Violent Sword Game on Revolution

An article in the Orlando Sentinel mentions that N-Space, the company behind Geist is working on a title for Nintendo's Revolution. The article mentions that N-Space is expanding both its workforce and its office space. Hopefully N-Space's unannounced Revolution project will have some details leaked in May.

Thanks for the link, Christopher

Video Game Firm Expands - And We're Not Talking About EA [Orlando Sentinel]

After the huzzah around the DS Lite manual, the British Gaming Blog tracked down some black and white drawings of the Nintendo Revolution from another patent-type site. That's just one link, there's five more to check at the blog.

New Nintendo Revolution pictures! [British Gaming Blog]
Why Companies Should Leak Manuals

In a column written for Brandweek, Nintendo's Reggie loosely compares Microsoft and Sony to films like Howard the Duck and Waterworld - costly flops. Obviously Reggie isn't outright calling Microsoft and Sony's next gen hardware "floppish," but instead Reggie's using the comparison because of the perception that Nintendo's technology isn't as advanced as Sony or Microsoft's. But, as Reggie points out, technological improvements don't always mean improved gameplay: "As the next generation of home game consoles gets underway this winter, the cars are prettier, the villains are uglier, and the playing fields look even more realistic. But the game play itself? Well, so far there's not much improvement to report."

Ouch. The war is coming.

Thanks for the tip, Joe.

Mario's Grown Up, You Ready to Play? [Brandweek]

The official site for the official mag isn't (officially) yet up and running, but keep your eyes peeled for an announcement.

Full release after the jump.

Future reveals Official Nintendo Magazine

Future and Nintendo UK launch the all-new Official Nintendo Magazine with a bang from February 16th, when the magazine hits news stands uncovering exclusive information on the DS Lite and a world first hands-on session with the Revolution controller.

As an exciting new era for Nintendo magazines begins, issue one of Official Nintendo Magazine takes a look at how the company is revolutionising the way we play games. Showcasing Nintendo's innovation the DS handheld grabs the front cover of the premier issue and comes enclosed in an attention grabbing card wallet, showcasing the Nintendo Revolution and its amazing new controller. Inside, the magazine has a 12-page feature revealing Nintendo's plan for the Revolution and uncovers the 30% smaller Nintendo DS Lite, with tantalising information and images of both consoles.

Designed with a fresh contemporary look and feel and offering premium production values, the all-new Official Nintendo Magazine promises to appeal to a broader range of Nintendo gamers. The magazine will provide something for everyone, from long-term hardcore fans, through to those who have recently picked up a Nintendo console for the very first time.

Driving Future's vision for Official Nintendo Magazine is company veteran, Group Senior Editor Steve Jarratt, who was launch editor for respected games title, Edge. The magazine will be edited by Lee Nutter, formerly of PSW, joined by Associate Editor Chandra Nair, who joins Future from Highbury's unofficial Nintendo title, Cube. Official Nintendo Magazine will also include contributions from a wealth of respected games journalists including Margaret Robertson, Jes Bickham, Mark Green and Tim Weaver.

Boosting interactivity with readers of the magazine, Future will soon be launching a brand-new website for Official Nintendo Magazine, to be located at www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk enabling fans to react and discuss the latest news from Nintendo as it happens, under the watchful eye of Online Editor, Tom East, former editor of Nintendo GameCube magazine NGC.

With unrivalled access to the biggest Nintendo-related stories, Official Nintendo Magazine speaks exclusively with the creators of Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, Megaman and Street Fighter, Capcom about their plans for Revolution. The four-page feature reveals what games will be coming to the new system and just how the company hopes to utilise the cutting-edge controller. Alongside the definitive preview of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the launch issue of Official Nintendo Magazine has 32-pages of previews, showcasing the very best in forthcoming Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube titles.

The first issue of Official Nintendo Magazine comes with an exclusive set of high-quality vinyl decals, featuring top games; Animal Crossing, Mario Kart DS and Nintendogs, allowing gamers to personalise their DS.

Group Publisher for Official Nintendo Magazine, James Binns said:

"Future is delighted to be working with Nintendo UK on the Official Nintendo Magazine, having already enjoyed a longstanding relationship with the company in France and Italy. Creating a magazine Nintendo fans can be proud of has been a labour of love for the experienced editorial team led by Steve Jarratt and Lee Nutter. There's always been a hardcore base of Nintendo gamers and with the remodelled DS and hotly-tipped Revolution the firm is likely to open things up even more to a wider audience of gamers, all looking for new ways to play."

Dawn Paine, Marketing Director, Nintendo UK, said:

"As Nintendo continues to revolutionise the world of gaming, 2006 is shaping up to be a great for Nintendo and we are very pleased to have Future on board with us to create a truly unique magazine for Nintendo fans of all ages."

Issue one of Official Nintendo Magazine goes on sale Thursday, 16th February, with a coverprice of 3.99.

Dean Takahashi's blog takes a longer look at Nintendo marketer Reggie Fils-Aime's speech at DICE earlier today. Reggie cited a Piper Jaffray study that showed 75% of high school students have shown diminished interest in video games. He then outlined his five resolutions on what game developers need to do to keep people interested (if you're a Kotaku regular, these might be familiar). They are after the jump.

Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Amie Paints Strategy For Developers At Dice Summit [Mercury News]
Reggie Unveils DS Download Service, Metroid Chat

Reggie-lutions
1. It's not about horsepower or pretty pictures. It's about entertainment.

2. Keep mass in mass market. Reach beyond hardcore. Don't be self limiting.

3. Don't alienate new players with high prices or narrow content.

4. Innovate or die.

5. Create a democracy of ideas for new games, where the focus isn't on the biggest production budgets.

Reader Chris spotted a link on digg that pointed to this thread at the Gaming-Age forums. There's a bunch of pictures, which appear to be of a Nintendo booklet that may have originated at TGS, but no one seems sure. The image above is one of the more interesting ones as it appears as though it could be part of the Nintendo Revolution. If any of the Kotaku readers have one of these books or know what this is all about, we'd like to know more. Leave a comment or email tips@kotaku.com.

Update: There's some discussion of the pamphlet over at the Nintendo-Revolution blog. They speculate that because of the image of what appears to be the backside of the Revolution that production may be underway on Nintendo's next console. However, many questions about the date of the book's release remain. An image from the book of the evolution of the Revolution controller is after the jump.

Revolutoin Production Underway [Nintendo Revolution Blog]
Evolution of the Revmote [Gaming-Age Forums]

In an interview with Forbes, Nintendo's vice president of marketing and corporate affairs for Nintendo of America, Perrin Kaplan reveals some interesting tidbits about the Revolution's virtual console and additional WiFi plans for the system. She also discusses Nintendo's Blue Ocean strategy, which essentially boils down to the creation of unique properties designed to meet the needs of others outside of the "Red Ocean" (Microsoft and Sony's cannibalizing of eachother's business). In Kaplan's own words: "Seeing a blue ocean is the notion of creating a market where there initially was none—going out where nobody has yet gone."

When asked about the Revolution's additional online plans Kaplan said, "More will be described soon. We will use the Wi-Fi component in a different way for each game, just like with the DS." It seems that the progressive and aggressive Nintendo WiFi online strategy will continue with the Revolution. For me, at least, that is excellent news.

Nintendo's New Look [Forbes]

GameSpot reports that Activision revealed its next-gen plans yesterday in a conference call discussiing its holiday earnings. In the fiscal year, expect to see four Xbox 360 games from the company, three PlayStation 3 launch titles and one Nintendo Revolution title. Insert your belated, tired, holiday, "partridge and a pear tree" jokes here.

Activision Readying One Revolution, Three PS3 Launch Titles [GameSpot]

Mr. Canessa also expressed his doubts that Sony can come through the way Microsoft has with their own online offering, PlayStation World. Get your fanboy sword and shield and head over to Next Gen for all the inflamatory posturing.

Xbox Live Arcade GM Jabs Nintendo, Sony [Next Generation]

Yet another sample of the Revolution interface has popped up on the Interweb. This time Nintendogal points to a couple of images showing what appears to be a guy giving a demonstration of the interface on a projection screen.

The menu reads:

Friend Management
Manage Memory
DS Connection
Control Settings
Nintendo Store

My theory is that Nintendo floods the net with fake images so if the real one gets out no one will know which it is.

Revolution Interface [Nintendogal]

Over at Firing Squad, writer Jakub Wojnarowicz thinks Nintendo is positioned to make a run at Sony this generation. Wojanarowicz cites similarities between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3's design (both are marketed as an all-inclusive media space for your living room) and in comparison the Revolution is committed to remaining a gaming machine. He cites the purported ease of development for the Revolution as a potential gateway for more small, independent games. The conclusion says "Nintendo is poised for a coup," but are they? Is this unshown console full of titles we haven't seen and a controller that looks like it could flip to ESPN Classic going to end up back on top? Que a prediction thread, below.

Nintendo: For the Win [Firing Squad]

GameSpot reports that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told a Japanese newspaper that the Revolution will be in North American stores by Thanksgiving. Still no word from Iwata on the system's price, though he did quip in the article that "Even if it's a superb machine, it's not going to sell if it's 50,000 yen ($434). We plan to make [the Revolution] an affordable price." Let the rumors swirl and the fans freak out.

Report: Revolution Hitting North American by Thanksgiving [GameSpot]

The superfans authors over at Revolution Report have put together a nice, orderly FAQ on Nintendo's next console. In addition to providing a pretty solid group of "Facts," Revolution Report's FAQ is also an excellent spot to grab links on all kinds of Revolution news. It's a pretty sweet guide. Check it.

Revolution FAQ [Revolution Report]

Lately, it seems like everybody is getting hands-on time with Nintendo's Revolution. Game Over got their reps in with the controller today and Morris' observations might be the most helpful that we've seen with understanding how the controller is shaping up. Morris played a Metroid demo with the Revolution controller and used some of the demos (a point and click flying game) to hint at other Nintendo properties that could be on the way (Star Fox).

Reggie Fils-Aime is quoted in the piece talking about hoping to see the MMORPG genre take off on the Revolution. So if they haven't announced it yet, there may be some keyboard functionality with it.

Test Driving the Revolution [Game Over]

The speculation at a Rev blog points to "displacement mapping" as the missing link. The mapping is an upgrade over bump mapping that uses less polygons. The hypothesizing gets pretty technical over at the blog, so this is something the gearheads of the Kotaku empire might just want to click over and check out themselves.

Is Displacement Mapping the Last Secret [Definitive Nintendo Revolution Speculation]

IGN's Revolution channel has an applet that lets you examine the Rev' controller from all angles. I feel a little dirty using it.

Revolution Controller: Touch It [IGN]

Let's get the numbers out of the way. The Revolution's alleged, totally unconfirmed specs that IGN reported are:
About 108 MB of RAM
A processor code-named Broadway, which is supposed to be two to three times faster than the current Gekko in the 'Cube
A graphics processor called behind closed doors "Hollywood," done by ATI

Developers IGN interviewed called the Revolution a "souped up Xbox." This news has fanboys crying tears into Mario pillows, because the Revolution isn't aiming at the HD-era that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are making their battleground.

Where Metal Gear Solid 4 and Halo 3 will do battle, is not where the next Mario game will end up. But is this a problem? Nintendo's eccentric stance on the next generation of video games was pretty obvious when they unveiled the Revolution's controller, should consumers be any less surprised to find out that the aim of the console is skewing away from the HD battlefield the rest of the console race is going to be?

The point here, is the specs don't matter. The games do. I don't know if the Revolution is going to be amazing, or if its going to be vile trash, but chances are the 108 MB of RAM the thing uses isn't going to mess up my experience on the console. Just like the 360s ass-whooping tons of RAM doesn't promise it success, the Revolution isn't promised failure because of its RAM amount.

I don't really think I'd want to see Mario's mustache in HD, anyway. That could be a little much.

Revolution Tech Details Emerge [IGN]

If this article wasn't enough, the IGN message boards are buzzing with words from Nintendo/Revolution editor Matt Casamassina. The already linked article targets the Revolution around Thanksgiving of 2006 and tonight, Casamassina claims he's going to talk about RAM, DVD disc storage and some more tidbits on the system's processing power. None of this is very official - yet, it's all coming to him from developers and so far they've stayed anonymous. At least there's a plot thickening for Nintendo's next console, though.

Revolution Arriving for Thanksgiving 06
IGN Boards Post [IGN - Paid Insider Subscription Required]
Gaming-Age Thread with Casmassina's forum posts pasted [Gaming-Age]

Games Industry reports that Atari founder and Chuck E. Cheese mastermind, Nolan Bushnell, thinks that the Revolution controller is a pretty good idea. He thinks the controller's simple design will help ease people into gaming who have become "interface phobic." What about people who are afraid of swinging their arm around at a video game? What about their fears?

Addendum: BTW, it looks like Games Industry was reporting on Ashcraft's coverage of Bushnell's speech. Toss a cite in their next time, you guys went to college, cite your sources.

Atari Founder Praises Nintendo's New Controller [Games Industry]