For The Revolution, Being the Cheapest Console in Town May Not Be a Good Thing
There’s been alot of talk this week about the Nintendo Revolution and the statement by Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime that it will be the cheapest of all the next generation consoles. Quote:
Value has been a key card for us this generation and we’ll continue to play it.
So it appears that Nintendo is going to continue with their lowest price strategy that seems to have started with the Gamecube. But I think Nintendo is making a big mistake with the Revolution. While being cheaper than your competition is not necessarily a bad thing (I’m as cheap as the next guy), it is bad if a lower price is at the expense of features that may be necessary to keep up with your competition. In the case of the Revolution, this means the support (or lack there of) for HDTV (High Definition TV) output.
Everything in the Television industry is headed like an out of control freight train for High Definition. Both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 will have support for HDTV. The Gamecube even supports HDTV (although most games don’t support it and it’s next to impossible to get an HDTV cable for the Gamecube.) Hell, I’ve even had a widescreen HDTV for over three years now! I WANT HIGH DEFINITION FOR THE REVOLUTION!
Nintendo is basically saying “Trust us, we know what you need for good gaming” but I think they are wrong. I know they have this whole theory that the Xbox and Playstation have too many bells and whistles and they think that a console should be kept simple and that’s it, but sometimes simple means not enough.
As much as I like Nintendo (and my Gamecube, and my Gameboy Advance, and my Gameboy Advance SP) if they leave support for HDTV out of the Revolution, I’m going to have to seriously consider getting an Xbox 360.
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November 14th, 2005 at 6:03 pm
I am with you. No HD? This console’s not for me.
I can help but wonder, what were they thinking?
November 14th, 2005 at 6:15 pm
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I have no idea what Nintendo is thinking — especially when I read today that alot of people are upset that the Xbox 360 won’t have support for HD DVD — just regular old DVDs. They are even talking about holding out for the Playstation 3 which will support HD DVDs. Sony is starting to look like the Nintendo of old — let everbody get their next gen console out early, then we’ll release ours with newer technology and better features.
It worked for Nintendo in the past, I don’t know why they stopped.