Damnit
08-04-2005, 12:02
The 3rd and final article in the series of 3 by this author. An interesting read. For PS3 and Xbox360 articles, please visit the following links
PS3: The bigger picture >
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=622&Itemid=2
Xbox360: The bigger picture >
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=623&Itemid=2
For revolution keep on reading below
by Owain Bennallack
Tuesday, 02 August 2005
The next generation console war is a three-way battle between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. But the fact that Nintendo is always listed last on that roll call of contenders gives a clue as to the pundit's view of things.
The battle is framed as a clash between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. For all its heritage, Nintendo is squeezed out of the ring.
Is this view correct? Nintendo's consoles are batting 0/2 to PlayStation, and it's not seen as having the wallet - or the ambition - of its rivals. Where Sony and Microsoft are apparently gunning for a prize beyond simply a successful games console, Nintendo executives stress it is going back to basics with Revolution: a nicely-designed, sufficiently powerful games console that's affordable and plays great games. The more ambitious its rivals get, the more strident that strategy must become - through choice or necessity.
Nintendo defenders (and almost everyone who grew up with its games or who works in game journalism or development loves the company) point to Nintendo's top-quality game franchises. Have Sony and Microsoft given us even a fraction of that innovation? Not yet (although Sony is arguably catching up, with the likes of SingStar and EyeToy). But Nintendo's rival's machines undeniably host sufficiently appealing titles to offset Nintendo's first-party advantage, from Grand Theft Auto and Gran Turismo to Knights of the Old Republic and Halo.
Moreover, Nintendo's best IPs - Mario, Link, and friends - lie far from today's violent and realistic cutting-edge. Hardcore gamers might value gameplay above all else, but the mass-market buys the total package. Many 20-year old GTA fans would no sooner play Mario than watch Madagascar. A recent Internet survey by Decision Analyst, which found Nintendo the most important brand for 8-12 year old Americans - but falling away above that demographic - makes bittersweet reading for Nintendo's supporters.
Wildcard draw
If it can't compete on scale and its best brands are skewed too young to take up the slack, what can Nintendo do? Well, it can innovate - and hope to draw a wildcard.
Naming the next machine Revolution was the easy (and cheap) part. Delivering an asteroid strike, a Pokémon scale phenomenon that utterly remakes the current landscape, will obviously be far harder.
From the information revealed at GDC and E3 earlier this year, Nintendo's machine might almost have been named the Nintendo Compromise. The company has accepted the need for high-end looks - and those who've got close vouch Revolution is Nintendo's best-looking machine yet. Equally, with its committed Wi-Fi strategy, Nintendo appears to realise it can no longer get away with the desperate kind of network treatment GameCube suffered. But publishers seem little more convinced by Revolution than its predecessor (despite Nintendo again sticking with a proprietary disc media, and the piracy protection it affords). And from the technical specs, Revolution is no Cell-beater - just as Nintendo had warned.
So much for keeping up with the competition - what about overtaking them? The news that Nintendo's 20-year old back catalogue will be available online and playable on Revolution has been widely welcomed. But making decade-old games a key selling point of your next gen system seems somewhat ironic. Speculation as to where the Revolution might arise has therefore focussed on the controller, which is yet to be revealed. Fake prototypes and wild conjuncture run rampant on the Internet, culminating in video games journalists pouring over the technical submissions Nintendo has lodged with the US patent office. Everyone likes speculation: to record one for posterity, how about a gyroscopic (tilt sensitive) controller, where the tilt controls the in-game camera? Nintendo has always pioneered with cameras...
Whatever the secret ingredient, only hands-on play will reveal if the new controller is a revolution or a headache. Nintendo's credentials in this area are peerless, however. From the original d-pad and the N64's analogue stick to the more recent touchscreen on the DS, Nintendo gets breakthrough games controllers right.
A new controller won't significantly trouble Microsoft and Sony though, if Revolution owners are still playing similar games to those on rival systems. Creating new gameplay to go with the controller is a further hurdle, but one Nintendo seems ready for. Company president Satoru Iwata and design legend Shigeru Miyamoto believe people are tiring of the established game types. Fostering anything genuinely new in games is undoubtedly the last word in difficult, but if you had to bet on one company, who else if not Nintendo?
We're already getting a sneak preview of this upcoming clash: Nintendo's DS, bristling with invention, versus Sony's PSP, with its sexy screen and familiar games. The good news for Nintendo is it's currently winning, with the five million-plus DS shipped outnumbering PSPs 2-1. Remembered, however, that PSP is yet to launch in Europe, where Sony's consoles invariably prosper. The current gap will rapidly close. Moreover, being a million or two ahead of Sony (post PSP's European launch) might seem a pyrrhic victory, given Nintendo has had 90 per cent of the handheld market to itself for generations.
Huge prize
Perhaps those days are gone. Whereas Sony and Microsoft seem to be striving for a huge prize beyond video games, Nintendo's challenge is just to stay in the ring. It's already lost console leadership, and while it's doing better in the handheld space than many predicted, the PSP is clearly its most credible opponent ever.
Putting its back catalogue online for Revolution is a clever way build network use, but it's also a reminder to the world of what Nintendo means, and of the gaming goodness it has - and can - provide. It's a neat trick that can only be done for the first time once.
Nintendo must play every card it has now, though, and right. If the Revolution is quashed, the first platform to host all Nintendo's games could also be its last.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=624&Itemid=2
PS3: The bigger picture >
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=622&Itemid=2
Xbox360: The bigger picture >
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=623&Itemid=2
For revolution keep on reading below
by Owain Bennallack
Tuesday, 02 August 2005
The next generation console war is a three-way battle between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. But the fact that Nintendo is always listed last on that roll call of contenders gives a clue as to the pundit's view of things.
The battle is framed as a clash between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. For all its heritage, Nintendo is squeezed out of the ring.
Is this view correct? Nintendo's consoles are batting 0/2 to PlayStation, and it's not seen as having the wallet - or the ambition - of its rivals. Where Sony and Microsoft are apparently gunning for a prize beyond simply a successful games console, Nintendo executives stress it is going back to basics with Revolution: a nicely-designed, sufficiently powerful games console that's affordable and plays great games. The more ambitious its rivals get, the more strident that strategy must become - through choice or necessity.
Nintendo defenders (and almost everyone who grew up with its games or who works in game journalism or development loves the company) point to Nintendo's top-quality game franchises. Have Sony and Microsoft given us even a fraction of that innovation? Not yet (although Sony is arguably catching up, with the likes of SingStar and EyeToy). But Nintendo's rival's machines undeniably host sufficiently appealing titles to offset Nintendo's first-party advantage, from Grand Theft Auto and Gran Turismo to Knights of the Old Republic and Halo.
Moreover, Nintendo's best IPs - Mario, Link, and friends - lie far from today's violent and realistic cutting-edge. Hardcore gamers might value gameplay above all else, but the mass-market buys the total package. Many 20-year old GTA fans would no sooner play Mario than watch Madagascar. A recent Internet survey by Decision Analyst, which found Nintendo the most important brand for 8-12 year old Americans - but falling away above that demographic - makes bittersweet reading for Nintendo's supporters.
Wildcard draw
If it can't compete on scale and its best brands are skewed too young to take up the slack, what can Nintendo do? Well, it can innovate - and hope to draw a wildcard.
Naming the next machine Revolution was the easy (and cheap) part. Delivering an asteroid strike, a Pokémon scale phenomenon that utterly remakes the current landscape, will obviously be far harder.
From the information revealed at GDC and E3 earlier this year, Nintendo's machine might almost have been named the Nintendo Compromise. The company has accepted the need for high-end looks - and those who've got close vouch Revolution is Nintendo's best-looking machine yet. Equally, with its committed Wi-Fi strategy, Nintendo appears to realise it can no longer get away with the desperate kind of network treatment GameCube suffered. But publishers seem little more convinced by Revolution than its predecessor (despite Nintendo again sticking with a proprietary disc media, and the piracy protection it affords). And from the technical specs, Revolution is no Cell-beater - just as Nintendo had warned.
So much for keeping up with the competition - what about overtaking them? The news that Nintendo's 20-year old back catalogue will be available online and playable on Revolution has been widely welcomed. But making decade-old games a key selling point of your next gen system seems somewhat ironic. Speculation as to where the Revolution might arise has therefore focussed on the controller, which is yet to be revealed. Fake prototypes and wild conjuncture run rampant on the Internet, culminating in video games journalists pouring over the technical submissions Nintendo has lodged with the US patent office. Everyone likes speculation: to record one for posterity, how about a gyroscopic (tilt sensitive) controller, where the tilt controls the in-game camera? Nintendo has always pioneered with cameras...
Whatever the secret ingredient, only hands-on play will reveal if the new controller is a revolution or a headache. Nintendo's credentials in this area are peerless, however. From the original d-pad and the N64's analogue stick to the more recent touchscreen on the DS, Nintendo gets breakthrough games controllers right.
A new controller won't significantly trouble Microsoft and Sony though, if Revolution owners are still playing similar games to those on rival systems. Creating new gameplay to go with the controller is a further hurdle, but one Nintendo seems ready for. Company president Satoru Iwata and design legend Shigeru Miyamoto believe people are tiring of the established game types. Fostering anything genuinely new in games is undoubtedly the last word in difficult, but if you had to bet on one company, who else if not Nintendo?
We're already getting a sneak preview of this upcoming clash: Nintendo's DS, bristling with invention, versus Sony's PSP, with its sexy screen and familiar games. The good news for Nintendo is it's currently winning, with the five million-plus DS shipped outnumbering PSPs 2-1. Remembered, however, that PSP is yet to launch in Europe, where Sony's consoles invariably prosper. The current gap will rapidly close. Moreover, being a million or two ahead of Sony (post PSP's European launch) might seem a pyrrhic victory, given Nintendo has had 90 per cent of the handheld market to itself for generations.
Huge prize
Perhaps those days are gone. Whereas Sony and Microsoft seem to be striving for a huge prize beyond video games, Nintendo's challenge is just to stay in the ring. It's already lost console leadership, and while it's doing better in the handheld space than many predicted, the PSP is clearly its most credible opponent ever.
Putting its back catalogue online for Revolution is a clever way build network use, but it's also a reminder to the world of what Nintendo means, and of the gaming goodness it has - and can - provide. It's a neat trick that can only be done for the first time once.
Nintendo must play every card it has now, though, and right. If the Revolution is quashed, the first platform to host all Nintendo's games could also be its last.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=624&Itemid=2