http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20040610a6.htm
Weee.
Sounds cool.
<I wish I knew more about what I say ‘Wee’ for.>
Another console again?
When I was young systems were made to last. I think it took some 10 years before my SNES got outdated. How long did it take with Game Cube? I think it’s going to be one year at best for the next one.
No, consoles are lasting as long as they usually did. The Gamecube will have a roughly 5 year life span, and the N64 was released in '96 and the SNES was released around 1990/91. So Console lifespans are the same length as they always have been.
I’m saying the same thing I’ve always said: If Nintendo’s next console isn’t backwards-compatible, then a pox on it.
I think they only stopped making games for SNES around 98. And I do remember NES went from early to late 80’s, for some a decade long lifespan. As for Game cube, I think it is moribund now.
“What we need is not a next-generation machine but a next-generation way of playing games,” Iwata told reporters at a Tokyo hotel.
Virtual reality? That’d be cool. 
Your memories are making the older systems better than they are. Here, in 2004, we’re enjoying the one console that’s had a longer software lifespan than any console to date; in a few months, we’ll be seeing the Sony Playstation’s <B>10th full year</B> and there are <A HREF=“http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/243542.asp”><B>still new games</B></A> coming out for it.
As far as older consoles, the NES came out in 1985 in parts of the US, and 1988 in the rest of the US (1983 in Japan). The last (licensed) title for the system was Wario’s Woods in 1994. The SNES made a launch in the US in 1991 (1990 in Japan), and the last licensed title was Kirby’s Dreamland 3 in 1998. The N64 came in with a bang in 1996, and left with a fizzle in 2002 with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. Keeping in mind that these aren’t titles released amongst dozens of others, for all three of these, they were the first release on the system in months (aside from Kirby, which was accompanied by Street Fighter Alpha 2, the only other release in months).
The Gamecube isn’t dead yet (having only been born in 2001), there’s a VERY healthy lineup coming for it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a few licensed games being released for the system as late as 2007-2008. What’s more, aside from the Playstation and NES, very few systems last as long in the US as they do in Japan. There are still new games coming out in Japan for 1999’s Dreamcast, and until 2000, there were still new games pumping for 1995’s Saturn. The systems both saw premature death in America (with Saturn’s last US game being 1998’s Magic Knight Rayearth and Dreamcast’s final huzzah being 2002’s NHL 2K2), largely due to game retailers; as soon as Babbages or EB learns that a system dies, if it doesn’t hear a huge outcry from gamers, they quickly discontinue its sales, or move its sales to select “clearance” locations. If these locations had continued selling Saturn games, the market would have flourished as a budget system, and budget companies would have bought licenses for the system to port non-released Japanese games. Same goes for Dreamcast.
So, in short, don’t worry about Gamecube’s lifespan. It’s fine. If anything, I’m worried about Xbox’s life span. The company’s being headed up by Sega people (such as Peter Moore), and they were the first to announce a next gen console. Now the rumor’s following them around that their next console won’t have a Hard Drive. All I can see here is a quick dive to the bargain bin for original Xbox software, and then a low performing (unless something is done) new console. The only solution I see is if the new system is backwards compatible (which ATI states is impossible).
Thanks, Saturn =)
Consoles don’t die. New ones are released, but people still play the old games, and old consoles. Sure, companies can try to kill them off by not making games for them, but they’re still there, to be played, and still sold second hand.
I’m kinda afraid Nintendo is going to try making a console that hooks up to several TVs at once, or some other cool sounding, but largely impractical device for their next console. Kinda like what they’ve done with countless other consoles and accessories in the past.
Whatever their plans, the whole “Consoles are already powerful enough!” attitude just doesn’t seem to make sense to me. Especially since computers are already lightyears ahead of the Gamecube power-wise, and consoles have historically been comparable to low to mid range computers of their time for playing games. Keeping their hardware slow means that many games developed for the PC or other consoles simply wont work on Nintendo’s next gen console, since it won’t have the power to play them.
The article never stated that the next Nintendo console would have crappy hardware, just that it would try and renew the concept of videogames (sorta) besides leaps in graphics. I mean, graphics can only become so good. After we reach that milestone, people are going to have to make choices based on gameplay and story instead of graphics. I’m pretty interested in what Nintendo will do, obviously.
And though consoles don’t have as powerful hardware as PCs, their architecure is optimised for playing games, unlike PCs, hence why they can have as good or better results with playing the same games than high-end PCs.
My money’s on it being Virtual Boy 2. Then again, I doubt they are THAT stupid.
damnit, what could it be? I can’t figure it out.
This, I think, is the first mention of it ever. Plus it’s the Japanese Newspaper so America will most likely hear about it later, but I don’t know how the timing of anoucements of games, systems, and such work.
Man, this is pretty cool, cause like, I know I’ve gotten a little bit bored of like, current ways of playing video games - I’ve done it all my life, and like, yeah, really awesome graphics are like, holy shit that’s so cool, for about a week, but then I get used to it, and…yeah. I’ve always trusted the dudes at Nintendo to come up with awesome stuff though (like Pikmin! Man! What a quality, awesome game! heh…), and I hope this idea works so they can beat out Sony and Microsoft, which are lame-ass companies for making console systems anyways.
Its gonna be a pet rock tamagotchi, 2 wicked fads in one, its gonna be so baddddd just like that power glove.
I can’t really assume too much about Nintendo’s next console. I’d like to see more stuff about it first. Either that, or wait until the actual console comes out.
I guess I don’t really care too much about graphics and all that, as long as the gameplay is good. For example, Mario Kart 64 was so fun, that me and my siblings were still playing it even after the GameCube came out. Of course, now that Double Dash is out, we’re playing that every day.
Eh, whatever… I’ll just sit back and wait for more info to come my way.
As a collector, I’d argue that. There are dead systems, and it’s a shame. Systems die years ahead of their time (such as NEC/TTI/Hudson’s TurboGrafx-16, Sega’s Saturn, etc), while others flourish with inferior or shoddy hardware (like Sony’s Playstation or Playstation 2). That’s just the way of life, unfortunately. You may still have them, you may still enjoy them (heck, I still love my TG16, my Saturn, my PS2, etc), but they are dead. Eventually, you will have played every game for the system, and that will be it. You can’t play a new one, because the system’s dead. You can’t await the next new release, because the system’s dead. You’ve got memories and old favorites, and you’re done.
As for the Revolution, it was mentioned before. There was a brief mention either at or just before E3, and some rumoring before, under the code name N<B>5</B>. Obviously it was all speculation, but some of the rumors pointed toward fully wireless gameplay (basically meaning Wavebird controllers standard), but with rechargable batteries on the wireless controllers, perhaps even rechargable from the system itself. There was also rumor towards backwards compatibility w/ GCN.
Seeing Nintendo’s current route, I’m expecting something along the lines of a VMU (Dreamcast Visual Memory Unit, for those not in the know; it was a memory card that could play very simple games, such as Playstation’s PocketStation). It’d fit perfectly with Nintendo’s “Connectivity” idea, and it’d eliminate the public outcry for the neccessity of the GBA. Aside from that, until Nintendo throws something more concrete at us, it’s all speculation.
And, on the record, I still prefer the code name “N<B>5</B>” to “Revolution.”
I think you meant to say PSX. PS2 is still the strongest console right now. And by strongest, I mean beyond the range any of the other next-gen consoles could hope to catch up to before they die, especially since X-Box has been going backwards since the beginning.