Nintendo Claws Back In

Microsoft and Sony have been hogging the limelight of late, but Nintendo is throwing down the gauntlet and charging back in.

It's fair to say that Nintendo is not getting as much attention as its two main rivals in the run-up to the next generation. Company president Satoru Iwata wants to change that. Iwata will be delivering a keynote address at the Tokyo Game Show in September.

Nintendo has never had an official presence at the Tokyo Game Show, the company choosing instead to hold its own occasional event, Space World. Even last year, when TGS took place just weeks before the launch of the DS, Nintendo was nowhere to be seen.

Microsoft isn't letting Nintendo get all the thunder, though.

Microsoft's Robbie Bach will also be speaking at TGS, no doubt showing off the Japanese support the company has worked so hard to build. Both men are scheduled to present their next-gen case on 16 September. And Sony has hinted that it will have the first playable PlayStation 3 titles at the show too.

Nintendo's problem right now is one of timing. Sony and Microsoft are further along in development of their next-gen console, meaning that they have more to say than Nintendo.

Microsoft is prepping Xbox 360 for worldwide launch later this year, while Sony is eyeing a spring release for PlayStation 3. Nintendo said earlier this year that it hopes to have Revolution in stores - in Japan, at least - in the first half of 2006.

But Nintendo is still holding back key information, much to the delight of speculators and rumourmongers. The company has been frugal with details for Revolution, revealing little in the way of hardware specifications and showing less.

The major feature of Revolution, as it stands now, is its ability to play downloaded NES, Super NES and Nintendo 64 games and also GameCube and Revolution discs. Nintendo has hinted that, while Revolution will be more powerful than GameCube, the company has no interest in playing the numbers game with Sony and Microsoft.

The big question is whether Iwata will finally uncloak the controversial Revolution controller. Nobody knows yet.

Recent reports have said that Nintendo is showing the controller to developers, so that they can get started making games, but the company is apparently not ready yet to let the public - or its competitors - have a look.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games