Monday, September 19, 2005

Controlling the revolution






















I am back from Egypt, where I witnessed Nintendo´s Revolution from my new PDA cell phone. My first thought about the controller was this: Isn´t it ironic how we all knew what technology would be the focus point of the controller? Yet the actual revolution is in the shape. Like a TV remote, it is a one-handed controller with possible add-ons. So apart from the gyroscopic technology, the only other rumour that somehow fitted the truth turns out to be that of a controller that breaks apart. I never really took this one all too seriously, I must admit. In fact, most of us still imagined a shape that would be held by both hands. But Gyroscopes track your movement in three dimensions, so a gyroscopic controller can be a simple shape with buttons on it, held in one hand. And Nintendo was after simplicity. It should have been easy to come to that conclusion, yet noone did. Me neither.

But so much has been said about the controller itself. Let me turn to some bigger issues. Who is a winner of the revolution that we witnessed? Well, Nintendo undoubtedly is. They managed to keep the controller a secret until Iwata´s speech. No leaks, not even hints surfaced. Yet publishers were quick to comment on the controller after the revelation, proving that they had known for some time. Nintendo exercised complete control. Unlike Microsoft, whose Xbox360 had its debut on the internet days before the official unveiling on MTV.

What makes Nintendo´s feat even more amazing is that they exercised complete control while the internet was abuzz with theories, rumours and fakes. We were eating up any apparent information, no matter how ridiculous, and still asked for seconds. People who were in the know must have been itching all the more to spill the beans. Yet the last four months went exactly according to Nintendo´s plans: maximum hype, no leaks.








Of course, such a hype is a volatile state that can easily turn to frustration if the truth does not live up to the people´s often wild expectations. Most punters seem to be more than satisfied with what they got, though. These fan-made add-ons prove both the flexibility of the controller design, as well as the imagination of the community, which Nintendo seems to have captured. The bottom line is: It all turned out beautiful for Nintendo.

But there are also losers of the revolution. To some extent, IGN is one of them. Many people believed that IGN was exclusively partnered with Nintendo and knew far more than any other medium. In fact, they fueled this kind of speculation themselves, cryptically showing off the basic console design before its unveiling at the E3 press conference. They may have seen ´Teh Nitedo Revolution´ beforehand. But in the last few days, they appeared more and more clueless. It became obvious that IGN was not in on the secret. They even seemed to downplay expectations that Iwata would show the controller during the TGS keynote, which really makes me wonder. Even I knew this would happen, because someone at Nintendo told me. Of course, I could not post this information here. But I certainly never tried to downplay expectations. Strongly hinting at having seen the console beforehand was a smart move that put IGN in the pole position back in May and for months to come. But they were unable to repeat this PR stunt for the controller - when it really mattered. So they ended up shooting themselves in the foot.

Naturally, the biggest losers are those infantile idiots like Seriousgamer007, Osoko Tanaka and Aries - as well as the people who believed them. It is perhaps only now that most people realise that any such leaks would have been tremendously harmful to Nintendo. Only by being exercising full control over the unveiling of the revolution controller, Nintendo was perceived as a force to be reckoned with. They have finally delivered on their promise of a revolution. And they controlled it.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

So this is it.
Awesome, can't wait to play some Metroid with it.
So (bad boys, bad boys), what you're gonna do ?

Anonymous said...

Hi guys, take a look at this:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b160/zakuchan/hands-on-the-revolution-controller-.jpg

What's wrong? Take a look at the pad's reflection :> It seems that Nintendo i sstill playing with us..

Anonymous said...

haha that's actually a funny discovery =) but the controller ISN'T final yet, and changing button layout shouldn't be a surprise. though... is that some spot left of the lower button (in the reflection) or is it just dirt ond my screen..?

Anonymous said...

The final controller will have X and Y instead of the small A and B in the bttom/front of te controller

Anonymous said...

It's not decided yet wheter the controller will have X,Y or a,b in the lower part..

Anyway, someone - yep, there's this weird spot left of the button as well as a "A" in the reflection of the "a" button. What is more, the "A" is flipped horizontally from how it should be reflected :)

Anonymous said...

The guys at Nintendo probably messed up with Photoshop...

Anonymous said...

Well I work as a web developer and use photosop every day. I can guarantee that someone INTENDED to do this.

Anonymous said...

OK then.

Let the N-Game, Round 2, begin !

Anonymous said...

dadadadaaa
i'm lovin it

Anonymous said...

I think there was a hint at GAF just a couple of days before TGS. Someone "in the known" has posted a picture of a ninchuku.

Falafelkid said...

Calm down, man. You have got a valid point, so why spoil it by flaming? I agree that the controller unveiling pretty much proved the N-game and all of its prophets wrong. The screenshot in question is real, i.e. the wrong reflection really is on the IGN original. But that does not mean that Nintendo is messing with us, only IGN is. Maybe my judgement of their Nintendo connection was too hasty and they do know more than others. And maybe there is more to the controller than we already know. Maybe there is more revolutionary news coming our way. But nothing of the sort would mean that there is indeed an N-game. I have also said that there is no such thing and now I stand by it only the more.

Anonymous said...

IGN is playing with us? Check out these:

http://nintendo.co.jp/n10/tgs2005/gallery.html

and this:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/09/15/screens_6133335.html?page=1

I say that N has few surprises left for us. :>

Anonymous said...

"N-Game Round 2?

Haven't you fucking retards learnt ANYTHING? "

Hey, calm down, I was joking. :)

Besides, I never believed those "insiders", but I've followed the whole story. I found it entertaining. And, as falafelkid said, the total control Nintendo had over this was impressive.

CK said...

Hmm, still, this couldn't have been a careless mistake on Nintendo's behalf. Notice that the "A" in the reflection is in caps, while the actual controller uses lower case.

Anonymous said...

Hey Falafelkid,what do you think about Osoko Tanaka predicting that the controller would be 2 30 minutes before Iwatas speech and what do you think about Jim Merrick saying that they went through great pains not to show any software at TGS and that they are presenting a new way to SEE games and to PLAY games.Is he just talking about the way we see games as a whole or is he hinting about the way we view them during gameplay.
Thank You for reading

Anonymous said...

So far everything we have seen is revolutionary, or rather tech that is a first to be used in games. the Rev itself is but a mere box. no curves or anything. yet it has a slot loading drive. most commonly seen in Apple's hardware line up and car stereo's.

Also the Rev is supposed to be easier to develop software for than it was for the GC. Revolution?
This leads to hardware. I think the Rev will have something special in the way of graphics. I'm starting to think its going to look as real as hardware will go. Visually on par, if not better, than the PS3 and Xbox360. a gut feeling tells me this too :)

also Apple have apparently been rumoured to be working on games system, or developing games as a new-named company (like their Pixar company). Couple that with the whole Apple-style of the Rev and its controller, its slot loading drive, Apples rumours and the fact both companies work in complete secrecy... i think Apple and Nintendo have paired up. they both have similar philosophies on providing simple but powerful hardware.
any takers?

Falafelkid said...

Check my latest post. It´s not a capital ´A´. It´s a ´Y´, possibly with an ´X´ above it. Thanks for the great links, Robert Wydra. But the picture on the Japanese page is still too small to discern that particular part. The reflection could only be in the IGN / Gamespot picture.

Falafelkid said...

Hi Anonymous (about Osoko): I was not aware of him predicting anything. But when you post on a blog like this (and his is with Blogger, too) you can actually edit the time and date shown. So even if it looks as if he posted things early needn´t mean he actually did.

Radar11x said...

the controller concept ic cool
but I want to see it in action
for real and instead of that concept trailer that out.

Anonymous said...

If you check out the controller mockups they had on IGN well before TGS. The stand up one with the joystick and two triggers seems to me a lot like the expansion for the controller. The Nunchaku one.

Anonymous said...

If you check the video shown at TGS to reveal the control, the buttons were "X" and "Y", with small "a" and "b" letters next to them.

Probably what happened was, for some reason, Nintendo changed the button labels for the publicity shots using photoshop, and someone just forgot about the reflection.

But check the video on IGN. It is very clear that they were originally "X" and "Y".

Anonymous said...

Osoko has posted his post 30 minutes before TGS. And there are people who have posted asking about the Nintendo conference, before it begins too.

Anonymous said...

being a whiney boy on the internet won't make nintendo reveal anything.
They won't - they'll wait at least until the xbox360 launch before stealing the show again.

Anonymous said...

- I found Hi-Res pics on gamersreport.com
- Link: http://www.gamersreports.com/index.php?action=media&type=stories&sid=3290&id=3290&videos=0

Anonymous said...

The Xand Y button with A and B on the side is also on the Video they showed at TGS, my guess is that they originally were planning on having the bottom buttons be XandY but then changed it right before the TGS show to be just a repepeat of A and B, after all why confuse people with more buttons then required A and B, and a and b are obvioulsy diffrent but making them just lower case versions makes it simple yet functional.

Anonymous said...

Now that ive seen the contoller. I think: Who cares about graphics! I actually forgot the graphics when i saw that. I want revo.

and iwata sayd something like this:

"To prevent the multiplatform games, virtual console games, existing games come too compilicated to new controller. we are using the expansion feature youll be able to use what we call classic-style expansion controller. This is controller with shape of existing controller's."

Anonymous said...

I watched that video over 15 times and I'm STILL not tired of it

Anonymous said...

Hi I just wanted to send a quick note to let you know I really enjoyed

Anonymous said...

Those controllers are pretty interesting. My boyfriend (in case you didnt know I am a Gay Nintendo Blogger) actually tried out the controller. He works for IGN.

He said it is amazing. Anyhow power to the Rainbow.

I wonder if the controller vibrates?