George Speaks

[Crash]

Secrets Revealed in a Q and A with Nintendo's Vice President
Posted by James O at 10:53 EDT - 05/27/2005
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George Harrison discusses the Revolutions' price, its downloading service and Game Boy Micro's possible MP3 player bundle.

The Nintendo senior vice president of marketing and communications reveals a few more details on the Revolution, the Game Boy Micro and the gaming industry's future.

In in interview with Gamespot, George Harrison said Nintendo will wait until Microsoft sets the price on their Xbox 2 before contemplating a price for the Revolution.

"Microsoft is going to launch this fall. They'll probably have to tell people where they are by, we think, August. That will give us a good chance to understand what they think they can sell it for and also to estimate how much money they're going to lose on their box. "

Harrison also revealed that, as of now, the Revolution's service for downloading NES, SNES and N64 games for play on the Revolution is free of charge. Moreover, Nintendo will even offer some games as bonuses or hidden features in select first-party games.

"We've used some of the older games already as little bonuses, either as bonus gifts or hidden in levels of games. Certainly for the first-party titles we'll be making some of those available. We haven't really talked about whether we would sell them," Harrison said.

As for third-party games for download, Harrison said it will be their decision whether or not to sell them. He even hinted at the possibility of earning free game(s) as a sort of a benefit for buying a current version of the game.

When asked what makes the Revolution so "revolutionary," Harrison said, "eliminating the access fee so there's not really a monthly subscription, and making use of first-party games, downloadable for free...that to us will be really revolutionary."

Harrison also said the Game Boy Micro may come bundled with "Play-Yan," an MP3 and MP4 video file player for the Game Boy. Nintendo is still judging its success in Japan and will wait for an official announcement, Harrison said.

For the full interview, head over to GameSpot.