Nintendo to launch new game console in 2006

Nintendo to launch new game console in 2006 | CNET News.com: "

Nintendo will launch its new video game console sometime next year, missing the key 2005 holiday shopping season and putting it a step behind Microsoft in the battle for the next-generation game machine, a Japanese business newspaper reported on Saturday.

The report comes two days after Microsoft announced that its new console, called Xbox 360, will be in stores in time for the 2005 year-end shopping season, giving it a head-start on the competition if Sony and Nintendo don't introduce their new consoles until next year.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun paper said it obtained the information from Nintendo on Friday, without citing sources. Nintendo has not officially set a date for its next generation console, code-named 'Revolution,' although a 2006 launch has been widely expected.

Nintendo officials were not immediately available for comment.

Based in the ancient Japan capital of Kyoto, Nintendo was the dominant brand in home video game consoles for much of the 1980s and early 1990s until Sony entered the market with its PlayStation and Microsoft later introduced its Xbox machine.

Nintendo has said that Revolution will be ready for wireless Internet gaming and backward-compatible with the current generation GameCube, which is now in third place in the console market behind Sony's PlayStation 2 (PS2) and the Xbox.

The new console will be powered by a chip developed by IBM code-named 'Broadway' and a graphics processor from ATI Technologies code-named 'Hollywood.'
The Xbox factor

Revolution will use 12 cm optical discs and be about the size of three DVD cases stacked together, the Nihon Keizai said.

Sony has not said when it will release its next-generation console, tentatively named PS3, although industry watchers generally expect it to hit stores sometime next year.

Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are expected to show off their next-generation gaming consoles to developers next week at the annual or Electronics Entertainment Expo, or E3, as all three companies seek to entrench themselves deeper into living rooms with advanced computing, graphics and multimedia players"

MS isn't the leader so the comparison between Nintendo and MS is misleading. Nintendo, like MS and Sony, is using an IBM PPC processor. Like MS, they are using an ATI GPU. Unlike MS, the Nintendo system is going to only play DVDs and focus on gaming and wireless networking. MS wants to own the home server/PC/media - a broad market. Possibly Nintendo will have a better engineered system, like the Dreamcast which plays so well on modest sounding hardware specs. They'll need to put together a efficient system for gaming with this PPC core.

The Nintendo system will be small, like the Gamecube and backwards compatible with gamecube titles. Like the Sony PS3, backwards compatibility is critical to keeping sales strong and offering an installed base of affordable games for the new system.

The Nintendo system will need to be cheap to make so it can sell for less than the MS console. It will also need to be easier to use and it will be since it does less than the XBOX 360. Meanwhile nintendo has to keep pace with MS in 2005.

The Gamecube is a good system and for $99 it's a steal. Look for the GC to bundle games and equipment at $99 or drop to $79 or hell, $49 for XMAS. If XBOX 360 is NOT backwards compatible then Nintendo should push the gamecube hard in 05. It's worth cutting the price and pushing up the userbase for upgrading to the next generation game console. It's worth getting users to adopt GC by pushing the low price and cutting prices on legacy games.

Since multi-processor programming is so difficult, early games from MS and Sony should compare to the Nintendo Revolution - assuming it's a less complex PPC CPU. It will take time to write software that can differentiate these more complex hardware systems. Advantage Nintendo in 2006-07.