http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... s/CanadianUnveils its next-generation game systemBy SCOTT COLBOURNE
LOS ANGELES -- Nintendo Co. Ltd. entered the next-generation console fray yesterday, unveiling its new video-game system, code-named Revolution, at a press conference on the eve of the industry's showcase event, the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
Nintendo's announcement came one day after Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) took the lid off its new console, the PlayStation 3, and a Microsoft Corp. event that continued a weeklong blitz of publicity for the next Xbox, the 360.
The Revolution, slated for release in 2006, will be the smallest of the next-generation consoles, about the size of three DVD cases stacked together. The company said the Revolution will feature wireless Internet access and will be compatible with games for all of its past consoles, stretching back to the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, which was released in 1983.
In a surprise move, Nintendo actually unveiled two new pieces of hardware yesterday. Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice-president of sales and marketing, also displayed a new GameBoy portable system, the Micro, which he pulled from the breast pocket of his suit jacket to gasps and some applause from the assembled crowd of game enthusiasts and journalists. Mr. Fils-Aime said GameBoy Micro, which will be released this fall, will be two-thirds the size of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod Mini and will weigh about the same as 80 paper clips.
The Micro will join the GameBoy Advance and the DS in Nintendo's handheld lineup. The firm says its handheld systems and games represent 94 per cent of the global market despite a recent challenge from Sony's PlayStation Portable, or PSP.
In the home console market, however, Sony dominates. It has sold more than 80 million PlayStation 2 units worldwide since its 2000 release. Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube sit second and third respectively in market share, each with about 20 million units sold.
On Monday, Sony showed off the capabilities of the next-generation console it hopes will maintain its lead. The PlayStation 3 was officially announced at a press conference held in a sound stage at the Sony Pictures Studio lot here. The PS3 will display high-definition games and movies using a processor called Cell, which Sony is developing with Toshiba Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. Sony executives, in a three-hour multimedia presentation filled with technical specifications, pie charts and graphs, said Cell will be 10 times more powerful than the processors found in currently available personal computers.
"Empowered by the Cell processor with supercomputer-like performance, a new age of PlayStation is about to begin. Together with content creators from all over the world, SCEI will accelerate the arrival of a new era in computer entertainment," president and chief executive officer Ken Kutaragi said.
Sony is positioning the PlayStation 3, which it says is twice as powerful as Microsoft's Xbox 360, as the centre of digital home entertainment. It will play Blu-Ray discs, the high-definition format Sony is championing as the successor to the DVD. Sony says the machine will be in stores next spring.
Later in the day, Microsoft held its own multimedia press conference at the Shrine Auditorium. There were two new revelations: The 360 will play games made for the current Xbox; and Square Enix, which has sold 60 million copies of its Final Fantasy games, will join the developers working on 360 titles.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo runs through Friday.
Nintendo sparks a Revolution
Nintendo sparks a Revolution
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