Nintendo Claims Revolution Disruptive

Nintendo's Satoru Iwata delivered his GDC keynote and it was just as anti-climactic as Phil Harrison's keynote yesterday. We got no new Revolution info other than the confirmation of a selection of Genesis/TurboGrafx downloads for Revolution and of a new Zelda title for DS.

Before Mr. Iwata started his speech there was much excitement as some reported the keynote would unveil the trade name of Nintendo's next-generation console; Revolution is development code. The image to your right had been presented as a possible choice for the Japanese gaming giant but it turns out that we will not find out until E3 2006 where Iwata promised Nintendo is to ...disrupt console gaming...

Satoru Iwata started his speech by praising the commercial success of the DS and comparing it to that of the PS2 while he went on to heap praise on the Wi-Fi service fro DS and the Brain Age concept which has been a runaway hit in Japan (5 million copies sold). U.S. DS owners will find a version of Sudoku included with their copy of Brain Age. Mr. Iwata continued on a DS theme and mentioned The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, a title for the DS that will be created using the Wind Waker engine. The new game will feature touch-screen gameplay and cel-shaded graphics as well as an odd concept of drawing on the bottom screen to tackle in-game puzzles up top. You can download a trailer of Phantom Hourglass by following the download tab above.

DS enthusiasts were in for a treat as Iwata showcased the multiplayer modes of Metroid Prime: Hunters and Brain Age.

Following all the DS hoo-hah Iwata-san moved on to Revolution and paid a tribute to the 15 strong Nintendo team, that worked on and developed the Revolution controller. He went on to say that the controller is evidence of how Nintendo is disrupting console gaming by investing in the gameplay experience rather than high tech on-screen performance. Mr. Iwata continued with the disruption idea and told his rivals off for creating such gaming monsters that cost USD 50-60 and have enormous budgets since to create high-tech visuals you need a lot of people and a long time. He also accused licensing of further raising development costs. He stressed that Nintendo does not think in the same way.

Closing his keynote address Satoru Iwata explained that today Nintendo have brought disruption to handheld and Wi-fi gaming and that at E3 Nintendo will fully disrupt console gaming. We're not sure whether Sony execs are cowering in some corner but Mr. Iwata makes a convincing argument for an alternative approach to gaming, one which will target all ages and will attempt to expand the industry audience beyond its current demographic.

Good luck to Nintendo, they are going to need it.

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