Revolution Details

Crash · 05-13-2005, 12:47 AM

Sleek system to play standard DVDs, says Nintendo. More inside.

May 12, 2005 - The Electronics Entertainment Expo 2005 is still days away, but that hasn't stopped Microsoft from debuting its Xbox 360 console on MTV. And now Nintendo has followed suit, revealing some new meaty details about its next-generation console, codenamed Revolution.

Nintendo of America's vice president of corporate affairs Perrin Kaplan describes the console as "very, very sleek." The system, which is reportedly tiny, will stand horizontally. Its width will reportedly be no more than three DVD cases stacked flatly on each other, or slightly more than an inch.

Revolution will play standard DVD media this time around. No word yet if the console will be able to play DVD movies.

It will also be able to play high-definition games and go online.

More details to come at E3 2005. Stay tuned.

Teuthida · 05-13-2005, 12:56 AM

Whoa. Standard DVDs, hi-definition games, and online? Welcome to 2001 Nintendo.

And that quote from Perrin Kaplan must have been the most amount of information she's ever given out ever. Perrin Kaplan can go jump into a river full of radioactive guppies for all I care. Actually if Reggie revealed this I'd probably be excited. I have such fiery disdain for Perrin.

It be tiny though. Always a plus.

GameMaster · 05-13-2005, 01:09 AM

Tiny is good. So is sleek.

gekko · 05-13-2005, 01:12 AM

So is DVD, so is HD, so is online. But like Danny said, that's only playing catchup.

Crash · 05-13-2005, 01:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gekko

So is DVD, so is HD, so is online. But like Danny said, that's only playing catchup.

catch up to xbox 360?? they are saving big $$ by doing this dvd format is juuuuuuuust fine

blu-ray is overkill....

gekko · 05-13-2005, 01:52 AM

No, catchup to the original Xbox.

You can use DVD-9, which holds 8.54GB. Or, if you want to use the current HD-DVD disc as an example, you could have a disc that could be 15, 30, or 45GB depending on how many layers you have. Is that too overkill?

On top of that, it's not like HD-DVD is forced upon anyone. The entire point is having the disc backwards-compatible, which means if Revolution opted for an HD-DVD drive, they could put games on a single or double layered DVD, DVD9, or single or double or triple layered HD-DVD. Have as much room for expansion as they need, and only pay for what you need.

But then again, this is supposed to be the HD-Era. DVDs helped sell PS2 and Xbox, why not have HD-DVD playback sell Revolution? I don't have a 1080p TV, I would if I wasn't in the Corps but that's another story. Point is, I'll have one at some point during the 5 year lifespan of the new consoles, and personally, I'd like to take advantage of native 1080p and not just upconversion. By including HD-DVD playback in a console, it would actually get HD-DVD to people who don't have it, unlike at the time when PS2 was released, when DVD was already fairly popular in America.

1920x1080 takes up a ton of space to store. A simple movie trailer is almost 200MB in size. Figure all the cut scenes in an RPG, plus all the rest of the content. DVD9 ain't going to cut it, and it shows.

Just look at Xbox 360, HD-era this, HD-era that, and guess what? 720p for games. It supports 1080i, but the standard is 720p. Could space requirements have something to do with it? I don't know the answer, but it's a possibility.