-gen Gameboy, especially if it plays Gamecube games with multimedia functions like the PSP. Just wishfull thinking..........

LongshotX, do you eat Sony? Do you dream of Sony? Do you make love to Sony?

Just wondering.

@ LongshotX

32 + 32 = 64

:)

Nintendo not being successful in 12 years, are you on crack or something!!
Nintendo has been the only one making a profit,you know money,anyway it doesn't matter how good Nintendo is at making good games people(sony/ms fanbots) still gonna say that their better.Like with the DS they said that the psp was going to destroy the DS and look what happend. The DS has outsold the psp all around the world including the U.S. the gamecube came in third last generation but not by
alot,19.5 million for cube, 21 million for xbox or
something like that but when the new zelda comes out
that number will change.I think that Nintendo is on the right track and i think that they will win this
time around with the Revolution.

Actually I like Microsoft. I hope they succeed. Sony products are not of high quality, they usually require a propietary formats, lots of money, poor software integration, and dumb formats like UMD, Betamax, Memory Stick, MiniDisc and Blu-Ray. Yeah I said it Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray isn't what the next format should be. Check out VMD, Divx HD-DVD, or HVD. Those formats promise high capacities with lower costs and existing technology.

And Sorry you're wrong Masaki it doesn't matter if they had 3 32-bit processors the addresses are still 32-bit.

Nintendo touted many of the system's more unusual features as groundbreaking and innovative, but many of these features had in fact been implemented before. The first game console to bill itself as "64-bit" was actually the Atari Jaguar (although the truth of this is disputed, as the Jaguar merely had two 32-bit processors- albeit its graphics processor was 64-bit). The Vectrex in fact had introduced analog joysticks, while the first to feature four controller ports was the Bally Astrocade. Regardless, the Nintendo 64 was the first popular system to have these features.The system was designed by Silicon Graphics Inc., and features their trademark dithered 32-bit graphics. The early N64 development system was an SGI Indy equipped with an add-on board that contained a full N64 system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64

Why bother arguing with xbox children?

Just follow my short guide to convert from being either a nintendo/sony fanboy or even an unbiased gamer.

Step 1: Learn your mantra

a. "xbox roxorz, ne1 and every1 else sucks!"

b. "lol, nintendo is kiddy. only kids pla..*shut up mom, I'm typing on a foru.. er doing my homework on the comuter....yes I did my homework...yes I took out the trash...gooooooood* ..er play nintendo"

c. "Sony stuff breaks, I know cause I bought 200 ps2s and they all broke. But NOTHING ever went wrong with my 360."

Step 2: Mental Preperation

a. Flush your money down the toilet then give yourself a lobotomy with a handsaw and the aid of a bottle of jack daniels.

Step 3: Experience Xbox360 Games in all their Glory

a. Enjoy countless hours playing "grand theft halo:burnscrolls NFL XXIII-limited special edition"

Then you too will be will understand the awesomeness of microsoft.

Facts are for losers!

Power glove didn't sell well because it really didn't work that great. It was a good idea but they didn't put a good enough control on it. It was glitchy end of story. Virtual boy cam with a warning to not play more then 20 minutes. It would make you sick if you played to long and was bad for your eyes. I am sure parents took one read of the warning label and were like hell no. But all the other things they made did pretty well. And personally I thought Robby was some cool stuff. How many other companies can say they had a robot that played 2P for you. But PS3 has innovation in it but sony doesnt invent the chips. The cell chip is going to be important especially for high speed processing.

My bad Ross Miller. I guess you guys cannot please everyone.

I love how Nintendo don't do many adverts (least in the UK there are practically none). Yet they still keep a global equal to the Xbox which has huge online abilities, superior graphics, massive 3rd party, and who advertise a LOT.

It's like those people who say "the DS sucks cuz its made out of bad plastic, and the games are bad"... well if those games are bad and its made bad then why the hell is outselling the PSP?

Be careful when criticising another brand.

I will say though that Nintendo have something big up their sleeve. thats a given. We've been told that old games are going to have some kind of graphical update (or was that just new characters etc?), meaning that Rev games have some kind of new rendering technique. Like its already been said; Nintendo have been working with ATi for 4 years on a graphics card.

Didn't the exec of Epic or whatever slag off the Rev then embrace it? hmm. Joystiq; do a piece about developers against the Rev. list them.

"Not much of this "innovation" from nes to snes, from snes to n64, from n64 to gamecube. In fact, the only real innovation they had (power glove, virtual boy) flopped and were pushed away under the carpet."

News flash: Nintendo did NOT create the Power Glove. Get your facts straight before you start criticizing the company that indisputably revitalized the home gaming industry after Atari destroyed it.

But yeah, you must be right though. Inventing the analog thumbstick, d-pad, and rumble feature for controllers was all pretty lame, ANYBODY should be able to do that. Oh, and obviously their idea of the touch screen for the DS fizzled out too, seeing as the DS is crushing the PSP all around the world.

OOPS!

The unveiled bit about the Rev might be the panoramically-composited depth-mapped cube mapping stuff discovered on the US Patent site a year or two ago. That sounded seriously cool.

More info to wade through here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=138726

@nick

Actually if you read the post at the link you provided the depth mapped cube deal doesn't seem all that cool. Its basically a better quicktime VR allowing a certain amount of interactivity. Pre-rendered background with 1 fixed camera viewpoint unable to move without removing the illusion of real space. Interesting in limited applications, but not every game can go old school Resident Evil style with fixed viewpoints. That would get old quick.

I'm surprised that so many posters here seem to want to re-write history. To innovate doesn't mean to invent, it means to be the first...or at least one of the first...adopters of a new idea, technology, process, etc.

Nintendo is attributed with being the primary company to bring things like rumble features, analog sticks, d-pads into the mainstream gaming community. There is usually risk associated with being innovative as your idea could flop.

Nintendo is considered innovative because they have been willing to go out on a limb and embrace a new concept into their main product line, something that you can't exactly say Sony or Microsoft has done. While both companies have come up with creative ideas, they are usually implemented WITH the standard features. So while one could argue that Sony was innovative for using a DVD-ROM drive on the PS2 or the Dual-Shock controller with dual analog sticks, you never actually had to play a DVD on the PS2 if you didn't want to and the Dual-Shock also has a regular D-pad if you want to use it.

We've seen Nintendo put their money where their mouth is for a number of features and new products...Nintendo DS case-in-point...but anyone who tries to shut down the fact that Nintendo has been a driving force in new ideas for the Video Game Console and Handheld market is being stupid, ignorant, or both. Go back to college and enroll in Business 101.

c. "Sony stuff breaks, I know cause I bought 200 ps2s and they all broke. But NOTHING ever went wrong with my 360."

You may consider that fanboy mantra, but if you did buy 200 PS2s, I would guess about 50 of them would break. I've purchased 8 over the last couple of years (for room mates, modding, presents, whatever). All have laser problems. Not suprising with the class-action lawsuit involving the "Disc Read Error".

I just hope the PS3 is going to be a good console that lacks the PS2s problems. But if they try to cram too much into it, they may get worse. Let's hope otherwise.

Nintendo products have always been high quality. I've never heard of a Gamecube with laser problems except for a couple I saw on Ebay. Personally, I really like the button shapes on the Gamecube controller. They are easier to work with than the other machines. It is too bad that the triggers are horrible. But the NGC controller was still the most comfortable for me until the 360 controller.

In any case, small innovations are sometimes meaningless until they are used collectively to make a solid product. So whoever made the D-Pad, included 4 controller ports, or made rumble pads first, Nintendo was the first to collectively put it together in a solid and fun package. That could be considered the innovation of a feature-filled console.

One thing I like about Nintendo and Microsoft, is they seem to talk more about actual gaming nowadays while all Sony talks about is tech specs and unnecessary features. I just keep getting the feeling that Sony is trying to take the fun out of it. That's not the case, but the attitude isn't very enlightening.

On a side note, you know what I find funny? People that insist that Nintendo is "kiddie". Sony is the one who doesn't even put letter designations on their buttons. Square, Circle, Triangle, Cross? What is this, Sesame Street? Nothing is more annoying than telling someone to press Circle Circle Triangle as opposed to B B Y.

Huh, yeah, I just google 'nintendo' and 'cube-mapping' and got that, skimmed it, and thought it might provide the correct info. Now that I read it (on a Mac forum no less!) it doesn't make the stuff sound cool. I do remember reading the official patent documents off the .gov site and being impressed with the ideas and all the little figure drawings.

There's something to the idea, though, and it's more than just the pre-renedered Ocarina market stuff pulled 10 years into the future (or CDi's Burn Cycle 12 years on). Some of the cube-mapping ideas gel with what Nintendo's been rabbiting on about, however – such as the on-par-to-other-system's-graphics with just 2-3 times the Gamecube's power.

We'll see.

ps,

As I see it, the 'panoramic' part means no Res. Evil fixed camera. Seems more dynmamic than that.

Personally I'd love to play Duck Hunt again. It's be great if they did an updated version of it with next gen Rev graphics.

Yes, cube-mapping would be more dynamic because the camera would allow swivel but it would still be fixed at one location (as in the zelda marketplace). Its just a better implementation of an old concept. It would mean incredible looking graphics in limited application. No first person or over-the-shoulder viewpoints. Any console could easily do this. I see it having better use in DS games than Rev. ones.

I'm guessing the competition will "adopt" 100% of Nintendo's newest technology. And then somehow Sony and Microsoft fanboys will completely forget where these great ideas originated, and will continue to bash Nintendo while playing their Nintendo cloneware.

"Its kinda annoying how they can play the whole "innovation" card, and pretend they were innovators the whole time.

Not much of this "innovation" from nes to snes, from snes to n64, from n64 to gamecube. In fact, the only real innovation they had (power glove, virtual boy) flopped and were pushed away under the carpet."

Actually Nintendo was innovative with all of their consoles regarding the staples of today on the Playstation and X-Box such as the;

Analog Stick,(N64)
A-B-X-Y buttons,(SNES)
L & R Shoulder buttons,(SNES)
The Rumble Feature,(N64)
Linking a handheld to a console to work as a controller,(GCN)
Controller Packs,(N64)
Touch Screen,(NDS)
Microphone,(Famicom)
The D-Pad,(Famicom)
First party wireless controllers,(GCN)
and more....

and although innovating may not seem like the greatest idea today - it has still kept them in business for all of these years along with have competitors imitate them. So if you think the Ps3 or 360 will plainly get around by just making the same system we had in the last 10 years or so with a few features that aren't new and have been allready found in something you see at Best Buy you can't be correct, put it this way - you buy a DVD player - you're definetely not going to buy another DVD player just because it plays Music CD's and has volume buttons now. And regarding the things they had that "flopped" those are the things they learn't from to design the Revolutions controller and the Nintendo DS the critisized handheld that currently outsells your favorites the Ps2 and X-Box along with the 360, so think before you jump to judge something you don't know the history of.