Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Revolutionaries. If you follow videogame news at all, you may be aware that further information about Revolution's hardware has just come to light. What I find interesting about the reactions is that many people are still trying to compare Revolution to Xbox 360 and PS3. But I think they are missing one broader point. The relationship that Revolution will share with PS3/Xbox 360 is similar to the relationship shared by Nintendo DS and PSP. PSP is an expensive, highly powerful handheld game system. The screen is amazing and the graphics are second to none in the handheld space. The game experience, however, is pretty much identical to what you're already getting with your PS2. So, in essence, PSP is about high-end graphics and familiar gameplay, except that it has a portable focus. DS, on the other hand, is a cheaper system with less impressive graphics. However, due to its significantly different design, it provides game experiences that are largely new and/or different (ie: not possible on other platforms, or never seen previously). I remember that when PSP was announced, just about everyone said that it was the end for Nintendo. How can DS compete? It's an uglier system design and its graphics aren't nearly as good. And because it has no multimedia functions, it can't possibly hope to survive. And yet, a year later, DS has so far outsold PSP by a ratio of almost 2:1. And now that we're a year down the road, we're finding that DS has significantly more third party support as well. It's interesting, because I'm hearing the same basic arguments about Revolution. It's not as powerful, it doesn't support high-definition displays, the controller is too weird and so on. You would think that the DS naysayers had now learned something, based on the actual sales evidence. Apparently not. I think it is entirely possible that Revolution may simply end up performing similarly to GameCube (ie: selling somewhere around 20 million units when all is said and done). But on the other hand, surely DS has proven something - surely it has proven that Nintendo is actually capable of attracting new consumers. Surely it also proves that compelling and unique gameplay experiences are generally more appealing than familiar experience wrapped in advanced graphics. It looks as though Revolution's hardware will be significantly less powerful than the competition. Current leaks suggest that it may have around 104MB of on-board RAM, as compared to 512MB RAM on PS3/Xbox 360. It is also rumored that the graphics processor will be an extension of the existing "Flipper" GameCube graphics chip. There are still a million details to be filled in, of course. We don't really know that much about the CPU and the details on the graphics chip are very sketchy. The end result, though, is a machine that would be roughly three-to-four times more powerful than GameCube. It's easy at first to think of the negatives associated with that. On the one hand, that simply means that it's less powerful than Xbox 360 and PS3. So even though that really won't matter very much to most consumers, hardcore gamers will certainly argue over it. The other problem with a big power gap is that porting games might be difficult. Either a game would have to be downscaled significantly or it would need to be majorly re-coded. I don't think that the downscaling issue is such a problem, but I do think that the re-coding is - afterall, taking code written for nine seperate processors (PS3) and translating that to Revolution might be incredibly frustrating and expensive. And therefore, not worth the effort. But what are the benefits of this approach? Well, first of all, graphics are already at a stage of incremental improvement. Look at Resident Evil 4 on GameCube and think about how amazing it still looks. On a system four times more powerful, you can imagine a pretty nice result - certainly as good or better than what we're seeing from first-generation Xbox 360 software. Certainly, based on the little that is known now, Revolution could effortlessly run a game like Half-Life 2 as a first generation title. And if you've seen that game, you know how nice the visuals are. Another advantage is ease of development. If Revolution's hardware is based around the basic GameCube architecture (but "beefed up" significantly), game developers who have already made software for GameCube are going to have it easy. And new developers are going to find that the associated costs are far cheaper in such an environment. Following on from that is the idea of difficult porting. If it ends up being too difficult or troublesome to port software from other platforms, this may actually be a slight benefit for Revolution. It would mean that developers would be encouraged to create Revolution-specific software. And because the costs would be significantly lower than competing platforms, there is a strong incentive to do it. But I think the biggest benefit is the consumer cost aspect. Already, some developers have suggested that due to the hardware design, Revolution could debut at somewhere around $149USD. It has even been suggested that Revolution could launch at around $99USD at the lowest end. And that is definitely a mass-market price. If you combine that very low hardware cost with Nintendogs-esque software, you certainly have a recipe for rapid expansion. Again, I don't think anyone can predict what will happen here. But those who are already naysaying should be careful - we've seen a similar situation with DS and many were proven wrong there. I would not be surprised if Revolution's entirely unique approach to this next generation allows it to completely leapfrog the competition. At the very least, it's not out of the realms of possibility. Sen: Ah yes, I've been in a similar situation. I've taught my parents a few things on the computer and they have forgotten pretty quickly. But I guess it comes back to the idea that they never really grew up with this kind of technology. CosmicSailor: I think your last comment there really emphasizes what the advantages of this kind of system are. It's easier and preferable for most people to simply change a number or a word in a box than to actually write the entire code themselves (or search through a page full of it). SugarCone: I am nevertheless very impressed with the work you've displayed there. It's easy to be dismissive of your own work (I often am about mine), but I think that you've achieved something great there. It would be a shame if you never did design again. On the other hand, I understand that a freelance environment can be difficult. You are always working to someone else's specifications and needs, rather than your own. And if you are a creative person, that can be frustrating. It's always better and more fulfilling to develop something for yourself than for others. And that, in turn, comes back to what I was saying about web design in general - because of this situation, we do tend to see sites designed by the designer, for the designer. It's much tougher to find sites that are deliberately created with the end user in mind; particularly the end user who does not have a similar level of knowledge. Sara: I know what you mean, haha. I have that feeling at times. In fact, I often have that feeling when I read anime-based discussions on OtakuBoards. Because I am not an avid anime fan, it often feels as though I am watching a discussion in another language unfold before me. Basically in my last post, I was just talking about playing Mario Kart DS online. I was lucky enough to play with both Alex and Desbreko and it was a lot of fun. Playing online via a little handheld game system (and wirelessly, no less) still feels very strange though. At the same time, it does show you how far technology has come. Aaryanna: Oh yes, you're entitled to share it if you're buying it together. No problem at all. We obviously don't like people outright stealing it, but what you are describing is just fine. ^_^ I'm sorry that I didn't get those details to you soon enough - I have been tremendously busy lately, as I'm actually moving out of here this coming Tuesday. So it's far sooner than I thought. There has been a lot to organize! I will be very happy when it's over and I'm all settled. ^_^ John: I'd be interested to see a non-gamer write a study of gamers and their behavior. I think I could write one like that about young anime fans. "Dear journal, I am still at a loss to understand the 'kawaii' phenomenon, but I can only assume that this word plays an important role among the species..." Annie-chan: I am incredibly grateful to read that, my dear Annie. There's still so much more we can do to make things easier/better, though. And I'm really looking forward to giving it a shot. ^_^

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