I was just a little bored and thought you might appreciate a pic of the inside of the Kodak Theater, where Nintendo will hold their pre-E3 briefing this time. The announcement is a few weeks old, but I just never looked at the venue closely. In terms of space, it´s two to three times bigger than the Grand Ballroom, where Nintendo previously held their briefings. Seating capacity in the Kodak Theater is between 3.500 and 5.000. This is the very place where the Academy Awards are dished out, better known as the Oscars ceremony. Nintendo seem to take the name of the Revolution´s graphics chip ´Hollywood´ quite seriously. Just in case any of you doubt that Nintendo will have grand news for us in May, they have sure booked a grand venue.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Kodak Theater
I was just a little bored and thought you might appreciate a pic of the inside of the Kodak Theater, where Nintendo will hold their pre-E3 briefing this time. The announcement is a few weeks old, but I just never looked at the venue closely. In terms of space, it´s two to three times bigger than the Grand Ballroom, where Nintendo previously held their briefings. Seating capacity in the Kodak Theater is between 3.500 and 5.000. This is the very place where the Academy Awards are dished out, better known as the Oscars ceremony. Nintendo seem to take the name of the Revolution´s graphics chip ´Hollywood´ quite seriously. Just in case any of you doubt that Nintendo will have grand news for us in May, they have sure booked a grand venue.
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66 comments:
Wow what happened Falafel you posted this like 7 times, glitch on the server?
anyway whats your opinion on this added info on REV, now there saying 104MB of RAM and that there may be only 4MB of Memory in the GPU but how would they know its not even done yet i dont believe
This Kodak Theater stuff is posted like 3-4 Times FYI...
eigentlich total verrückt und viel zu groß. man kann es jetzt so oder so auslegen.entweder es gibt noch eine großeüberraschung,oder nintendo will den anderen die show stehlen. durch luxus.
7 times actually lol
irgendwie behaupten alle, dass nintendo ati für ihre arbeit genaus viel bezahlt hat wie microsoft. warum ist dann revolution so schwach?
Sorry everyone. While posting, the browser froze at 0%. Tried to repost and even checked, but it seems it went through after all. Anyway.
@Anonymous: I am sure the big venue gives credence to the fact that there is big news still to come. Also, the Revolution might be very powerful, after all. We won´t know until we see the GPU. In fact, the Rev´s remaining secret may be to do with the Hollywood chip. Unveiling that where the Oscars ceremonies take place is most fitting.
ya why have i been seeing sites say this secret has to do with the controller, when as i recall miyamoto's statement just said another secret and didnt actually state what it had to do with.
You´re totally right, Blizz. I think that´s a big misinterpretation. Miyamoto never said that the other secret was to do with the controller. In fact, I am sure it won´t be.
funny thing is IGN sais that miyamoto specifically said it had to do with the controller, is Matt's brain rotting away on him for some reason lol
No, he didn´t. They claimed he was implying the controller. They added something in brackets to the original quote.
exactly and look what matt wrote which i just pulled of there new Revolution channel
"Most interesting, though, was what Miyamoto didn't talk about. The Nintendo legend flat-out stated that there's more to be revealed about the Revolution controller."
i dont think its very professional of them to skew the original message in such a manner
aber warum wissen die entwickler nichts von dieser anderen sache?
oder wissen sie es, aber sagen nichts?
I'm Starting to wonder this is all Nintendo's plan to bring down system expectations to bring more hype later and Matt is on Nintendo's payroll, if thats not the case then something is seriously wrong with Matt lately
i wish i could read german lol
denn wenn es noch was gibt, dann sind matt`s berichte kontraproduktiv, denn er macht aus revolution eine scheißkonsole und ign ist nicht gerade ein unbekannte quelle.
*******NEW INFO ON REV*******
It will have a advenced eye toy like feature, as seen on the nintendo rev teaser trailer for the pad where the guy hides behind a sofa and shoots things on screen also seen in games like Police 24 in the arcades.
few months ago there was a patent where it had a bit regarding the people behind object and most people thought it was a patent for 3D but it was for this eye toy like system.
...............
Now imagine a first person shooter where u can hide behind object in real world and it will shield you in the game or if the enemy throws somthin at you and you just move out of the way in real world and you will dodge the attack in game.
i wish i could understand english!
i dunno bout that 1ne, i'll believe it when i see it or a reliable source sais it
manchmal wünsche ich mir, ich wäre ein nitendo angestellter!
bad translation:
sometimes i wish i would be a nintendo employee!
Mr. Cassamablablabla how dare you post these statements?
ArtX-the team which made it possible for Capcom to achive the BENCHMARK of this generation that is Resident Evil 4-delivers the GPU named Hollywood.How dare you post such narrow-minded comments like the "double the clockrate and that's it" one?are you honestly assuming that ArtX would just stick with such a cheap approach?do you really think that it would be plausible to call a GPU Hollywood under such conditions?Do you really think THAT is the only goal of the team behind Hollywood in a timespan of 3 years at least?Do you really believe statements based off speculation from XBOX360-pro 3rd parties in America that hardly got in touch with the final real GPU for a system rumored to launch in exactly one year from now?it really must be a bad joke.The other day you claimed that 360 provides a definitive leap in visuals and at the same time you emphasize that Nintendo is going a very different route and that it kind of dissapoints you that Revolution is only 2 times GameCube.The problem that I have with your logic is that I really haven't seen a 360 game that looks twice as good as Resident Evil 4.If you want proof then I really suggest you take a look at the 1up comparison feature.I mean it is safe to say that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder but seriously if you think that a normal- or bump- mapped texture upgrade -which seems to be the case with a bulk of the 360 games -alone justifies it being two times Resi or called next gen. then I ought to take me the liberty of calling you plain a fool.
While Broadway is well-understood by developers, the ATI part remains "a bit of a black box", according to one senior developer we spoke to. "We have theoretical throughput figures and stats from Nintendo, but nobody's seen the hardware yet - we're just treating it like it's a faster version of the GameCube GPU, at the moment."
How much faster exactly it will be remains to be seen, but the chip - which "seems to be an evolution of the Radeon range" according to our source - will probably mirror the CPU by running at around twice to three times the speed of the existing part.
Nintendo's next-gen system won't match power of rivals, focuses firmly on innovation
Developers speaking to GamesIndustry.biz this week have commented that the the Revolution console, hardware kits for which began shipping to third parties recently, is shaping up to be around 2.5 times more powerful than GameCube.
Up until the past week or so, developers close enough to Nintendo's inner circle to have seen any Revolution hardware were working with development kits that were simply GameCube kits with mock-ups of the "wand" controller attached - a clear signal, if any were required, that the system is more about innovative control than about the hardware specs.
Now, however, Nintendo has spoken to developers in more depth about its hardware plans for the new system - and has begun shipping more advanced development kits to selected third-parties, featuring early versions of some of the chips which will appear in the final console.
An article published by US website IGN this morning revealed some details of the console, and several developers today have spoken to GamesIndustry.biz to help fill in the gaps.
The picture we're building up of the final console is as follows; the Cube will be powered by the IBM CPU codenamed Broadway, which is very similar to the Gekko CPU used in the GameCube, but runs at around twice the clock speed and offers potentially two to three times the overall performance, and the ATI graphics chip codenamed Hollywood.
While Broadway is well-understood by developers, the ATI part remains "a bit of a black box", according to one senior developer we spoke to. "We have theoretical throughput figures and stats from Nintendo, but nobody's seen the hardware yet - we're just treating it like it's a faster version of the GameCube GPU, at the moment."
How much faster exactly it will be remains to be seen, but the chip - which "seems to be an evolution of the Radeon range" according to our source - will probably mirror the CPU by running at around twice to three times the speed of the existing part.
In terms of RAM, the system is well-known to boast 512MB of Flash RAM which can be used to store save games and downloaded content, but this will not be accessible to developers, we were told. What they'll have available is 96MB of main memory, built on the same 1T-SRAM architecture as the Cube, and "a few megs here and there for other stuff" - such as 3MB of on-board memory on the graphics chip, which will be used for a frame buffer. "That's plenty, since the Revolution isn't supporting HDTV," one developer added.
As for the storage media the Revolution will use, "they're pretty much standard DVDs," we were told, with capacity similar to current PS2 and Xbox discs. "The only clever thing about the drive, really, is that you can put the little Cube discs into it despite being a slot-loading drive - I think that's the first time you've been able to do that with a slot loader."
In other words, what Nintendo is planning to ship is a system which is no more than around twice to three times as powerful as the current generation GameCube - indeed, more than one developer who has access to the hardware specs suggested "about 2.5 times the power" as the benchmark for the new system.
Although this makes the Revolution significantly less powerful than the PS3 or Xbox 360, developers we spoke to were upbeat about the machine.
"You can basically treat it like a current generation machine," one told us. "The time it'll take to ramp up to developing on this is basically nil - we can just work on a PC or maybe an Xbox, and then improve the quality of our assets when we move to the Revolution. Or even work on a Cube, in fact. The libraries are very similar."
"We could do a game for this in a few months," commented another developer. "Developing games is going to be easy, the challenge is going to be using the controller properly."
The approach mirrors Nintendo's strategy with the DS, which is far less powerful than its rival the PlayStation Portable but offers an innovative interface which has been a hit with gamers and has had major success in the mass market.
Crucially, the low specification will also allow Nintendo to score a victory in terms of pricing; speculation is already rife that the Revolution could enter the marketplace at $149 or even lower, suggesting a sub-GBP 100 price point at a time when the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 still retail for three times that price.
Hi RetroElectro. I wasn´t thinking about glasses. Those can put a lot of people off. I was thinking more of the method where two projectors cast the image through a stereoscopic sheet of glass, making the 3D image appear in mid-air for everyone to see (and walk around even). It´s much less intimidating and it´s also quite cheap, as I found out some months (and posts) ago.
I see that everyone is so worried about those specs given by IGN, if there is not support for HD it means that the horsepower needed for that task it doesn't have to be huge as for otherwise the 360 HD, which means that might be one of the reasons for overheating because its a huge amount of readable data, lots af ram its needed. Believe that the rev graphics are to be beutiful...
Not bad falafelkid i was wondering about the size too.
Tell your kids not to be worried or at least till may 9.
I have something to say about this story, so I hope the owner of this blog is reading this.
I've attended their E3 conferences at the Kodak Theater and this is simply not it. I'm sorry but you have the wrong photo.
This is their conference room at the Kodak Theater:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/staff/teddman/Nintendo_E3_Conf_pics/Nintendo_2K4_conf6.jpg
Please take note. Thanks for the nice blog.
-M.Bach
Poster above me: that isn't the Kodak theater, that's "the Grand Ballroom, where Nintendo previously held their briefings." The Kodak theater is where the oscars are awarded, just google it.
http://www.kodaktheatre.com/
This is VERY good news (or a good sign at least).
Hi Micheal (is that really how it´s spelt?)
You totally missed the point, unfortunately. You posted a link to the old venue, the Grand Ballroom, where it´s always been. The photo is the new venue, where it will be in 2006. It´s where the Oscars are given out. It´s in the same building, only downstairs.
Perhaps I missed it, but where is the news stating that this is where the 06 conference will be held?
All the info stated was that it was held at the Kodak Theater, which is what it always says on their invitations.
Thanks.
-M.Bach
(oh yeah, thats really how its spelt for me. My father mispelled it on the birth certificate. lol).
P.S. : I'm not sure if you've ever been there. But the "Kodak Theater" isn't just one theater, it also includes the "Grand Ballroom"...room. So please don't take that information as full proof that it is in the actual large theater.
Not saying this isn't true, but historically the media was told "Kodak Theater" and its in the Grand Ballroom.
-M.Bach
Don't mean to bother but just for clairification:
http://cube.ign.com/articles/513/513531p1.html
Note: "The pre-show took place in Hollywood's Kodak Theatre..."
And that was in 2004.
-M.Bach
Hi Micheal. Well, here´s the original mail that was sent out by NOA:
”You’re probably just starting to plan your time for 2006. With a mere 165 days to go (give or take), it’s time to start thinking about next year’s E3. Nintendo is most certainly thinking about it. So pencil us in. You’ll hear all the incredible details about Nintendo’s upcoming games and hardware, including our next home console, code-named Revolution. You won’t want to miss it. See you there.
WHAT: Nintendo’s E3 Media Briefing
WHEN: Briefing begins at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 9, 2006.
WHERE: Kodak Theatre (home of the Academy Awards), Hollywood & Highland Center, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90028
WHY: You know why.”
For al the non believers http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=13482
Again, thats what they always say. The Kodak Theater is the home of the academy awards, but that doesn't mean they are going to use the same theater that hosts the academy awards.
Some couple hundred media personell arrive to view the preconference. Its very impractical to grab a venue that can hold thousands of people. I know, I've been there.
None of that is confirmation that it isn't in the Grand Ballroom.
Falafelkid I posted this a while back but I don't think you saw it. What do you think about my idea? Sound reasonable?
I JUST REALIZED HOW NINTENDO IS GOING TO PAY FOR THEIR ONLINE NETWORK! It is the virtual console. Think about it. It will cost Nintendo next to nothing to distribute the games, which means that everything they gain from it will be pure profit. Now how many games a year do you think you will buy if the games are like 5 dollars. Four? Five? Ten? Since it costs nothing for Nintendo to distribute those games, all that money is profit and will be potentially used to run the online servers. So Nintendo could run a "free" online service comparable to Xbox Live solely relying on the virtual console sales. Think about this. If Nintendo makes an MMORPG the year long subscription can be like 10 bucks OR buy free with the purchase of four Nintendo virtual console games. INGENIOUS!
Hey News about Nintendo's GPU is now available from the same site that released information about the completion of the Revolution's CPU:
http://www.revogaming.net/html/modules/news/article.php?storyid=172
"One of the two sources who gave us information on IBM's "Broadway" processor today gave u information on the "Hollywood" GPU from ATi. Details inside
The source provided the following information under conditions of anonymity, as well as some other general Revolution statements:
- "Hollywood" is based on ATi's RV530 GPU
- The GPU has been optimised significantly (more on that below)
- The graphics are not as bad as IGN might make them sound
- The Revolution's RAM, whilst being around 128MB, is highly optimised
Here are the specs for the RV530, thanks to Anandtech:
RV530
600MHz Core Clock
1400MHz Memory Clock
512MB Maximum Memory for "XT"
256MB Maximum Memory for "Pro"
128-bit Memory
12 Pipelines
Maximum 16x32MB 1.4ns GDDR3
High Optimisation
The source described the Revolution's optimisation like this:
Although he acknowledged that Revolution will not be as powerful as 360 or PS3, he said that the optimisation level of Revolution is similar to that of the GameCube: although it did not have the highest hardware specification, it managed to churn out the best graphics in titles such as Resident Evil 4.
RAM
The RAM is 1T-SRAM, as previously reported. The source mentioned some optimisation of the RAM but did not clarify.
We remind you that this source is very trustworthy: the information that we broke exclusively on IBM's "Broadway" is now mirrored in the comments of various developers to IGN.
There is no official word from Nintendo, however. Take this as you will.
RevoGaming will keep you updated."
what happend to people expressing their own thoughts? so many people now comment by copying and pasting wheres the fun in that.
More confusion from the world of Nintendo
The Reginator saids;
It will be easy to port 3rd party games to the Revolution.
http://1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3146171
If I said it once, I'll say it again nintendo will change the game industry again. I hate to sound like a sg007 follower but I really believe in nintendo
the fun is in that you dont have to change sites to see those news, and forces falafelkid to bring exclusive news...
jk.
Hello,
I just wanted to let you know, that the kodak theater has been used by Nintendo in the past during E3 for their retail and corporate presentation that they do the same day as the press conference later in the evening...it comes before the party.
Nintendo could just be combining the two shows into one, or just using the venue twice instead of setting up in two different places.
when nintendo has used this venue in the past, the information is given with much more sass and showmanship including dancing kids and songs...very weird to be honest with ya.
anyways, thought i would clear it up...that nintendo using this venue is not new...but it is interesting that the press are now getting the retailer treatment.
Nintendo MUST tell us something befor Ps3's sale. This is a must.
If not ... sony will say some thing like ... How graphic revolution will and ... Maybe reduce price in limit time and ... Then take nearly all of gamer.
Anybody in for debunking the new metriod prime revolution screenshots?
http://www.revogaming.net/html/newsimages/metroid3/1.jpg
PI I get your point but in relation to pricing, Sony will not make a comment like that nor would any other corporation when or before they launch a product.
It would basically tell their customers to not buy it at launch cause it will be cheaper in 6 months. Not a way to launch a product.
E3 is when most things will happen so dont worry about Sony foiling Nintendos plans. I would doubt the PS3 will beat the Rev to launch anyway.
Theres a pic of Icarus as well there TIM too if you go to the parent directory.
If you look at the Capcom logo on icarus it looks like its been photoshopped as its been cut and pasted.
The Metroid also looks like something you would make in some programming program in 3d. They look bogus to me. And why only one pic.
it would be nice if those are the GPU specs basicallycomplicated
OT:
HI Falfelkid. Just wanted to say that your Blog is one of the best sources on Revolution. But unfortunately the site produces a strange error in Apple's Safari-Browser: The whole site is a link to imageshack.us. At least on my iBook, don't know if others (maybe Konqueror-users too, as both apps share most of the website-displaying code) experience the same.
Well i guess i have to use Firefox then ^^
it does same thing on internet explorer
Ya it happens on my iBook too... Usually i just ignore it and use the up/down buttons to read entries. The only thing you need to click is the comments link which still works despite everything else being highlighted.
As for the GPU Specs they are somewhat "normal" cos most high end GPUs have like 16-24 pixel pipelines. Whatever, the important thing is that the GPU will be highly optimised. As an illustration of what optimisation can do, the GameCube had quite a weak GPU but was able to pull off nice graphics because of its optimisation. Simply put, it's cost and function effective.
well those GPU specs seem to be better than the 360's in some aspects, though i think 360 has more piplines, the 600mhz is a bit more than 360's
The remaining secret-what is it all about?I think it might not be too hard to guess.If it was related to the controller the only thing that comes to mind as a logical or plausible addition would be the rumour which made the rounds about it being somehow resistant to being tilted.If they got something else up their sleeves related to the controller then I really don't have a clue what it could be.Any ideas?And since they showed the functions of it,why would they hold back any information if the secret really was related to the controller?I read somewhere that the remaining secret could be the ability to hide behind real world objects,a rumour that derived from the TGS trailer where a person hides behind an armchair in a game which seemed to mirror a fps.This sounds a little fanciful to me and you ought to take it with a grain of salt.Irrespective,the recent GamesIndustry.biz article quotes a developer who seems to be partly initiated about Nintendo Revolution.He makes a very interesting comment about the GPU which leads me to believe that the remaining secret should have something to do with it."A bit of a black box" and "..nobody's seen the hardware yet" are the lines that really caught my attention and made me think about it.Does anybody commemorate Outcast for PC?It was released in 1999 and used a different rendering method called Volumetric Pixels or short voxels rather than polygons,allowing for a larger,busier world to be rendered without top hardware!The use of a different rendering technique would match the statements of the developer about the GPU,the general philosophy of Nintendo and the implausibility of the secret being related to the controller quite to the point if you ask me.
anonymous: explain how resistance in mid-air works. It's impossible, everyone should know that.
Unfortunatly, voxels are an engine specific thing, not GPU related. They have some advantages, but are pretty CPU intensive so I doubt this has something to do with the revolutions secret.
resistance in mid air can be used only in tilt resistance of a given axis. It's the same resistance you get when you try to tilt a bycicle over at high speed: cynetic energy. The deal would imply a rotating heavy disk inside the controller with scalable speed. the more it spins faster the more, you'll have trouble tilting the controller on the side.
Its not impossible, but it is not possible to do it on all axii.
Resistance in mid-air is just not needed.
i just wrote an article on all this supposed spec info and such, tell me what you think
http://vgameviews.blogspot.com/
nintendohollywood.blogspot.com
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1517678/20051207/index.jhtm
http://www.mtv.com/news
/articles/1517678/20051207
/index.jhtm
nintendohollywood.blogspot.com
some more pasting...
What most publishers that have reported this story have failed to mention is that developers are currently using advanced GameCube development kits as a starting point until they receive actual Revolution development kits. Obviously, we cannot expect an advanced GameCube development kit to produce next generation graphics - hence the comment by the developers. Again, most developers are not yet working on actual Revolution hardware.
ninendonow has some news concernin the misleadings by IGN.
Arsenis,
Since NoA has officially responded and DID NOT CLAIM THESE SPECS as untrue, but instead talks about why they are the way they are, I think you can really go by the fact that YES the revolution will be around 1GHZ, 128 ram, 530ati chipset etc...
When manufactured well, this still means a powerfull console - since they don't need to support HDTV it makes sense to have a console that is only 1/3 of cpu power * and memory - they also only need 1/3 of the trueput.
* Of CPU power, the graphical chipset will be able to make the exact same performances and effects then xbox360.
Nintendo held last years conference at Kodak Theatre too.
Hi.
I just want to say that I would love the Big N, name REV to just - Nintnedo
I would make sence now if they're really going for a Apple approach.
Apple products, eventhough they have names such as iTunes, iPod, iMac - people still tend to recall them as, Apple...
Big N would archive maximum marketing potential if they choose to have Rev named Nintendo. People will in the end recall their next products as Nintendo and so. Not that people haven't used that "term" before. What I was saying that in Nintendo's marketing/brand position right now wich have been; super, Ultra/64, Advance, DS it would make a marketing breaktrough if the name "Nintendo" were choosen.
See what Nintendo have said about them self and or what their creations stands for the past decades?
A family experiense system.
Entertainment console.
Fun to use.
We are inovative.
We are creating new market/new streams of income to you (developers)
We are creating new gaming experienses (gamers)
What Nintendo as a company and as a entertainment leader (console-games) are trying to do is to survie! And thay are doing it very well by creating what a few marketing gurus referd to is a - Blue Osean
Blue Osean you wonder?
Think the general businesses conducted by any game houses as being a Red Osean. Breaking out from the mould. Nintendo where simply creating a new market (osean)
when they relised what the gaming market are headed.
And when they have archive their goal by surprise the general puplic and developers, including the mass media, what would it be better than name thier wonderfully next wonder to just - Nintendo?
/madox
Ps: sorry for my bad English, hope you understand it though :)
Tim that is ok but I think Nintendo branding is just fine apart from the GC.
It is not good to do line extensions. Read a book by Jack Welch who was CEO of GE (may still be).
Nintendo are however are going the right way with the BOS and I agree on that.
If Nintendo is using the Kodak Theater (as opposed to the Grand Ballroom) for their pre E3 briefing, it would indicate a real attempt at grabbing the interest of major news media and the mainstream audience. Afterall, the mainstream is Nintendo's target this next generation.
But even if it isn't held in the Kodak Theatre itself, the fact that Nintendo sent out the invitations so early is a sure sign of something. Read it how you will, but I think its a clear indication that the final secret will be revealed at E3. Nintendo expects the reveal to be BIG, perhaps even to such an extent that the average non-gamer will take notice.
Tim,
remember that the tune upon the gamecube was supposedly slower than the other consolesw(ps2,xbox) but goodtune upmade resident evil 4 best graphics of the year, almost next gen w/ regular gamecube, now imaging 2.5 - 3 would make it betterthan x-b0x 360, because x-box 360 looks twice as powerful not 3, i have one,big mistake not really next loop on graphics specially menothaving HD.
so there w/out HD graphics on x-box 360, not that great.
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