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Nintendo's Revolutionary Take on Next-Gen
by Pheroze Karai
Nintendo made their own splash today at E3, parrying Microsoft and Sony's new console announcements with news of their own.
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president unveiled the physical prototype of the console, entitled Revolution. Rectangular in shape, the console can be positioned vertically or horizontally.
Compared to Sony and Microsoft though, Nintendo was fairly stingy with the technical stats of the Revolution. The power of this new console is supposed to be about 2 to 3 times that of the GameCube - not a huge step up when compared to the competing Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.
However, Nintendo stresses that it's not about how big the processor is… but how you use it. The Revolution will contain 512 MB of flash memory and two expandable SD ports. Nintendo is also embracing online gaming this generation as the Revolution will be online-friendly and support a variety of downloadable content, including GameCube games. Your GameCube library doesn't have to be replaced by downloadable versions though, as the Revolution will be backwards compatible with GameCube discs. DVD support will also be included, although movies will have to be played via an internal attachment.
Price point and release date for the Revolution were not revealed, although 2006 is the year of release. Also no information, apart from wireless capability, was released on the Revolution's controllers, which are rumored to contain - um - 'revolutionary' properties.
Reggie Fil-Aime the charismatic spokesperson and Marketing head honcho for Nintendo, confirmed that the DS system will go online. No fees will be charged for any part of the DS' online experience.
In perhaps the most shocking news of their press conference, Nintendo did announce a new handheld system. Not a tech advancement in portable gaming that people were betting on, but a system called the Game Boy Micro.
The Game Boy Micro is an ultra-small version of the Game Boy Advance, measures 4" by 2" by 0.7" deep, and weighs a mere 2.8 ounces. Available fall of 2005, the unit also features customizable faceplates.
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