Iron Tiger
Regular
We all know that Nintendo has said the Revolution won't be able to output in HD because the HDTV userbase is currently too small. But what about 2 or 3 years from now, when Xbox360, PS3, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and HD broadcasting push more and more people to adopt the technology? Could Nintendo have an upgrade plan for then?
Here's how I envision it. Nintendo could offer an add-on that houses a die-shrunk Hollywood GPU (without the audio processing and whatever other superfluou subsystems may be on the standard Hollywood chip), a "Crossfire" compositing engine, additional video memory, and a higher bandwidth video output. The device will act as pass-through for older games that aren't supported (and support could potentially be "patched" on for some games via download), or run actively for supported games.
At launch, a flagship HD title will be bundled with it (for the first million or so units), and following its launch, games will offer the option to run in HD with the add-on, or SD without it. The pricing would be low enough to allow it to be bought with a Revolution and still cost less than an X360 or PS3, but high enough for Nintendo to make a profit on each unit shipped.
An HD Revolution (with integrated dual die-shrunk GPUs, video memory, and HD output) will be sold alongside the SD Revolution at a premium price, until the SD Revolutions can be phased out, at which time the HD Revolution will drop to the lower price point.
Now, this is just a little fantasy of mine, but the marketing falls in line with things Nintendo has done in the past. They offered an upgrade (Expansion Pak) that let certain N64 games run at higher resolutions. They launched the DS with a demo of a flagship game to demonstrate its potential out of the box. They revised the GB, GBA, and DS, and sold them alongside the originals until they could be phased out and replaced by their revisions. And all of these moves were successful for Nintendo in the past. The only thing that could prevent Nintendo from doing something like what I've outlined for the Revolution is that it's either technically impossible to do, or if the Revolution will indeed launch with HD output already integrated.
Here's how I envision it. Nintendo could offer an add-on that houses a die-shrunk Hollywood GPU (without the audio processing and whatever other superfluou subsystems may be on the standard Hollywood chip), a "Crossfire" compositing engine, additional video memory, and a higher bandwidth video output. The device will act as pass-through for older games that aren't supported (and support could potentially be "patched" on for some games via download), or run actively for supported games.
At launch, a flagship HD title will be bundled with it (for the first million or so units), and following its launch, games will offer the option to run in HD with the add-on, or SD without it. The pricing would be low enough to allow it to be bought with a Revolution and still cost less than an X360 or PS3, but high enough for Nintendo to make a profit on each unit shipped.
An HD Revolution (with integrated dual die-shrunk GPUs, video memory, and HD output) will be sold alongside the SD Revolution at a premium price, until the SD Revolutions can be phased out, at which time the HD Revolution will drop to the lower price point.
Now, this is just a little fantasy of mine, but the marketing falls in line with things Nintendo has done in the past. They offered an upgrade (Expansion Pak) that let certain N64 games run at higher resolutions. They launched the DS with a demo of a flagship game to demonstrate its potential out of the box. They revised the GB, GBA, and DS, and sold them alongside the originals until they could be phased out and replaced by their revisions. And all of these moves were successful for Nintendo in the past. The only thing that could prevent Nintendo from doing something like what I've outlined for the Revolution is that it's either technically impossible to do, or if the Revolution will indeed launch with HD output already integrated.
