Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Despite seeing its current-generation console, the Game Cube, get a thorough drubbing in the market at the hands of the more capable Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) and Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo believes it still knows what its customers want in a next-generation game machine. The Revolution, the company says, will be a game machine only and not offer any digital hub functionality at all.

"The consumer wants a pure gaming device, rather than us forcing a less elegant solution on them," says Nintendo executive vice president for sales and marketing Reggie Fils-Aime. The Revolution is cool looking, certainly: It's a tiny black obelisk sitting in a white base, and the whole unit is about the same size as three stacked DVD cases. It will utilize a proprietary CD-like format, but will also play all Game Cube titles. Like the Xbox 360 and PS3, the Revolution will utilize wireless controllers.

From a technical perspective, details on the Revolution are vague and its still unclear how this machine will stack up against the powerful PS3 and Xbox 360 devices that Sony and Microsoft will ship, respectively, in the next 12 months.