Revolution Launching Thanksgiving 2006; "Not Much More Powerful than Xbox"

[StriderKyo]

From IGN:

Nintendo will very likely reveal the official Revolution launch date to the public at the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2006 next May in Los Angeles, but developers have already been given a decidedly narrowed time frame. According to studios we spoke with under the condition of anonymity, Nintendo has told them that Revolution will debut in America "during the week of Thanksgiving 2006."

And now, for the bleeding edge in buzzkill science:

"To be honest, it's not much more powerful than an Xbox. It's like a souped up Xbox," a major third party source revealed to us. "But it's the controller that makes the difference and the controller is really nice."

That freaking sucks. I only found this because I was so hyped about Metroid and looking around the web for info. (On that other hand, that puts it on par with 360[/zing])

[1CCOSA]

It's like a souped up Xbox

Like the 360? I kid, I kid.

Anyways, I just want the thing to launch on time with Mario and Prime 3 and I will be happy. At least the dev likes the controller and it sounds as though it is on track.

[StriderKyo]

I'm guessing Prime 3 will take forever like Prime: Hunters has. Mario = 1st Christmas, Metroid = 2nd, Zelda = 3rd, Bought out by Sega = 4th (I hope I'm kidding about that last one).

[1CCOSA]

I hope you are wrong about Metroid. Matt said Prime 3 is "already deep in development." Plus unlike Hunters, it's not being completely retooled so I'm hoping Retro can swing it for launch. Rev seriously needs at least two of 'the big three' for a better than usual launch this time.

And can Sega buy out anyone right now?

[kedawa]

Sounds like it would be, at most, two or three times as powerful as a GC.
I know I've heard that somewhere before.

[StriderKyo]

I think it's clear what Nintendo's doing here - they can't convince devs to make stuff for their system through promise of advertising-driven marketshare like MS & Sony can. But they can do the same thing they did with DS; make a system that's cheap, quick & easy to develop for compared to the competition, so even if publishers sell less units they make more money in the end thanks to nonexistent development costs.

Build a superior library more quickly, and slowly the public turns to you; eventually you reach critical mass that causes the competiton to bleed money to keep projects heading to their platform. Will it work? I dunno, it's risky, but it's a more solid idea than trying to play the same game as the behemoths.

Besides, it's not like Cell 120 fps 1080p technology will actually make Mario look any better than he already does.

[kedawa]

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much more.
Just look at the size of the thing, anything more powerful would explode within a minute of being turned on.

[Jeremy]

The Xbox comparison is a bit spooky, but I'll wait to see game screens before going into panic mode.

[Shin Johnpv]

I don't know how much I would buy into this

only because they've spent just as much as Microsoft in developing the graphics chip and cpu for revolution and It would be assfuck stupid to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make 2 chips that off the shelf chips would be faster than now

I guess we'll see come E3 2006 but I'm sorry I just dont see the point in developing a new console system thats not much more powerful than current ones at least not spending the amount of money they did

[kedawa]

They probably spent their r&d budget getting things optimised and integrated to the point where they can manufacture the console for next to nothing, and not have to make dozens of revisions like some other console manufacturers.

Just look at the N64 and GC, they were pretty much perfected design-wise from the very start.