Tendo City

Quote:In an interview with the Dallas Morning News (registration required, sorry), Anna Dolecki, Nintendo's Director of Public Relations, said that, "Showing Revolution this year will be very important to us in terms of making sure that our audience knows that Revolution is real."

She goes on to reiterate the other information that we've known, using three DVD cases again as the point of reference, as well as the ability for Revolution to be housed either horizontally or vertically.

This is the first word from anyone inside Nintendo that Revolution will be shown this year, but there is a small possibility that the quote was taken out of context, and that while Nintendo will show Revolution this year, it won't be at E3, but at another event. However, The Dallas Morning News did state in its story that "Nintendo won't reveal details of the Revolution's technical innards until E3", the first glimpse of hope that we'll not only see Nintendo's new "sleek" console, but we'll find out what's powering the machine as well.

3 Days Left ...

Quote: The Dallas Morning News

By Victor Godinez

DALLAS _ The Electronic Entertainment Expo opens Monday and only lasts a week, but it will be the launching pad for the consoles that gamers will be playing for the next five years or so.

Microsoft Corp. got the early jump on competitors Sony and Nintendo by announcing its new Xbox 360 console ahead of the annual show in Los Angeles, but all three companies will be hawking their new hardware next week to kick off the next console cycle.

Video game consoles generally thrive for four or five years, by which time their technology has gone from cutting edge to butter-knife dull.

It's that constant rejuvenation and innovation that drove video and computer game software sales from $3.2 billion in 1995 to $7.3 billion last year.

While Microsoft is clearly the biggest blabbermouth when it comes to its new system, and has been dribbling out bits of information about the 360 for months, Nintendo has also begun chatting about its next console, the Revolution.

Nintendo seems to grasp that although sales numbers for its current console, the GameCube, are only percentage points behind Microsoft's second-place Xbox, the image gap is much wider.

The next Nintendo system is designed both to reintroduce Nintendo to older gamers when it comes out next year and reassure fans that Nintendo has no intention of getting out of the hardware business.

While Nintendo won't reveal details of the Revolution's technical innards until E3, the appearance of the new system will clearly be a departure from the purple lunchbox look of the GameCube.

"The Revolution is by far the smallest console we've ever manufactured," said Anka Dolecki, Nintendo of America's director of public relations.

"In its final form, it will be less than the size of three standard DVD cases stacked together," she added. "It looks sleek. It looks cool. It will play either horizontally or vertically. It will fit into your entertainment center very easily."

Most significantly, it exists.

"Showing Revolution this year will be very important to us in terms of making sure that our audience knows that Revolution is real," Dolecki said.

If Nintendo is trying to stand tall, Sony has donned a cloak of invisibility heading into E3.

The company has parceled out tidbits of information about the new Cell processor that will power the next PlayStation, but has said it will use high capacity Blu-Ray data disks to store games.

Sony declined to be interviewed for this story and has not even said whether its next console will be called PlayStation 3.

American Technology Research analyst P.J. McNealy said in a note earlier this week that gamers shouldn't expect many Sony revelations at E3.

"Don't look for timing, pricing, or detailed title information at this point," he said in the report. "Sony likely doesn't know most of the answers now, compared to the E3 show in May 2006."

The Xbox 360 will launch around Christmas this year, while the next PlayStation is expected sometime next year.

Of course hardware is only as good as the games that play on it.

Among the companies that will be displaying their next-generation software at E3 is id Software, which will be showing off the shooting game Quake IV for both the PC and Xbox 360.

Todd Hollenshead, co-owner and chief executive officer of id, said the 360 has more than enough horsepower to handle id's famously demanding software.

"I believe it's going to be well above your average PC in terms of what you can do visually on it," he said.

All three console makers are upgrading their technology for the next generation.

Dolecki said the Revolution will play standard DVD disks _ a change from the proprietary mini-DVD disks used in the GameCube _ and will be able to play both Revolution games and GameCube games.

While Microsoft has also confirmed it will use standard DVD disks in the 360, whether or not it will be able to play original Xbox games is still unknown.

That feature _ known as backwards compatibility _ has become one of the biggest sources of suspense around the Xbox 360, and Microsoft is expected to reveal at E3 whether Xbox games will be playable on the 360.

Microsoft itself may not know whether backwards compatibility will be available.

The technical barriers are high enough to running a game on radically different hardware than it was originally designed for.

But the hardware suppliers who outfitted the original Xbox aren't building the 360, and Microsoft is reportedly having a tough time getting the consent of those original suppliers to emulate their hardware on the 360.

Tim Sifford, vice president of retail games for Blockbuster Corp.'s Game Rush chain, hopes the 360 is capable of playing games made for the current Xbox.

"I'm still disappointed that I can't play my N64 games on my GameCube, and my wife yells at me that I've got four or five different hardware units hooked up to the TV," he said. "As a consumer, it's easier for me that if I want to go back and play Halo, I don't have to rip out my old Xbox and hook that up."

"If the next Xbox is backwards compatible, that's just great," he said.

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Here are the top questions gamers are hoping to have answered at next week's Electronic Entertainment Expo:

Q. When will the new consoles launch and how much will they cost?

A. Microsoft's Xbox 360 will ship this year, and Nintendo's Revolution next year. Even less is known about Sony's next PlayStation console, and no one has spilled the beans on pricing yet.

Q. Will the Xbox 360 be able to play games designed for the original Xbox?

A. Sony and Nintendo have confirmed that their next machines will be backwards compatible with their current crop of consoles, and Microsoft could be at a marketing disadvantage if it's not able to do the same.

Q. How many and which games will each console have when it launches?

A. No one knows, and we may still not know for sure after E3, but one analyst expects 15 to 25 launch titles for the Xbox 360.

Q. What online capabilities will Sony and Nintendo unveil to deflect some of the attention from Microsoft's Xbox Live online service?

A. Again, information is skimpy. Nintendo may be more forthcoming than Sony, but the future of the console industry is clearly online.

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© 2005, The Dallas Morning News.