Saturday, March 04, 2006

George Harrison speaks to IGN


George "Mario will never start shooting hookers" Harrison is confident that the Revolution can outsell its competitors. Nintendo of America´s Senior Vice President for Marketing and Corporate Communications has spoken to IGN´s Nintendo minute.

We want to expand the total game market to people who've stopped playing regularly, or who've never played before. But that's only half the goal. The other half is to bring compelling new experiences even to the most avid gamers. If we achieve both goals, yes, there's no reason we can't compete favorably with any competitor. (...)

We don't believe graphic realism will be the deciding factor of success for the new consoles. It's like saying Van Gogh's paintings are 'graphically inferior' because they're not photorealistic depictions. But more importantly, remember how the PSP was marketed: as a device to bring the console experience to handhelds. In many ways, we've done that -- but I wonder right now whether they believe that's enough. (...)

Revolution's success will come from the fact that it'll bring a similar blast of creativity to the industry, while also lowering development costs. We'll have new and classic franchises, downloadable access for 20 years of great games and a controller that raises the bar for interactivity. It's this range of appeal that will make Nintendo a leader, both in terms of sales and innovation.

Again, pretty bold comments from Nintendo here. It´s interesting to note that Harrison, too, believes that the DS´s success will be mirrored by the Revolution. Like the DS, it may not be the most powerful console around, but its originality will more than make up for that, they believe.

Source: IGN
Image source: Nintendo press server

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with Harrison.

Anonymous said...

"We don't believe graphic realism will be the deciding factor of success for the new consoles. It's like saying Van Gogh's paintings are 'graphically inferior' because they're not photorealistic depictions. "

Great quote. I couldn't have made the argument any better myself. Harrison is obviously a very intelligent and articulate individual. This new boldness on Nintendo's part is definitely a good thing.

Anonymous said...

Simply dito. ^^
Harrison "hats auf den Punkt gebracht". *lol*
(German idiom ;))

And I really hope he's right. The videogame industry truely needs a revolution.

Ah, btw, does anyone remember that a developer (don't know who, maybe even someone from Nintedo) once said, that we'll probably see a game where the players won't shoot (with the revmote) enemies in the TV, but their friends, beeing in the same house? (Or something like that, don't know the exact sentence, but it should be similar in the meaning ;) )

Wouldn't it play awesome with the ON? *laugh* ;)

Anonymous said...

Harrison "hats auf den Punkt gebracht".

Yeah Correct German!

I also totally agree with Georgy ;)

Anonymous said...

wow, i had no idea that guy was still around. Although being in EU i guess thats why ive not seen much of him, hes been overshadowed by Reggie and Iwata. Hey, anyone remember when Iwata said they hoped to sell 50 million Game Cubes? It might have been in 2003, perhaps E3.

Shoxware Games said...

50 million GameCubes???!!!
Whoo - Now that was a harsh number!
Did Nintendo even sell 20 million GameCubes? I'm not sure!

You know, for me GameCube was a cool platform, but maybe the most flopped console for Nintendo ever!

But Nintendo made some minor mistakes, so its their own fault!

Anonymous said...

no, the most flopped console BY FAR from nintendo was the virtual boy ;-)

i hope that revolution "geht weg wie warme semmel" (another german idiom, wich means that something sells very well ;-) )

Anonymous said...

@heartquake kid

I believe that the developer that you are referencing is Grasshopper Studio. In one of the features that appeared on IGN after TGS was a list of reactions from developers. In the feature Suda 51 said that his studio had recieved a dev kit about 2 weeks ago and that they had already set up a primitive game where players shot at each other with out using a tv.

RGB said...

Primative or not, it gives u an indication of the possibilities that this new controller technology can do.

Sounds quite good and encouraging.

Anonymous said...

I totally disagree with the quote about Van Gogh. Increased power doesn't mean increased realism, it means increased capabilities. Yes, that means it can make more realistic graphics, but a console with more graphics could also make a better Van Gogh than a system with worse graphics. Van Gogh used very specific and difficult techniques.

This is the kind of quote that he rehearses before hand and feels good about, but actually has little to no truth in it.

Don't get me wrong, I love Nintendo, but you can't make an arguement like that stating that the Revo will have better capability to make INTERESTING graphics than say the PS3. It will have less capability, period, in the area of graphics, whether that's realism or post modernism.

RGB said...

BTW I believe the ON video only last so and so minutes because the soundtrack is from that Jungle movie with the Rock in it.

In the days of Super Famicom (SNES) the Arcades had the edge over home consoles with far superior graphics and controls etc.

Now that arcades are a dying market, the market is still strong in Japan and there are many things they offer that the home kind of cant (to a degree), so I can understand where you are coming from Morton. However I wouldn't think they would base their business model on that alone. But I suspect you are not saying that.

Anonymous said...

็Hay. New rumor game for revolution.

http://www.revolutionreport.com/
index.php?act=articles&code=read&id=330

it's Trauma Center - -"

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous above,

If you are talking about capabilities, then the PS3 only has one. The ability to create highly technical visuals. Thats it.

It's the same controller, same gamesplay, same console name etc... I mean god, they havent even redesigned the the controller since PSOne! And do give me that "If it aint broke dont fix it" garbage. If a Playstation controller is as good as it gets in my lifetime then I am truly dissapointed with the video game industry.

Nintendo's Revolution will have more capabilities. Period.

RGB said...

Yeh thats what I thought you were saying and I agree entirely.

Anonymous said...

@ morton-jn:

I know what you mean about Australia being full of tech-hoars, it's so unfortunate.

I am not willing to pay that much for a "next-gen machine", the price of the Xbox360 over here makes me laugh out loud.

I'll wait until it's been out for 2 years and then I'll get a second-hand one. Maybe.

Anonymous said...

Let's have a reality check here for the graphics whores vs. gameplay people. The PS3 and XBOX360 being more powerful will have better graphics. This is not the only thing better hardware will do though. It will also have the capability to have more realistic physics, AI, and on-screen characters. Many people seem to think all that horsepower will only be used to make things look photorealistic. The Rev does have something the others don't though, and that's the controller. So what will make or break the system is how well games are designed to use the controller.

Anonymous said...

guy above me simply untrue,, when he says its not the be all end all he dosnt mean revo will have weak graphics,, he is saying the whole graphics argument is over revos graphics will stand up its the on paper spec obsesion he is talking about,, what he is saying is freehand revo controller vs hd resolution i know witch im picking revo will have great graphics the point nintendo repeatedly try to make is the competition is no longer based on sutch a shallow argument,, on paper revo will look weaker but being more dev frindly and not out putting above 480p res it dosnt need to be and saying revo will be weak at graphics and physics come on man this is nintendo they dont do half baked plans they do perfection... and anyone who believes you need multicore processors to do game data streaming is a compleat moron the pc type specs you see in ps3 360 have nothing to do with games there sony and bill fighting a pc replacment set top box war... its got nothing to do with games qoulity if it did they would have done new explosive controllers and clearly they havnt as they care ziltch about gamings future or qoulity... they only care about dominance of the home by trying to out do each other with a set top box we all live are lives thru... its been proven time and time again peeps dont want all in one boxs yet these 2 companys carnt get that thru there thick skulls.. the muticore over sized specs in ps3 and 360 are good for taking on a pc or mac or multi tasking but they have nothing to do with games revo will be GAMECENTRIC design and will hold its own the graphics war is dead anyone can see that multicore processors and massive ram is for computing not gaming games run better in fast streams of data not large banks of data.... peeps are confusing computing specs with gaming specs why do you think nintendo use 1t sram its better at streaming high speed small banks of data and thats how games work you dont need 10 threads and 512mb ram.... to do nxt gen gaming all you need is a custon system that dose the same job THINK ABOUT IT

Anonymous said...

I believe that the rev will use a camera somehow to capture your face, characture it and put it on your in game character, which in turn will play in a online fps, then you can shoot your buddys in your own house because you will see them in the game.
The patents are already in place, and it has been tested.
sizcoz

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