Sony PS3, Nintendo Revolution Thread (Part 3)

[Jon Miller]

but the PSP needs some good nonsports/nonracing games

(I ahve heard the SOCOM game is good, but haven't tried it)

JM

[Barnabas]

what % of the market belongs to sony, what % to microsoft and what % to nintendo?

[Jon Miller]

19% to Microsoft, 17% to Nintendo, remainder to Sony

(these might only be US values)

JM

[Asher]

In US, MS is significantly ahead of Nintendo in the US. The 19%/17% are worldwide, because Nintendo has a huge lead on MS in Japan.

[Jon Miller]

I think in the next generation Microsoft and Sony will both be at about 50%, and Nintendo will be dead as a main consol (if they start refering to secondary consols.. I could see nintendo being up there, if it is cheaper)

JM

[Jon Miller]

I actually don't understand the % thing

because many people have more then one consol

one of my freinds has a PS2 (broken, he borrows mine right now), XBox, and GameCube (and a PSP)

another has a dreamcast and a PS

I have a PS2, a PS, and a PSP

another has an XBox

we all live in the same house...

JM

[Drake Tungsten]

Nintendo is doomed as a console maker.

[Barnabas]

why do you hate nintendo?

[Asher]

I hate how they won't stop with the Mario sh*t. They talk about how innovative they are, then they make incredibly creative games like...Mario Golf, Mario Baseball, Mario Strikers.

[Barnabas]

Mario Tennis rocks!

[Asher]

http://revolution.ign.com/articles/673/673799p1.html

Revolution will have 104MB of RAM: http://revolution.ign.com/articles/673/673799p1.html (16MB of the RAM being ultra-slow SDRAM again, mainly for audio use)

More Revolution Specs Uncovered
Developers come forward to reveal new performance details on Nintendo's next-generation console.
by Matt Casamassina

December 6, 2005 - Just yesterday IGN Revolution launched with technical details on Nintendo's next-generation console, codenamed Revolution. And today more development sources have come forward with both clarification and even more tech specs. The latest news begins to paint a clearer picture of Nintendo's aim with its next platform.

We cannot stress this enough: Revolution is not being positioned as a competitor to either Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Nintendo has instead chosen to design a console that will be very affordable for consumers. For that very reason, say developers in the know, the Big N has opted out of filling the system with a massive supply of expensive RAM.

In yesterday's article, we wrote that Revolution would include 128MBs of RAM, or possibly less. Developers have clarified the makeup based on officially released Nintendo documentation. Revolution will build on GameCube's configuration of 24MBs 1T-SRAM and 16MBs D-RAM (40MBs) by adding an addition 64MBs of 1T-SRAM. The result is a supply of memory in Revolution that totals 104MBs. That number does not consider either the 512MBs of allegedly accessible (but hardly ideal) Flash RAM or the Hollywood GPU's on-board memory, said to be 3MBs by sources.

Revolution's Broadway CPU, developed by IBM, is an extension of the Gekko CPU in GameCube, according to official Nintendo documentation passed to us by software houses. The Hollywood GPU, meanwhile, is believed to be an extension of the Flipper GPU in GameCube. Since developers have not gone hands-on with the GPU, they can only go on Nintendo documentation, which is limited.

Exact clock rates were not disclosed, but one development source we spoke to had this to say of the Revolution CPU and GPU: "Basically, take a GameCube, double the clock rate of the CPU and GPU and you're done."

We presented that description to another informed studio, which clarified that the clock rates may even fall short of doubling those on GameCube.

"The CPU is the same as Gekko with one and a half to two times the performance and improved caching," said a source. "Our guys experimented with it and think they'll be able to get about twice the performance as GameCube."

"It's a gamble for the Big N," said another source. "It's not about horsepower for them -- it's about innovation and gameplay."

We've also been able to unearth firm details on the storage capacity for Revolution discs. Recent rumors suggesting that the discs can hold 12GBs of data are false. In fact, Revolution discs can store 4.7GBs of data on a single layer or 8.5GBs when double-layered on a single-side. This is a massive jump from the 1.5GB capacity of GameCube discs and more than enough storage capacity for any non-high-definition game.

Readers discouraged by Revolution's seeming lack of horsepower when compared to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 should remember that Nintendo is not interested in competing in the high-definition gaming arena, and as a standard-definition console, Revolution is more than capable. Capcom's Resident Evil 4 remains one of the most gorgeous games this generation and it ran on GameCube, a console at least half as powerful according to developer reports.

Software houses we spoke with also waxed on the immediate advantage to Nintendo's approach with Revolution, which is, of course, system price. Every developer was in agreement that Revolution should launch with a price tag of $149 or lower. Some speculated that based on the tech, a $99 price point would not be out of the question.

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by Asher
I hate how they won't stop with the Mario sh*t. They talk about how innovative they are, then they make incredibly creative games like...Mario Golf, Mario Baseball, Mario Strikers.

Mario Sunshine? Rather innovative, despite being a deffinate Mario game. And I understand, that despite not being "innovative", those games are rather good...

[laurentius]

Well I hope that at least Revolution wont be having problems with overheating and crashing like some consoles do.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

as for profits, while Nintendo profits are down they are the same as Sony's for last quarter ...

OK I guess that SCE inside of Sony made more profits than the whole of Nintendo and is covering loss makers in other divisions, but regardless it is no sooo rosy on the other sides either despite 70% market share... not to mention the loss "second placer" Xbox (not even a loss leader)...

Nintendo is actually doing quite good given they are wrestling with biggest companies in the world one of which is basically dumping its console in order to get a foot in the market, not that they could not have done better market share wise, but they surely are OK profit wise so far...

[Adrian Hon]

$100 to $150 price point? Not bad at all, especially coupled with access to their back catalogue. I can see a lot of people buying the Revolution as a second console.