The battle, the war, the Revolution
The next round of the video game console wars is set to begin sometime before Christmas. It will be a pretty one sided affair, with Microsoft releasing its XBox360 for the holiday season. The Playstation 3 is expected from Sony sometime in the spring, and Nintendo is set to release the Revolution sometime shortly after that. Much of the focus has been on Microsoft and Sony and their respective machines, leaving the Revolution out of the picture.
Specifications for those two machines have been presented, and they are truly powerful beasts. They are also truly expensive beasts. The XBox360, if I remember right, is going to be around $400 Canadian when released, and that's without all the nice extras (like a hard drive). The PS3 is supposed to be so expensive you'll need a second job to pay for it. And that's not my word, that's the guy who's in charge of selling it.
So, where does Nintendo fit in?
If they're aiming at a price of $299 or less, they could easily be considered as a second machine for some users. In that case, they'd sell a lot of hardware. Anyone who owned either an X360 or a PS3 would have a Revolution as well.
But, how can Nintendo win the next round and beat these two behemoths?
My ideas:
1. Keep the price low enough that people will want to own one.
2. Keep the price on downloadable games free or very cheap.
3. Include some kind of storage media for the user.
4. Include a choice of game. Other systems aren't coming with games...
5. Advertise. And not the kiddie games. Advertise your "Halo/GTA-killer" games.
Including a game, even if it's a disc with Mario games from every generation of system, and storage media would make the Revolution truly plug and play. There wouldn't be a need to buy anything extra when you buy the Revolution.
Sony and Microsoft may have a true rival this round.
Specifications for those two machines have been presented, and they are truly powerful beasts. They are also truly expensive beasts. The XBox360, if I remember right, is going to be around $400 Canadian when released, and that's without all the nice extras (like a hard drive). The PS3 is supposed to be so expensive you'll need a second job to pay for it. And that's not my word, that's the guy who's in charge of selling it.
So, where does Nintendo fit in?
If they're aiming at a price of $299 or less, they could easily be considered as a second machine for some users. In that case, they'd sell a lot of hardware. Anyone who owned either an X360 or a PS3 would have a Revolution as well.
But, how can Nintendo win the next round and beat these two behemoths?
My ideas:
1. Keep the price low enough that people will want to own one.
2. Keep the price on downloadable games free or very cheap.
3. Include some kind of storage media for the user.
4. Include a choice of game. Other systems aren't coming with games...
5. Advertise. And not the kiddie games. Advertise your "Halo/GTA-killer" games.
Including a game, even if it's a disc with Mario games from every generation of system, and storage media would make the Revolution truly plug and play. There wouldn't be a need to buy anything extra when you buy the Revolution.
Sony and Microsoft may have a true rival this round.
Comments
But...
Let's see, the XBox360...it's got an IBM processor and an ATi graphics engine.
The PS3...IBM processor, ATi graphics engine.
Funny, they both sound like a Gamecube with more horsepower.
I don't think horsepower is going to win this race. It's going to take innovation, not imitation. Yes, Halo is a cool game, but when every game is a mere copy of it, it's going to get very boring, very fast.
Final Fantasy games were the best RPG's you could get years ago. Now the imitators are better than they are. Why? Because Squaresoft went the horsepower and nice graphics route and didn't build the stories like they used to.
The industry needs something new to come along and wake people up. And I believe that the easier to program a system is, the more likely that someone who couldn't normally get a game published will bring something new to the table.
And the downloaded NES, SNES, and N64 games for the Revolution will be legal, not like the ones we can find on the internet.
Personally, I do hope the X360 does well. And I hope the Revolution does well too.
As for the PS3, I'm not looking forward to working a second job to pay for it. Not worth my time or money.