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Revolution Worldwide Launch Possible 77

Posted by Zonk from the anything-is-possible dept.
hammersuit writes "GameDaily Biz reports that a Nintendo Revolution simultaneous global launch is still in the cards. From the article: 'Bloomberg.com suggested that Nintendo would avoid a global launch. However, a Nintendo representative today said that those comments were misinterpreted. 'The comments have been taken out of context,' said the Nintendo spokesperson. 'What he's actually saying is that we're not holding a worldwide launch just because everyone else is doing one too. It's just another re-iteration of the fact that we're not looking at what Sony or Microsoft are doing.'"
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Revolution Worldwide Launch Possible More

Revolution Worldwide Launch Possible

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  • translation (Score:1, Insightful)

    by amazon10x ( 737466 )
    Doesn't it usually take longer to launch it in other countries because tranlastion has to be done to all of the games? If it is launched simultaneously in all countries then Nintendo is going to have even more work to do before launch... hopefully the translation doesn't get shoddy (we wouldn't want another "All your base")

    • Re:translation (Score:5, Funny)

      by Gattman01 ( 957859 ) on Monday April 03, 2006 @11:04AM (#15050128)
      we wouldn't want another "All your base"


      ...or would we?
    • I don't know why that would be difficult. PC games are translated in practically no time and the firmware of even the first DS sold in Japan had options for all the languages the European version has.

    • Re:translation (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MindStalker ( 22827 ) <mindstalker@@@gmail...com> on Monday April 03, 2006 @11:14AM (#15050246) Journal
      No, its more of an issue of supply and demand. Say the factories can only pump out 6 million consoles by launch date. They can sell it in one country and meet demand or they can go for a worldwide launch and totally piss off many people that can't buy one. Kinda like what happend to the 360 when it took months for supply to catch up with demand. Game translation is an issue though, but its small one. More of an issue is the supply part. As well as having to deal with retailers across the globe, as well as having support lines avaiable with speakers of all the languages you intend to ship to.
    • It takes no longer to translate into one or fifteen languages, as it is work that can be done in parallel. However I find this piece of news unlikely, as that would mean Nintendo had given up their highly successful business practice of "fucking Europe up the ass, hard."
      • as that would mean Nintendo had given up their highly successful business practice of "fucking Europe up the ass, hard."

        I don't know how much you actually mean that. But Nintendo is one of the few publishers that actually makes a point about doing a good localisation, and publishes many games that wouldn't necessarily seem "economical" to other publishers. I can't recall any Nintendo game that had a bad localisation.
        • If you only release one or two games a year in Europe you have PLENTY of time for localisation...
          • Sure, one or wo games....

            Seriously, what planet are you living on? Pretty much any Nintendo game I've heard of has had a European release.
            • I guess the point is that a lot of games are released months later in Europe than in the US or Japan. Resident Evil 4 for example was released here about three months after the US launch (longest three months ever).
              On the other hand, I really appreciate that all Nintendo games come with a 60 HZ mode no "PAL-Bars". That's worth the wait.
      • that would mean Nintendo had given up their highly successful business practice of "fucking Europe up the ass, hard."

        It's y'all's own fault, for buying more Sega Master Systems than Nintendo Entertainment Systems 20 years ago.
    • How much text are mario kart and pro onion chopper going to take anyways...
      • Especially since they don't even bother with translating the voice acting, they just slap subtitles on the game and call it translated. That sure helps making these games accessible by "everyone"...
        • My interpretation of Nintendo's tendency concerning no voice acting in their games has been that it is easier for the player to connect with the characters in game when you use subtitles.

          I would assume though that with reduced costs from localization that its a double-positive.
          • I'm referring mostly to the intro and outro of Super Mario Sunshine. And some of the Nintendo-translated second and third party games (e.g. Eternal Darkness). Curiously Doshin The Giant had translated voice acting.

    • Re:translation (Score:2, Insightful)

      by LordVader717 ( 888547 )
      Translation is usually done in the according headquarters, i.e. NOE or NOA, by specific translation teams, so it isn't putting more work on developers. Some games are even translated while in development, such as "Zelda: Minish Cap", which was released in Europe first. It's pretty routine work, and not really a problem. The main reason for delays are marketing and business strategies. The Minish Cap, for example, was kept from an American release because they feared it woud interfere with the holiday seas
    • That would matter in a complex, text-heavy game like an RPG, but I think it's safe to bet that there aren't going to be many of those, if any, at a console's launch.

  • Yeah right (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Eightyford ( 893696 )
    It's just another re-iteration of the fact that we're not looking at what Sony or Microsoft are doing.

    I call bullshit. I'm sure that Nintendo is watching Sony and Microsoft extremely closely. To do anything else would be stupid.

    • Re:Yeah right (Score:2, Informative)

      by mazesoft ( 223178 )
      Why? They are working on a compelling product that is vastly different from what Sony / MS are creating. Nintendo has stated repeatedly that they are approaching the market in a completely different fashion, so why concern themselves with how the others are marketing their stuff?

      Nintendo will bring out a compelling system, that while it may not garner the same sales as the other 2 (or it might, you never know), it will make a profit because they wouldn't sell it at a loss, just to gain market share.

    • Re:Yeah right (Score:3, Informative)

      by cerelib ( 903469 )
      I think what the comment means is that they are not trying to match or one-up whatever MS and Sony do. Of course they are watching what their competitors are doing. Nintendo wants to isolate a bigger market that Sony and MS, in their one-ups-manship war, are starting to neglect. Honestly, who is going to buy 10 year old Johnny a $400+ system with $60 games? They want MS and Sony to battle eachother for the male 16-30 demographic, they will be more than happy to take the rest of the market.
      • They want MS and Sony to battle eachother for the male 16-30 demographic, they will be more than happy to take the rest of the market.


        Thank god Im 34 and finally old enough for Nintendo to want me...
        • Considering you were 14ish when the NES originally came out, I'd say you are in their target demographic for the virtual console. Hell, I'm 23 and can't wait to repurchase my childhood :)

    • Re:Yeah right (Score:3, Insightful)

      by timster ( 32400 )
      As others have suggested, I think this is to some degree a PR issue, but I think it's also part of Nintendo's corporate strategy to be successful without winning. Parts of the public see a giant PS3 vs Xbox360 vs Revolution "war", but I think being #1 or even #2 in the sales charts is about as important to Nintendo as it is to They Might Be Giants. Microsoft and Sony both make bets so big that they have to win, but Nintendo would prefer to not even be at that table.

    • Re:Yeah right (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Guppy06 ( 410832 )
      Of the three, the only one making any profit is Nintendo. Why would Nintendo want to watch the other two? Learn how not to make money?

  • Does it matter? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Vesuvias ( 584893 )
    Does the Rev need to be in our hands at the same time its in the hands of those that live in Japan? No. Does it need to be in our hands before Thanksgiving? Absolutly Critical! A Christmas Holiday launch is really the only concern (in terms of timing for the launch).

    Ves
    • Which brings up an interesting point...and one that I have absolutely no idea about...

      Is there such a thing as a "Christmas Holiday launch" in Japan? I would imagine that since Japan has no Christian heritage, that the holidays would not be a big deal.

      Anybody from Japan want to comment?

      • Re:Does it matter? (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        My knowledge of Japanese society only comes from anime, so that's not reliable. However, Wikipedia answers your question nicely. Christmas Worldwide: Japan [wikipedia.org]
        Is there anything wikipeida can't do?

  • Disc size? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) on Monday April 03, 2006 @11:21AM (#15050305) Homepage Journal
    Since the Revolution is meant to backwards compatible, is it using the same size disc as in the GameCube, or will you require a disk adaptor?

    • Re:Disc size? (Score:2, Informative)

      by arootbeer ( 808234 )
      The revolution's discs can be larger than the gamecube's discs without issue, since (IIRC) the hole in the middle is the standard size for a CD/DVD. And (hopefully) they'll allow more space for games on the new system...
      • The Revolution (like the 360) uses normal sized DVD disks. It's front loading slot also accepts the "mini" DVD gamecube disks. There is no word if these disks are read differently to normal DVDs (reading from outside to inside etc). An internal attachment will be available to purchase to enable the play back of DVDs. This feature is not as standard as nintendo argued most people have DVD players so they would only be wasting money on the license.

        It should be noted this is the first time a slot loading dri

    • Re:Disc size? (Score:5, Informative)

      by CastrTroy ( 595695 ) on Monday April 03, 2006 @11:33AM (#15050442)
      The Revo will use standard DVDs. It has a slot load mechanism which is capable of dealing with both Standard DVDs and the Gamecube discs. Not sure of the specifics, but i'm pretty sure there will be no disk adapter or extra hardware to get the GC discs working properly.
      • However, even though you will have DVD disk sized media, you won't be able to play DVDs without some dongle or external attachment. Not that it's a big deal, it is a game machine after all.
        • Yes. Same thing as the original XBox. I don't think DVD player is a major selling point anymore, since most people who would buy a game console already have a dvd player, or 2, or 3.

        • Re:Disc size? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Joe5678 ( 135227 )
          I find it pretty surprising that you will even be able to play DVD's at all. It seemed one of the most effective anti-piracy efforts of the Game Cube was the proprietary drive (media size, as well as reading the media from the outside track in). There just wasn't the ability to read standard media, pretty much gutting the piracy market.

          We saw this same mistake with the dreamcast, sure they had their gigabyte disks, but their system was able to read standard CDs. In the end, people just burned their games
          • Hopefully, Nintendo is smart enough to make the two completely separate, but it probably will make the Revolution easier to mod. (Modchips exist for the GameCube that allow attaching a DVD drive and playing games off of it.) I would also like to note that the Panasonic Q was a GameCube with a DVD player, but it was not widely released (I know it was only in Asia, not sure exactly where).
          • Yes, anything that requires hardware modding is just going to be that much harder for regular joes to thwart. I remember with PS1, you could plug a chip into the back, and I think there was a boot disk, and that was it. Gamecube was quite a bit harder, required a hardwired mod chip, plus usings minidvds, or modding hte case for standard DVDs. Oh, there is the Phantasy star online hack, but that required a network connection, and could only boot stuff over the network. A little too complicated for most fo
      • Actually, sources are saying the rev games will use proprietary discs the same size (and probably with the same physical properties) as DVD's. But there will be a big enough difference in the way the data is coded to create difficulty to pirate. That is why you will need a seperate dongle to enable DVD movie playback- the software to read standard DVD's and the video codecs will not be added to the main board to save cost per unit (at least according to information released a while back, there are rumors th

  • Great, but when is Xbox 360 going to launch? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Monday April 03, 2006 @11:26AM (#15050366)
    It doesn't matter when they launch, if they can't manufacture enough of them to actually have in stores. Nintendo, if you don't believe me, meet Microsoft...

    -Eric

  • I'm sure they look at Microsoft's launch and take note. They can learn a bit of what works and what doesn't from them. But in the grand scheme of things which will influence their launch decisions more? Sony's and Microsoft's decisions or the current status of manufacturing units? Being the odd man out or having enough games ready? They want to be "ready" but they also don't want to miss the holiday season if they can avoid it. Sure, they have got to be looking at Sony and Microsoft and those competitors ha

  • 14 week launch window (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rishistar ( 662278 ) on Monday April 03, 2006 @11:46AM (#15050589) Homepage

    The last categorical statement was a period of 14 weeks [revolutionreport.com] across the world which seems great and seems manageable.

    But then they did completely deny a revamp of the DS just months before coming out with the DS Lite so if they were doing a simultaneous global launch I'm sure they wouldn't care if they'd actually said they weren't going to do one.

  • Usually the release happens in Japan first, because they have to translate all the games first. Not just text but also any little image icons. I highly doubt it will release worldwide first. Translating a RPG (the new Zelda game for instance) takes a long time, unless they are working on that now.
  • "We don't know if we're going to do a worldwide launch yet, but we don't want you saying we're not going to until we're actually ready to announce it."

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