Nintendo Revolution gets a new name...

[Halifirien]

Like I said, though - it's really a vocal minority that had so much issue with the GBA. I'll admit that after using properly lit screens (cough, DS, cough) for a long time now, it's much more difficult using my GBA classic.

Amen. I love the original GBA I bought at launch, but after buying a modded GBA with the Afterburner the only time I used the unlit one was to move Pokemon from one cartridge to another. Now I play all my GBA games on the DS because the screen is so pretty. I just wish I could justify buying a Gameboy Micro.

I'm also grateful they released Game Boy adapters for the SNES and Gamecube. Portable gaming is nice, but playing them on the television is fine when you're not on the bus.

 

[Bajaratt]

Is it wrong to point out that Nintendo's home console division has been defying the odds by continually sabotaging itself for over ten years now? They went from the 800lb gorilla juggernaut gaming company where you didn't call it playing 'video games,' you called it 'playing Nintendo,' and now they're fallen so far behind the curve and gamer opinion is close to rock bottom, and they take a name the people, by and large loved for their new console - and turn it into psuedo-iFaggotry that people are going to be ashamed to ask for at Gamestop? Public opinion was already sour on the Revolution.

Famitsu polled gamers and software makers about their interest at E3. Both parties were most interested in Nintendo's new hardware. 47.4% of software makers and 45.3% of gamers expressed interest in Revolution. This topped PlayStation 3, which got 36.8% of the developer vote and 44.8% of the gamer vote. The remaining 15.8% of developers didn't respond to the question. For users, 4.4% selected Xbox 360 with 5.5% selecting "other hardware.

I'd really love to know where you're getting your facts, because actual polls are showing otherwise. One of the biggest complaints people keep making towards Nintendo is no third-party support, but they'll get tons of it with the Revolution/Wii at this rate.

I'd understand skepticism about Nintendo's future products, but try to realize that not everyone thinks just like you do. Assuming the Revoltion/Wii doesn't completely suck at E3, based on that poll, the 360 will be crushed. The 360 rated under "other hardware" in terms of interest, because they've gone so long without releasing a must-have game for the 360.

The name? It's stupid, they made up a reason for it, that's cute but revolution was a better name. Don't forget that it was also the codename for the project, and it's actually rare that the code-name becomes the actual name of the product. I could't care less if they called it the "Fuck America" console, I'm interested in the gameplay, not the name.

 

[CubsWoo]

Interest is one thing. I'm 'interested' in the wii. That doesn't mean I'm not going to look at what they're showing at E3 and then say "Goddamn, that sucks." People aren't interested in the 360 because it's out there. The PS3 has been pretty much silent when it comes to new info, and the Rev/wii has been pouring out info for months. It only makes sense that people will be interested in the console that has had the most PR work going on it.

It's got problems. No HD support. The platform being reported by third party developers as 'about as powerful as Xbox1.' The non-traditional controller. I've seen the ideas behind Madden wii, and from the way they describe how to play it, I don't want to play that brand of Madden. A lot of smoke and mirrors about how the back catalog will work, but no concrete titles or price point. Interest can only go so far, it's not going to sell as a console unless it can overcome all the roadblocks in front of it - and it's fair to say Nintendo has put a few up themselves.

 

[Raziella]

*Just about everything* (abrv for size)

Finally, someone who knows what their talking about. The sad thing is people will still argue their assumptions in the face of the facts. People tend to forget that nintendo is a company that makes its money solely on the industry where the other companies have their hands in multiple markets. As a result, they can afford to flush dollars away on dev-ing and producing insane products.

What kinda bugs me right now is how much fricken money you have to (or will have to) drop to get a 360/PS3. Coupled with the speculation that Sony will charge more than the $50 price cap for games... give me a break! Whatever happened to the $200 console? Or for that matter the $100 console? As a major game enthusiast, I like to get my hand in as many realms as possible (PC, console, handheld), but at the rate this new generation is going, I'll be forced to choose only console. And I can tell you right now, as much as I would like the PS3 iterations of 3rd party fanchises, there's no way that one console will be Sony's.

But anywho, to contribute to the original topic:
The final name of rev is bitter sweet for me because on one hand, it's an annoying name that I don't really like, but on the other hand, I can make "Wiiiiiiiiii" jokes until I'm blue in the face.


Edit:

It's got problems. No HD support. The platform being reported by third party developers as 'about as powerful as Xbox1.' The non-traditional controller. I've seen the ideas behind Madden wii, and from the way they describe how to play it, I don't want to play that brand of Madden. A lot of smoke and mirrors about how the back catalog will work, but no concrete titles or price point. Interest can only go so far, it's not going to sell as a console unless it can overcome all the roadblocks in front of it - and it's fair to say Nintendo has put a few up themselves.

You're 100% right about the information from the companies being too vague, but the power of the system being compared to that of the Xbox1 isn't important. I'm not picking on you in specific, but that's the exact problem with the the market. Most consumers equate raw power with a great gaming experience, and that's simply not the case (or should not be that case).

 

[CubsWoo]

Whatever happened to the $200 console? Or for that matter the $100 console?

Those consoles died when the cost of parts for a console rose. IIRC, the PS3, even at a $400 price point will still be around a $100-200 loss per console for Sony. Consoles were cheap because they were simple. How many moving parts did the NES/SNES/Genesis/etc have? You move up in technology, you add in optical media drives, hard drives, DVD/Blu-Ray/whatever drives, and those parts make it impractical to sell a console for $100-200 because the company would be selling the console for half what they pay in cost.

 

[Tagrineth]

Interest is one thing. I'm 'interested' in the wii. That doesn't mean I'm not going to look at what they're showing at E3 and then say "Goddamn, that sucks." People aren't interested in the 360 because it's out there. The PS3 has been pretty much silent when it comes to new info, and the Rev/wii has been pouring out info for months. It only makes sense that people will be interested in the console that has had the most PR work going on it.

It's got problems. No HD support. The platform being reported by third party developers as 'about as powerful as Xbox1.' The non-traditional controller. I've seen the ideas behind Madden wii, and from the way they describe how to play it, I don't want to play that brand of Madden. A lot of smoke and mirrors about how the back catalog will work, but no concrete titles or price point. Interest can only go so far, it's not going to sell as a console unless it can overcome all the roadblocks in front of it - and it's fair to say Nintendo has put a few up themselves.

The lack of HD support will be a non-issue, Nintendo made a statement that USB hard drives will likely be supported by the Wii (which would make sense, as the 512MB flash memory is hardly enough to store several downloaded N64 games!).

I'd like to see a link to that statement about its power, because as far as I'm aware, nobody has made any official statements about its real throughput yet. The early teaser screenshots from that Ubisoft game that was announced look pretty good, though. Take any statements of machine "power" with a few salt shakers. Remember, a lot of people have this crazy and ridiculous notion that the Gamecube's hardware is vastly inferior to the Xbox and PS2.

Nintendo has always been pretty quiet about the features and specs until shortly before launch... Wii's situation is nothing new. But, of course, just like with N64 and GCN, the Nintendo Doomsday squad is making the exact same predictions as with the GCN launch...


Oh, and Cubs, you bash the GOD drive, and yet it's one of the key reasons Nintendo was able to offer GCN for $200 from day 1 (and at a profit, too, which is disturbingly rare in this industry).

 

[CubsWoo]

The lack of HD support will be a non-issue, Nintendo made a statement that USB hard drives will likely be supported by the Wii (which would make sense, as the 512MB flash memory is hardly enough to store several downloaded N64 games!).

Well, a fully downloaded N64 ROM is about 20-30MB, with a SNES one around 2MB and a NES normally under 256K, so 512MB in Flash memory will store plenty of games for the time being, but a USB HD option would be nice.

As for lack of HD support, people using HD is growing steadily, and it's no secret that non-HD games/apps look like shit on an HD set. But then again people who have HD sets are probably more inclined to have a 360 or PS3 anyway so you may be right about that.

I'd like to see a link to that statement about its power, because as far as I'm aware, nobody has made any official statements about its real throughput yet. The early teaser screenshots from that Ubisoft game that was announced look pretty good, though. Take any statements of machine "power" with a few salt shakers. Remember, a lot of people have this crazy and ridiculous notion that the Gamecube's hardware is vastly inferior to the Xbox and PS2.

Yeah, Red Steel looks pretty good, and I want to say it was an EA or Activision dev talking off the record (I'm trying to find a link but not coming up with much at the moment.) I know it's a GameFAQs thing to say that more power = more better hurrrrrrrrr but you can't deny that things were done in the PS2/XB/GC generation that would have been impossible on the PS1/Saturn/N64 and that things in the works for 360/PS3 are going to far surpass what was available this generation. I want the wii to do that, and not just because I'm waving the controller around instead of pressing buttons.

Nintendo has always been pretty quiet about the features and specs until shortly before launch... Wii's situation is nothing new. But, of course, just like with N64 and GCN, the Nintendo Doomsday squad is making the exact same predictions as with the GCN launch...

Considering Nintendo has lost market share in the home console market in their last two offerings, it's not like it's unfounded criticism. And the last figures I saw had GCN at about 20.7 million and Xbox at 22 million worldwide. Do you think they're going into this generation expecting to be the #1 console worldwide? Honestly?

Oh, and Cubs, you bash the GOD drive, and yet it's one of the key reasons Nintendo was able to offer GCN for $200 from day 1 (and at a profit, too, which is disturbingly rare in this industry).

Nintendo makes profits, nobody will deny that. But they could up the ante and make a system at a loss that would recover through accelerated game sales (like Sony did, and Microsoft is finally in the black post-Halo 2.)

 

[Tagrineth]

Well, a fully downloaded N64 ROM is about 20-30MB, with a SNES one around 2MB and a NES normally under 256K, so 512MB in Flash memory will store plenty of games for the time being, but a USB HD option would be nice.

As for lack of HD support, people using HD is growing steadily, and it's no secret that non-HD games/apps look like shit on an HD set. But then again people who have HD sets are probably more inclined to have a 360 or PS3 anyway so you may be right about that.

Oops, I thought you meant Hard Drive support. :wacko: My mistake.

Yes, the lack of HD resolution is slightly annoying... but SD looking like shit on an HD set?

There are two reasons why people would say this.

1. They've become spoiled by higher resolution... because they never played on a frigging PC before, I guess.

2. Their TV blows goat sack. My family's HDTV (1080i supported - at full resolution, not some upscaled halfass res like many HDTVs out there) still looks crystal clear in SD resolutions. Maybe a little stairsteppy (it's 61", after all), but it doesn't "look like crap" by any stretch of the imagination.

Not only that, but we don't know what kind of features ATi will include by way of anti-aliasing. ATi has a lot of very powerful IP in AA technologies, so I'm going to take a wait-and-watch attitude with the lack of HD. It'll probably in reality just end up being another "bullet-point" feature like the lack of DVD playback in Gamecube.

Yeah, Red Steel looks pretty good, and I want to say it was an EA or Activision dev talking off the record (I'm trying to find a link but not coming up with much at the moment.) I know it's a GameFAQs thing to say that more power = more better hurrrrrrrrr but you can't deny that things were done in the PS2/XB/GC generation that would have been impossible on the PS1/Saturn/N64 and that things in the works for 360/PS3 are going to far surpass what was available this generation. I want the wii to do that, and not just because I'm waving the controller around instead of pressing buttons.

I really don't think the next generation will be able to do much that PS2/XBX/GCN couldn't. We'll see more precision in physics, we'll see more definition in huge-scale battles (they already exist, but smoke and mirrors are employed to give the impression of more sprites than are really active at once - for example, the flying orange things in Kingdom Hearts II; the swarm is all 2D objects hovering about which can't be attacked until they become active and 3D), but beyond that I can't really think of much else that can be done with the "MOAR POWAR" philosophy being used by PS3 and X360.

Considering Nintendo has lost market share in the home console market in their last two offerings, it's not like it's unfounded criticism. And the last figures I saw had GCN at about 20.7 million and Xbox at 22 million worldwide. Do you think they're going into this generation expecting to be the #1 console worldwide? Honestly?

I can't find the current worldwide figures, but if that's the case, that's still a very small gap. And no, I don't think Nintendo is expecting #1.

Nintendo makes profits, nobody will deny that. But they could up the ante and make a system at a loss that would recover through accelerated game sales (like Sony did, and Microsoft is finally in the black post-Halo 2.)

They could, but if they don't have to take the loss to get the job done, why bother? Gamecube was profit from day one, and look what that little beast can do (anyone for RE4?).

 

[Rones]

"If Wii was accepted, what names were rejected?"

Full article.
My thoughts...why change it so late? It was accepted and entrenched. Any name change for good or bad would meet heavy resistance this late. Maybe if they had at least called it 'we' or 'whee' I wouldn't associate it with something babies do in diapers. Revolution was a good name. It has attached concepts and long held views that enhanced the name. Wii...is nothing. Even when they make up a meaning, it still means nothing to people. I thought they were out to not isolate non-gamers. Yet, such a strange, meaningless name will do just that.

 

[CubsWoo]

I can't find the current worldwide figures, but if that's the case, that's still a very small gap. And no, I don't think Nintendo is expecting #1.

It's moreso the fact that this console cycle Nintendo, the company that's been making systems for home consoles for 15+ years at the GCN's launch, is ending this console cycle either losing, or at best tying a company that:

- Was on its first created console, ever

- Is a company not well-known for anything outside of Windows and productivity-based applications

- Introduced a console that launched $100 more expensive than the GCN and still retails around $150-180 or so new

- Is as popular in the Asian markets as Taco Bell farts in church

I grew up on Nintendo and it still has a soft spot (which is why, despite my ill will, I do own a GCN - even if it is on loan to my girlfriend's 7-year old sister) in my heart, which is why it hurts to see the company take the direction they've taken and let two companies pass them by in sales and market share.

 

[Tagrineth]

Well, Xbox did have a couple things going for it at launch.

1. First ever "big" American-made console

2. Modding communities look at it and say "This is a PC. Let's hack into it kekeke"

3. Halo had been hyped for MANY MANY YEARS before the Xbox's launch. There's a development screenshot for Halo on the back of the box of my Voodoo5 5500.

4. Microsoft is best known for its productivity software, but everyone knows Microsoft has in-house game development... and it isn't entirely awful, unlike Sony's. (ZING!)

 

[Mokk]

I just wanted to say .. i learned entirely too much from this thread, thanks .. i think.

On a more personal and on topic note i'll take a stupid name with the usual predictably good content over something flashy with a cool buzzworthy name that every developer is going to attempt to fling crap at like monkeys at the zoo. Just my personal schtick, i like that historicly nintendo doesn't outwardly appear to be stroking itself for the masses or to just outdo itself next year so Billy Q. Suburbanite can toss their last console out the window.

Bottom line: If you like the content nintendo fans are accustomed to the name isn't going to change your mind on getting this console, nor should it regardless of wether you're a nintendo fanboy or not. Quality speaks for itself and with the possible exception of the N64 (personally i had a blast with more than a few titles on the machine) nintendo was and is the benchmark of quality and system longevity in many buyers eyes and provided they don't bone up their titles it'll be the same story 20 years from now when my kid is talking to his friends about what console to get next.

And besides .... zelda, dammit, wtf is wrong with you people?