Nintendo Starting Behind Microsoft and Sony in the Next Generation

The Revolution will be underpowered - but then you knew that already, didn't you?

From the beginning, Nintendo has insisted that it will not compete directly with Microsoft and Sony in the next generation. Rather its new course with Revolution is to "disrupt" console gaming, much like DS has done to gaming on the go. Leaked specifications for the console, revealed this week, suggest how serious Nintendo is about this.

It's been no secret that Revolution will not be as powerful as either PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, but the numbers, uncovered this week by IGN, paint a bleak picture for those nonetheless hoping for something similar to what Nintendo's competitors are offering.

The general specs for Revolution (see below), obtained by IGN from unnamed developer sources, fall well short of both rival systems while handily outdoing GameCube (easy, since Revolution reportedly uses similar but better chips) and Xbox. It's worth pointing out that numbers only tell half the story, as it's increasingly hard to directly compare machines that all have vastly different make-ups.

• CPU: IBM-designed Broadway, 729 MHz (GameCube Gecko, 485 MHz)
• GPU: ATI-designed Hollywood, 243 MHz (GameCube Flipper, 162 MHz)
• RAM: 24 MB main 1T-SRAM, 64 MB external 1T-SRAM (GameCube, 40 MB total)

Reaction to the leaked specs is already generally negative, suggesting that Nintendo hasn't been convincing enough about its new direction.

Like DS, Revolution will be a system built around its control mechanism, which in this case is the motion-sensing remote control-looking controller. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said at last week's Game Developers Conference that he is hoping to challenge developers to think outside of the game types they've been making till now.

Many would fault the company for being unnecessarily vague about Revolution; even now Nintendo is hinting that there are more hardware secrets to be uncovered. As with DS, Nintendo will need to rely on its games to show its true vision of gaming to come, and that vision will be on display at May's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games