Ign Nintendo Revolution A Go!!!

[Bowser]

If, for nothing else, then to stop the steady stream of retarded articles like this one.

[Mach]

Guys, I've sicked my buddy Viper on these misconceptions. You will thoroughly enjoy what this Gaming Assasin from the 80's Pit has to say tonight. Sums up what we at E-mpire feel regarding this Revolution graphical issue.

[perfectdark]

Funny how when Matt finally decides to open a Revolution channel he sends the viewers all the wrong negative messages about the console. There has been nothing POSITIVE about the Revolution channel, go look at the rage against Nintendo all over the internet. If you have interviewed a developer working on Gamecube hardware (which Nintendo told us already) then just how accurately can he tell the Revolution power?? The chip isn’t even finished yet. This is simply another misleading info from IGN.

[pac4life]

no, he said hes looking forward to rev more than any console ever. Thats nice to hear.

Also, about the power...the dev's were obviously talking about the alpha dev kits...they dont even have the freakin final cards yet. Rev will be strong, dont worry people. Even if it can compare to 360, then its all good. Geez. It takes a former nintendo/now xbox guy to say that...just when i started doubting them the most.

[Bowser]

But Matt didn't indicate anywhere that it WAS the alpha kits. He leaves us with the impression that the developers were working with the finished product. So, yes, it is misleading.

[DankHero]

Well, when the time comes and it is released, i will own it, and whenever SSB comes out i will own that also. I'm sure i have enough games in my household that i havent beat to stop nitpicking everything about the revolution.

[neo999955]

But Matt didn't indicate anywhere that it WAS the alpha kits. He leaves us with the impression that the developers were working with the finished product. So, yes, it is misleading.

"Readers are advised to make two notes before continuing with this article. The first is that developers are still working with incomplete Revolution hardware. Most studios are, in fact, developing on "GameCube-based kits," according to major software houses we spoke to, which have asked to remain anonymous. The second is that developers are still without final specifications for Revolution's ATI-developed graphics chip, codenamed Hollywood."

[Teh Roxor!]

And still more news.
Viper, you may want to take a look at this.

We presented that description to another informed studio, which clarified that the clock rates may even fall short of doubling those on GameCube.
"The CPU is the same as Gekko with one and a half to two times the performance and improved caching," said a source. "Our guys experimented with it and think they'll be able to get about twice the performance as GameCube."

[Viper]

Simply put, if that's all that IBM and ATi are doing, the system could have been finalized way back when, final devs kits to every studio and production already well underway and launching worldwide with millions of units ready to go.

[Mach]

IGN's trying to push home it's preconceived dead set notion that the Rev will be vastly underwhelming in the graphical department.

Watch what happens when this proves quite the contrary...That'lly be another tally of correctness for the NintendoNow side.

[neo999955]

Do you think that IGN is simply making up these reports from developers? I find that very hard to believe, and this is what ninendo has been hinting at all along, is it really that hard to believe?

[Flare]

Do you think that IGN is simply making up these reports from developers? I find that very hard to believe, and this is what ninendo has been hinting at all along, is it really that hard to believe?

Matt did address that whole concern in today's Revolution mailbag:

You know, not a lot of hate mail so far. Usually when we report news like this, we get blamed for it -- as if we made it happen by writing about it. Or occasionally people say we go out of our way to report negative stuff about Nintendo or Revolution. Not true in the least. I'm merely relaying exactly what development sources are telling me. If I had heard in contrast that Revolution was more powerful than the Death Star, rest easy that I would likewise report as much.

As far as power is concerned, it's not going to happen. Nintendo may opt to change a couple of bits here and there, but developers have solid information about this console's power and you're not going to see a drastic transformation -- that is, unless it's delayed from 2006 to 2007 or 2008. IBM and ATI have been working on the CPU and GPU respectively and Nintendo has already briefed dozens of studios on what to expect.

It's always possible that Nintendo may at the eleventh hour decide to alter something -- maybe add some more RAM, for example. Microsoft did it, right? 360 was originally set to include 256MBs of RAM and it wasn't until late in the game that Microsoft decided to go with 512MBs. A developer buddy of mine tells me that their group went out that very night and got plastered in celebration of the news.

I've written this so many times now that I'm really thinking about making an automated reply, but horsepower is not the priority with Revolution. Nintendo is not lying when it repeatedly states that it is focused on making a console that is quiet, small and affordable. Revolution will deliver in that regard and you can bet that the controller is going to distract us all from the fact that Nintendo's games won't be running in high-definition.

I have faith in Nintendo to pull off the impossible.

^^That just might go in my sig. Damn straight.

[perfectdark]

Do you think that IGN is simply making up these reports from developers? I find that very hard to believe, and this is what ninendo has been hinting at all along, is it really that hard to believe?

Nintendo said that you would not be able to tell the difference between the Revolution graphics and the other Next-gen consoles. What the devs are indicating is that it will barely produce better graphics than the Xbox.

Also at the end of the article Matt said that the revolution would be comparable with the other next-gen consoles on a normal television which is really puzzling.

We already knew that the Revolution wont run on HDTV.

[Mach]

I did NOT say they were making things up. You guys that are not in the press industry really don't get what slant is all about. It's a practice widely used by many publications (unjustly) where they'll put their own spin on the news to reflect the story that "fits" with their preconceived notions or message. IGN's been making these statements that the Rev will look drastically worse than it's competitors. That is not factual.
In their reports, including this latest one, they spin the reporting in a way that it leads the common reader to believe the Revolution must be on level with Xbox in graphics...This spinning reflects the preconceived notion Matt and his team have asserted in the past that the Rev will not look nearly on level with the others.

Here's the TRUE fact of the matter...Nintendo has only said The Revolution may not have the horsepower numbers as the others. That DOES NOT mean it will look worse than the other systems. I can drag in some very knowledgable tech analysts in here from PSINext...including one of my friends and staff writers cpiasminc, a 360/PS3 developer...He'll tell you himself that the Revolution has a high chance of looking better than 360 and close to PS3 in different respects. Hell, I can bring in PSIN staffer Danji Ikari too. Xbdestroya too. This isnt just NNow's leaders statements. These are logical opinions held by many, many people...all open minded and knowledgable about the facts.

On paper, the GCN's "horsepower may not have been as high as the other two." It had a souped up 32bit based graphical processor. It still smoked the PS2 in graphics and was on level with Xbox in many respects. Okay, back then, the press was jumping the gun saying it wasnt going to look as good as the others. And it damaged the GCN's credibility. That's why you'll see a lot of casual gamers even to this day say things like "Game Informer say GayCube has kiddie baby graphics...they suck! PS2's got the best, everyone know that"

Okay, so let me repeat this one more time...The only statement Nintendo made was that it may not have the paper stats. That means nothing in terms of how the graphics will compare to the others. Have you ever seen a Japanese import car's stats compared to American hotrods? The Big American cars are head and shoulders above them and yet many Japanese imports smoke them when it comes to performance and efficiency. Same principle can be applied here.

Stop believing the assertions, slant, and assumptions the media keeps wanting to use. It's not that there's some vast conspiracy in the media or anything...they just dont get their facts straight sometimes and report stories with spin that reflects the writer's preconceived notions.

[link-to-future]

I'm still very confident that I will not be dissapointed in the Rev when it comes to graphics. E3 can't get here any sooner.

[Mach]

You haven't a reason not to be. Don't listen to elementary logic like many media outlets and gamers use: "talks of slightly lesser paper stats= underwhelming in how the graphics will look" That's just childish. The Rev may very well be underwhelming in graphics but we have no evidence to support that yet.


And we shouldn't act like we have that evidence at this time.


Hell, I'll throw another wild card into the mix...cube mapping.

[dork]

Every developer was in agreement that Revolution should launch with a price tag of $149 or lower. Some speculated that based on the tech, a $99 price point would not be out of the question.

Bitchin.

[Mach]

Let me say one more thing to back up a previous statement....

Remember how the NNow staff have been saying that this misleading report would lead gamers to incorrectly believe the Revolution would have Xbox graphics? Well, then the argument was raised that "oh it was clear that it was just Alpha GCN kits until the true Rev kits come in for the devs." Was it really that clear though?

I think NNow proves its point with the statement from a fan in the latest IGN mailbag. The guy is actually raising issue with Matt but before he does he says this:

Look I believe you are correct the Rev isn't much more powerful than an Xbox, but is it still possible that final hardware will see a significant boost in performance vaulting the Rev to at least be able to partially hang with the 360?

I would hope Matt doesnt really believe that like that reader asserts. But regardless, the mere fact that the reader gathered that from the report proves that it is indeed misleading and thus damaging to the average reader.

[Viper]

http://nintendonow.e-mpire.com/index...articleid=3290

My take.

[Mach]

Good little quick informative fair piece.


Oh btw, here's yet another excellent example of the information gamers think because of that misleading report. A recent IGN fan posted this on their IGN site:

knew it, the reason because Nintendo was ashamed on showing game pics, or the Revo's specs, it's just an GameCube upgrade, how lame...

The magic wand wont justify the lack of games, horsepower or graphics, the bit of Nintendo fanboyism that lived in me is now gone.

Anyway, the most important thing on gaming are the GAMES, and Nintendo still doesn't show one of them, I'll be happy playing Oblivion, Gears of War and N3 while the Nintendo nerds are here making assumptions.

Goodbye Nintendo!

Again, he's going on inaccurate reporting and it's just not true.


One more time for the road to prove how misleading reports from a massive network like IGN spread and mislead gamers across the world. Take a look at Ndojo's report as an example of how it's being reported all around the media based on the IGN piece:

Revolution Not Much More Powerful Than Xbox
12/5/2005, 9:12pm Eastern Time

"To be honest, it's not much more powerful than an Xbox. It's like a souped-up Xbox," said one third party developer to IGN. Yet the developer still seemed satisfied with the controller's unique capabilities.

In terms of power, some third parties have stated Revolution will have about 128 MB of RAM, while others say nearly triple the amount in the GameCube. Nevertheless, either number is still less than what's in Xbox 360.

Again, the anonymous developers still seemed very pleased with the controller and are trying to come up with unique gameplay concepts that can translate to games. The focus as Nintendo had originally intended was not on horsepower but games, and developers sound ready to deliver.

Stick with NintendoNow and E-mpire, the alternative gaming media sources. Notice how we havent engaged in the rehash reportings based on the IGN piece like all other publications have because we see there's not much newsworthiness in it and that the way the original report is written makes it seem misleading.