16th April 2004, 10:44 AM
Ok I'm reading the article, and as per usual Iwata says some crazy things.
Again this is just Nintendo's excuse to not make their next system as powerful as the competition's, which is a huge mistake.
While that is part of the reason, it doesn't explain how MS has taken second place in North America and Europe.
Quote:"When it comes to the philosophy of making hardware, our philosophy is completely different than the direction Microsoft is taking," says Iwata. "I think they are simply looking toward beefed up technology for the next-generation console. And from the developers' and programmers' point of view, that kind of machine will be very difficult to work with. In the end, there will not be a sufficient reward in exchange for the hardships they will need to endure.Since when is MS going to make their new system difficult to develop for? The X-Box is more powerful than the GC yet developers haven't expressed any problems developing for the X-Box. And with MS's very cool XNA plan, developing for the X-Box 2 should be a cinch.
"That should create an opportunity for Nintendo because we are trying to make unique hardware -- not just a beefed-up version of GameCube, but something that will be easy to program. In the long run, that will make game development on our new system more profitable."
Again this is just Nintendo's excuse to not make their next system as powerful as the competition's, which is a huge mistake.
Quote:According to Iwata, the technological jump from the current generation of consoles to the next will be so incremental that most consumers will hardly notice the difference. Perhaps he is correct, but he is hedging his bets.I seriously hope he's joking. The new Unreal 3 tech demo is just a glimpse of what the next generation of gaming will be like, and it's already several times more graphically impressive than any game of 2004. If Nintendo is making their N5 technology with the hope that the next generation of systems won't look much better than the current generation, they are screwed.
Quote:"I think that its biggest shortcoming was that we were late in launching it," says Iwata. "Because of that delay, our competitors were able to create a large install base for their consoles. Even though it was easier for software developers to create games for GameCube, because of the delay, the developers had a chance to learn more about our competitors' machines. In the end, we could not match that advantage."
While that is part of the reason, it doesn't explain how MS has taken second place in North America and Europe.