Nintendo's Chance?

Sunday February 19, 2006 - 1:36AM EDT

With what can be described as a lackluster XBOX 360 debut and now rumors that PS3 will be delayed and outrageously expensive Nintendo may have hit upon the right strategy in this round of console battle.  Free internet gaming, old school downloads, cheap system, new interface and promise to make games easier and cheaper to make but reach a wider audience. Integration with their portable systems possibly also. They could dominate this round of console wars.  There is no buzz with XBOX because of their less than impressive game selection. If Nintendo beats PS3 to market PS3 just may be doomed.  It will probably still sell but if it comes out late and has a huge price tag sales will definately take a hit. If Nintendo can come out with their trademark quality games and attract wide audiences we could be looking at dominance on the level of their 8-bit system again. And their system design is the best of the 3 consoles. Small and it can fit in nicely an any kind of setup. Revolution will definately be huge in Japan, that is almost a guarantee.   Really though it will come down to the games as it always does. Nintendo lost it throne as console king after Super Nintendo because of the lack of third party support for n64 and gamecube. N64's catridge format and Sony's attracting so many 3rd party developers killed that system. Although both N64 and Gamecube both had quality 1st party games that couldn't be found on any other system.

If 3rd party developers buy into Nintendo's make quality games instead of just ramping up graphics on sequels then Revolution will dominate. Their online play remains to be seen though. Its free so they have a leg up on XBOX Live already but they still need to do it right. I keep hearing about how more and more 3rd party developers are signing up for Revolution. The main thing game developers look for in a system is how big the installed user base is. If Nintendo can attract the wide user base they are hoping and not just the traditional male sect developers would be scrambling to be making games for that system. Looks like also developers are also buying into the new controller for revolution. While still having the option for a traditional controller.  I'd feel pretty good being Nintendo right now. They make tons of money on their portables and they still have a good hold on a niche albeit small market share of nintendo loyalists who love their legendary games. Just keeping Revolution production costs down means that the system will not be a failure for them. It isn't a matter of the system failing, but how successful it will be. I'd bet it will be much more successful than gamecube which I guess could be seen as a failure in some light. After two lackluster console cycles Nintendo is going to be back. Funny part though is that since they fell off the top I never hear anyone outside of gaming talk about them. Financial analysts are predicting a two console race between XBOX and PS3, very few even recognize Nintendo.  DS althought not as powerful as PSP has PSP beat in terms of sales and their wi-fi games with free internet play really raised the stakes.

I really can't wait for Revolution. The free internet and old school downloads are enough for me.