Why is Nintendo holding out on releasing technical specs?

[Ooh-videogames]

It makes no sense to me, especially considering there console is technically inferior to the Xbox360 and PS3.

Holding on to the specs doesn't really have any benefit, I guess they figure releasing pics of games, trailers and specs simultaneously may make it easier for Nintendo fans to accept the technically inferior console.

Also any impact the controller could of had, dwindles when your not on a equal footing technically.

 

[BenQ]

Based on what is known about the Revolution, I have absolutely ZERO interest in getting one.

Nintendo will downplay hardware and hype "innovation" ( like they have some sort of monopoly on innovation ) even though Nintendo hasn't had an innovative idea in damn near 15 years.

 

[jvd]

I honestly don't see the problem .

Look in 2006 when this launches the r520 will be old . So they can have an r520 in the console and a a next gen gekko cpu mabye dual core at say 2 ghz and it will be very fast and put on a great image for a 640/480p display .

I think they aren't saying because its not final right now and they would have gotten crushed by ms and sony who both had a ton of stuff to show .

 

[Ooh-videogames]

I honestly don't see the problem .

Look in 2006 when this launches the r520 will be old . So they can have an r520 in the console and a a next gen gekko cpu mabye dual core at say 2 ghz and it will be very fast and put on a great image for a 640/480p display .

I think they aren't saying because its not final right now and they would have gotten crushed by ms and sony who both had a ton of stuff to show .

Specs is all we need. They are already crushed.

 

[jvd]

Specs is all we need. They are already crushed.

How so ? The game cubes specs weren't great . However the system was very balanced and put out a great image rivaling that of the much more expensive xbox .

Its naive to believe that specs alone matter . Cpu and gpu speeds and specs by themselves don't matter

Your also forgetting that they will be rendering at a lower res . Which means with teh same power more work cna be done per pixel .

I believe 720p is almost twice the pixels of 480p . Meaning an xbox 360 can do twice the work per pixel at 480p than 720p (if i'm correct about the pixel number )



There are many factors than just specs

 

[mckmas8808]

I think they aren't saying because its not final right now and they would have gotten crushed by ms and sony who both had a ton of stuff to show .

I'm sorry jvd but Nintendo is now killing themselves. I think they have realized that they can sell the least amount of hardware and software with their consoles and still make more money than Sony and MS's gaming division. I think they really just don't care about what people think about them as far as specs go.

Look across the net. Most people have given up on Nintendo's consoles. They have been loses marketshare with their console every gen. This next one will probably be the same.

And its sad because most people love or has loved Nintendo at some point of time. Sony and MS had to make us love them. But Nintendo had us for years and they are seriously losing us. They told everybody that they would not be last next-gen, but look where they are so far.

 

[Almasy]

Revolution´s specs aren´t going to be all that great. I can only speculates that Nintendo wants their users to focus on their gimmick rather than on comparisons that will put them on a bad situation in terms of image.

I imagine it´s easier to show the gimmick and later say "Look at the gimmick!! Awesome, isn´t it?? Oh, BTW....all we could do was put a 400MHz GPU there and only 1 CPU core at 1.8 GHz" than the other way around.

 

[mckmas8808]

The game cubes specs weren't great . However the system was very balanced and put out a great image rivaling that of the much more expensive xbox .

Yeah but their games usually had the least amount of stuff in them making them the least enjoyable with most multiplatform games. Whether it be no online play, no commentary, not alot of NPC talking, etc.

To me it kinda showed. I guess some of those issues were because they went with a small disc capacity.

 

[Nicked]

"Why should Nintendo release specs?" is a better question.

Nintendo obviously doesn't want to let the competition know whats in their box. At the end of the day most consumers will buy a system not on the months of hype leading up to it but on whats available at the time. If they see a gameplay revolution is a sexy little box, they'll surely buy it. They won't care that internet fanboys were disappointed for a few months because it doesn't matter one iota.

Or in other words; it doesn't help Nintendo to release specs.

 

[jvd]

I'm sorry jvd but Nintendo is now killing themselves. I think they have realized that they can sell the least amount of hardware and software with their consoles and still make more money than Sony and MS's gaming division. I think they really just don't care about what people think about them as far as specs go.

Really because when i'm at the store (even though i got the job at samsung i still go in on saturdays ) many people are excited about the rev and the fact that it will play all nintendo games .

Few really care about the specs . We have the game informer pages with each of the systems and this is what happens

1) looks at the ps3 and they say they like the bc and the game shots (lets not discuss this )

2) xbox 360 , they all like the live features planed

3) nintendo they love the case and talk about the fact that it will play the old games

So as you can see the casual person doens't really care about specs . They never did in any gen .

Look across the net. Most people have given up on Nintendo's consoles. They have been loses marketshare with their console every gen. This next one will probably be the same.

I disagree , i think 18-20 m systems is what they will stay at from here on in . On the net its sorry to say but alot of fan boys who will debate specs . Fan boys aren't improtant as they already have thier minds up and will use anything to troll another system . The casuals don't care about specs and only care about what games there will be .

And its sad because most people love or has loved Nintendo at some point of time. Sony and MS had to make us love them. But Nintendo had us for years and they are seriously losing us. They told everybody that they would not be last next-gen, but look where they are so far.

The problem with this thinking is your forgeting the age group of us when nintendo had us .

Nintendo still has the younger gamer and the older gamer . Its the mid section they have problems with .

IF you hae a young child your still best off with a nintnedo system. It apeals to all ages .

Yeah but their games usually had the least amount of stuff in them making them the least enjoyable with most multiplatform games. Whether it be no online play, no commentary, not alot of NPC talking, etc.

Well i don't agree . Many multi platform games were good on the gamecube. Sonic , soul caliber and others were great on the system . Your right that they had no online play . Thats nintendos bad . But then again for a few years sony had no online play either . There was no spoken commentary or npc talking but that was a limitation of the medium not the actual system .

This time they will have a dvd drive like ms and should be fine . They are also targeting a lower res . So even if the specs are lower than sony and ms they can still put out an image as good .

at 640x480 a r420 card like the x800xl should be able to easily put out any image u through at it with 4-6x fsaa . Once again you can do more work per pixel . You an have more shaders and more polygons in the games also .

Its a trade off sure . But for nintendo it may be best .

I will def do a 200$ rev and a 300$ x360. The rev is perfect for my car and my office at work

 

[mckmas8808]

"Why should Nintendo release specs?" is a better question.

Nintendo obviously doesn't want to let the competition know whats in their box. At the end of the day most consumers will buy a system not on the months of hype leading up to it but on whats available at the time. If they see a gameplay revolution is a sexy little box, they'll surely buy it. They won't care that internet fanboys were disappointed for a few months because it doesn't matter one iota.

Or in other words; it doesn't help Nintendo to release specs.

Yeah it won't help them to release specs, because they will be weak. How much that matters ahhh I don't know.

 

[Ooh-videogames]

Whatever the specs are they can't be worth keeping secret.

 

[Iron Tiger]

This gen, Nintendo said that their console could only do between 6 and 12 million polys per second. Now if everyone believed what they read, we wouldn't have had games like Rogue Leader, Rebel Strike, or Resident Evil 4. Specs don't matter, what we see on the screen does, and even then, it's of less importance than the gameplay experience. The Nintendo DS is outselling the PSP. Now why do you think that is? Nintendo knows what they're doing.

And it makes sense to not show anything before you're ready, because both Sony and MS received a lot of negative press about their E3 debuts. MS games didn't look "next gen", and the ones that did ran like a slideshow. And Sony had the big "it's only CG" debacle.

 

[EndR]

spec wise...could it be in the neighbourhood of let us say.. Mac-mini but of course optimized for gaming? (A different cpu and GPU)? But like "hertz-wise", a little bit stronger? IIRC, both Rev and Mac-mini shold be about equal size (Mac-mini should be a little bit bigger considering the hdd)..

http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html

if Rev is not that far from Mac-mini Hertz-wise (around 2 Ghz singlecore, around 400mhz for gpu for Rev I think)) then it will be underpowered as hell compared to the competition...

 

[Hardknock]

Isn't it obvious? The Rev is not going to be all about the specs, it will be about unique gameplay. I bought both a DS and a PSP and learned pretty quickly that graphics do not make the better system...I for one will be getting a Xbox360 and Rev for sure... I'll take a wait and see approach with the PS3....

 

[Ooh-videogames]

We all know that graphics doesn't make one system better than the other, if the gameplay isn't worth your time.

But Nintendo isn't the market leader, their fighting a uphill battle and being weak technically isn't going to make the battle easier.

Just give me some Ghz, Mhz, and MB's and I'll be satisfied.

 

[mckmas8808]

Isn't it obvious? The Rev is not going to be all about the specs, it will be about unique gameplay. I bought both a DS and a PSP and learned pretty quickly that graphics do not make the better system...I for one will be getting a Xbox360 and Rev for sure... I'll take a wait and see approach with the PS3....

The PSPs best games haven't even come out yet. It still has GTA, Daxter, Madden with direct connectivity with the console counter-part, etc so don't go there. The PSP is doing great for being Sony's first handheld.

 

[PC-Engine]

In an interview with IGNcube, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto offered further insight:

"You know, in regard to the power of the Nintendo Revolution versus, say, the Xbox 360, we're looking at making a small, quiet, affordable console," he said. "If you look at trying to incorporate all that, of course we might not have the horsepower that some other companies have, but if you look at the numbers that they're throwing out, are those numbers going to be used in-game? I mean, those are just numbers that somebody just crunched up on a calculator. We could throw out a bunch of numbers, too, but what we're going to do is wait until our chips are done and we're going to find out how everything in the game is running, what its peak performance is, and those are the numbers that we're going to release because those are the numbers that really count."

Anyway like jvd has said, R520 will be old and cheap come fall 2006. Just think about this. Xbox 360 is releasing fall 2005 with a built-in HDD. If it didn't come with a HDD then that would make the console $50 cheaper right off the bat fall 2005. Come fall 2006 wouldn't you think Xbox 360 could be sold for $200 without a HDD? Wouldn't that mean Nintendo could also sell Revolution for $200 with comparable performance to Xbox 360 at 852x480 resolution? Think about.

Isn't it obvious? The Rev is not going to be all about the specs, it will be about unique gameplay. I bought both a DS and a PSP and learned pretty quickly that graphics do not make the better system...I for one will be getting a Xbox360 and Rev for sure... I'll take a wait and see approach with the PS3....

Ditto. 8)

 

[Sean*O]

I believe 720p is almost twice the pixels of 480p . Meaning an xbox 360 can do twice the work per pixel at 480p than 720p (if i'm correct about the pixel number )

Going into calculator mode:

It's actually exactly 3x the pixels @ 307,200 for 480p vs. 921,600 for 720p

 

[jvd]

I believe 720p is almost twice the pixels of 480p . Meaning an xbox 360 can do twice the work per pixel at 480p than 720p (if i'm correct about the pixel number )

Going into calculator mode:

It's actually exactly 3x the pixels @ 307,200 for 480p vs. 921,600 for 720p

Thanks for doing the math .

That means the x360 could do 3 times the work per pixel . So the ns5 doesn't have to be as powerfull as the x360.

However i doubt the system will be greatly under powered . I'm really thinking a dual core cpu at 2-2.5 ghz and a 400-500mhz gpu