Iwata Drops Revolution Xmas Bombshell

Nintendo's president is unusually direct as he talks Revolution and releases.

Finally, some Revolution specifics - well, sort of. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata confirmed this week that the company's eccentric next-gen console would be out before year's end in the US and Japan, though the spectre of uncertainty still haunts the European release.

The last few months of the year are crucial for games, since that is where the most money is made, and Iwata is determined to make sure that Nintendo is there with its new console.

"We have no plans to miss out on the year-end [console] sales battle," Iwata told Japanese paper Sankei Shimbun, as reported by Gamasutra.

"As for North America, we need to release [the Revolution] by Thanksgiving, or otherwise we won't receive support from retailers. So the Revolution will be released prior to that date."

Thanksgiving translates to late November, which is around the time many expected the Revolution to turn up in the US. When contacted by Kikizo, Nintendo would only say that Revolution is on track for launch in Europe in 2006.

How much you'll be paying when it lands is still anybody's guess, but Iwata did say this week that Nintendo plans to make the machine "affordable" to the average person and guesstimates of anything from $99 to $199 (£56 to £113) are already floating around.

One thing's for sure: it won't be nearly as expensive as either the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3.

Still, there are a lot of unknowns surrounding the Revolution, and Nintendo will be tackling those within the next few months. Iwata confirmed that the system would be on show at E3 in May.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games