# Nintendo Revolution Unveiled **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 16, 2005, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nintendo-revolution-unveiled/321919 "2005-09-16T03:27:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nintendo-revolution-unveiled/321919/41 "2005-09-17T16:34:20Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Oh, I dunno. This is the same company that gave us the directional pad, rumble packs, and analog console controllers, IIRC. I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss this. Until you brought it up, I had forgotten that Nintendo themselves developed the ±shaped directional pad we are all so familiar with (up until that point, most home video game systems used joysticks). One wonders what Gunpei Yokoi would think about the Revolution controller. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nintendo-revolution-unveiled/321919/42 "2005-09-17T16:49:33Z")
I’ve never seen such a lot of haters. You havn’t even tried the thing and you are ready to talk about how much it sucks and you’ll never like it. Movement wise, it’s not all that different than a mouse, which we all use with great ease. As far as combos…well, now you can add movement and speed to possible combo componants. The controller is a major factor in console games, and basically to innovate them means to innovate the control. If anyone can do it, Nintendo can. We have to also remember that Nintendo has decided not to compete for the L337 players. It’s an expensive and futile proposition and they’d rather let Playstation and XBOX fight it out and then figure out what to do with the winner. Instead, they are captureing the market for second consoles, children, non-gamers, Nintendo fans, and people looking for “quirky”. In an age where game companies will increasingly avoid innovation and economics rules, the “alternative” niche will be pretty important. ---
**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nintendo-revolution-unveiled/321919/43 "2005-09-17T17:06:49Z")
For those of you griping about the loss of your dear friend the average game controller, [IGN](http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651559p1.html) has this to say, > [@](#): > > The shell is designed to look and function like accepted “regular” controllers, such as the Wave Bird. After its bottom casing is removed, the Revolution’s free-hand-style remote is inserted into a gap in the middle of the controller shell. Gamers can then use the shell as they would a traditional controller, with a notable difference: the pointer remote’s sensory functionality remains active. > … > > Nintendo has not yet released official imagery of what the controller shell might look like. However, we’ve created a mock-up based on what we know of its functionality. The real controller shell is likely to connect to the free-hand-style pointer in a very similar fashion. Please note that we realize our model is not entirely to scale, but this is the best we could do on short notice. [Here’s their Mock up](http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/article/651/651559/understanding-the-revolution-controller-20050916041026412-000.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2005, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nintendo-revolution-unveiled/321919/44 "2005-09-17T22:03:45Z")
To those still mystified at how the controller could actually work, check out the video that **malkavia** linked to in post 2. It’s just a Nintendo ad, but it gives a better sense of what you’d actually be doing with the thing and how it could work with different games. > [@Pochacco](#): > > Nintendo also seems to be focusing on quirky and weird titles. I think that’s really brave and cool, but I question it’s validity as a business model. I love **Katamari Damacy** and \*\*Ico \*\* and I’m glad they’ve found their niche in the market. But you gotta have solid cash cows like **Madden** and **Gran Turismo** to support a platform. Or solid cash cows like **Zelda** , **Mario** , **Metroid** , and **Pokemon**. I don’t know the actual sales figures, but I know enough that Pokemon is huge and is hardly a quirky niche market. (They’ve just never transitioned it to the non-Gameboy consoles as more than an afterthought, except for Pokemon Snap, which was brilliant and _should_ have been much more popular than it is.) I’m not hopping up and down about the Revolution controller, but I think it makes perfect sense for Nintendo. I don’t see it as the “casual market” or “quirky” as much as you say; I think they’re just refining their master plan. They’ve realized that Sony and Microsoft can fight it out with each other for being the all-purpose home console; Nintendo are going to do their own thing and make something that’s unique. Because that’s where they’ve had their most success – not with ports of GTA or Splinter Cell or Madden, but with the stuff you can only get from Nintendo. They don’t care about ports, they care about making the new Zelda or Mario or Pokemon game something you _couldn’t_ port to a different platform, even if you could get licensing rights. And where ports do come in – again, not knowing actual figures but just fan reaction – _Resident Evil 4_ was a pretty big hit for them. And the new design fits in well with that. Their ad highlights using the remote control as a flashlight, which is a pretty neat idea. It looks to me as if they realized what killed the Gamecube wasn’t that it wasn’t the most powerful of the home consoles, or that it didn’t have all the hottest titles ported over, but that it just wasn’t unique enough to stand out. So to me it’s not just a case of “they’re doing their own thing for the good of Videogame Design Art, and let’s hope the plucky underdogs make it work.” I think it actually makes good business sense. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nintendo-revolution-unveiled/321919/45 "2005-09-18T01:49:53Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#): > > And where ports do come in – again, not knowing actual figures but just fan reaction – _Resident Evil 4_ was a pretty big hit for them. And the new design fits in well with that. Their ad highlights using the remote control as a flashlight, which is a pretty neat idea. Resident Evil 4 wasn’t a port - it was designed specifically for the GameCube and is still exclusive to the system, with a PS2 released scheduled in October some nine months after the GameCube release. It is the most critically acclaimed title on the GC in the past year, and it’s a ton of fun to play. The sales figures still aren’t anywhere CLOSE to, say, a Madden, or god forbid, a GTA (something like seven hundred thousand copies of RE4, versus well over four million total (all systems) for Madden each year and six or seven million whenever they release a new GTA). People are saying that the Revolution isn’t going to get any ports like that’s something new - due to the inferior power of the GameCube, Nintendo hasn’t been getting meaningful ports for a generation now. The Revolution is going to be lagging behind its generation even further from all appearances, so I don’t think the controller is going to have all that much to do with that particular problem. You do make a very good point about the potential of **Pokemon** as a growth area, though. I hate the damned things myself (whenever I am playing Smash I ALWAYS kill the Pokemon-players first!), but the sales for the Pokemon Game Boy games are much better than virtually everything other than Smash Bros. for the Cube. Basically, Nintendo is going to try to market a video game system to people who aren’t obsessive about video games. The only real precedent is the DS - the same people who enjoy the addition of a touch screen to their portable are going to be the ones most intrigued by the Revolution concepts. It certainly has some possibilites… but they damn well better come up with something like **Nintendogs** that will draw those non-gamers into the fold. Will the retro-gaming thing be “it”? Will they develop crazy waving-arm-around applications that will be a big draw? I’m pretty skeptical - not to say that it CAN’T happen, I just think that trying to sell video games en masse to people who aren’t video game geeks is going to be extremely difficult. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nintendo-revolution-unveiled/321919.md?page=2)