IGN Strikes Back

Yesterday we told you all the deets IGN (allegedly) squeezed from their inside sources concerning the Revolution. Today we bring you their second dose of very credible hearsay:

  • “The Big N has opted out of filling the system with a massive supply of expensive RAM” because they are NOT in direct competition with PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.
  • “Revolution will build on GameCube’s configuration of 24MBs 1T-SRAM and 16MBs D-RAM (40MBs) by adding an addition 64MBs of 1T-SRAM” with a total of 104 MBs.” This number excludes the GPU’s on-board memory which is said to be 3MBs.
  • Based on official Nintendo documentation IGN received, the Broadway CPU for Revolution is an extension of the GameCube’s Gekko CPU. The Hollywood GPU is “believed to be” an extension of the Flipper GPU in the Cube.
  • Development studios are only working with Nintendo documentation of the Hollywood GPU’s specs, which are limited.
  • One source says of the clock rates:”Basically, take a GameCube, double the clock rate of the CPU and GPU and you’re done.” Another source claimed it 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.”
  • Revolution discs can store 4.7GBs of data on a single layer or 8.5GBs when double-layered on a single-side. It will hold “more than enough storage capacity for any non-high-definition game.”
  • “Every developer was in agreement that Revolution should launch with a price tag of $149 or lower [because of the low tech]. Some speculated that based on the tech, a $99 price point would not be out of the question.”

That last line should please alot of people. Turns out rumors were not far off at all. About the graphics thing, think about it this way: take a Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime, or a Twilight Princess, then double every single thing you see– That is what i expect from the Revolution.

[Source: IGN Rev]

22 Comments

  1. sounds perfect to me… at least with nintendo i know i wont be paying for graphics qualities i wont even be able to see… like ps3’s frame rate that’s 3 times what your eye can even notice…

  2. mmm, that might be the surprise Miyamoto mentioned under wraps. Well, that would rock the industry at that price. I live in Mexico and right now a Xbox360 is going for $500 and a slim Ps2 is $250 with winning eleven 8. So a cheap console would totally be a sell out everywhere. I would get in lauch which is something most people here can’t afford unless you are one of those hardcore nerds. Excelent. hope this is true. I might get a Ps3 after I get a Plasma tv during the end of the decade. meanwhile, I use a revolution and keep my portable gaming, for a few more years. I still want to play Final fantasy X & Kingdom Hearts so I might get a Ps2 also thanks to a cheap revolution.

  3. It’s prudent of Nintendo to stick with the safe bet, but I wonder what Nintendo could have accomplished if it did try to directly compete with both Microsoft and Sony.

    What if Nintendo wielded the double-edged sword of technology and innovation? Wouldn’t that catapult them to first place in the blink of an eye? Obviously that couldn’t happen.

    Nintendo simply doesn’t have nearly as much capital to invest in something like that. Whereas Sony and Microsoft can literally give supermachines away for free (or at a substantial loss) for the sake of generating demand, product loyalty, and market share, Nintendo has to maintain profitability at all times if it’s to survive.

    I, for one, would hate a world without Nintendo.

  4. If you ask me, Resident Evil 4 x 2 is XBox 360 quality graphics.

    ??????????????????????????????
    ???????????Biohazard(Resident Evil) 4?????XBox360???????????????????

  5. If you ask me, Resident Evil 4 x 2 is XBox 360 quality graphics.

    ??????????????????????????????
    ???????????Biohazard(Resident Evil) 4?????XBox360???????????????????

  6. They are wrong, I went to the IGN forums and read and this one guy went into DETAIL about how the impact of the 64 megs of 1T SRAM will help the Revo out alot. Also keep in mind, the developers said it was 1.5-2 times the strength of the gamecube WITH extended cache.

    IGN didnt quite tell you what that means. The Revo, instead of needing 2 processors, increased the cache of the processor to do the work. Yes, it wont do “1 gabajillion flopperjoppers” (I know computer terminology, I am making fun ;)) but the physics will be out of this world, as will the AI. The processor doesnt have to load enemy A) AI, do the action, then do the same with B), then have to repeat again with A) because it will have a big enough cache to do A) and B)

    Still pissed the first thing they had for their revo page was explaining the Revo is inferior (The developers who said that went against NDA, I wonder what their punishment should be. If I were Nintendo id stop doing their stuff they do for IGN for doing this, give Infendo the Nintendo minute!)

  7. The graphics wont be the main thing about the nextgen consoles. I want to know whether Nintendo will have a solid online strategy to go with the new console. Something like the wifi network available for DS, but with more bandwidth and, perhaps, a few to pay for that. But I want my Mario Party, Smash Bros. etc. online!
    As far as the rest of the specs go, viva la revolucion!

  8. “What if Nintendo wielded the double-edged sword of technology and innovation?”

    That was something i was really hoping for early on in the year. It still has some plausibility behind it, but what is not taken into account there is the pricing. If it does come out at $150, it would possibly create their new market almost immediately. On the other side of the coin, if it were to be a supermachine and cost 400 bucks, they may well have catapulted to the top, but only by taking over the existing market and leaving a possible new one with a big barrier of entry.

    That’s just my guess. Who knows what really would’ve happened.

    Alot of the time, us Nintendo fans forget that we are now a segment of the market, no longer the market in its entirety. Nintendo knows what they’re doing more than any of us do. So you may question their actions, but they know what they’re up to. Try to keep that in mind, ppl.

  9. As a ninty fanboy i can say that even though i trust that nintendo is doing the right thing, in the back of my mind I want them to have a more powerful system. Not the likes of PS3 or XB360, but something that looks similar and that can have similar looking multiplatform games. I know its about the exclusives, but you also have to factor in the sports gamers, and the gamers who go with what console has their must have Roster Update ‘**, and the gamers that choose a title on looks. I dont care about graphics, but some casuals might look at one or the other, and if they see a difference (a big difference) they are gonna go with the one that looks better. However, if the price is much lower and the graphics are not noticably different (on SDTVs), Nintendo could win over a lot of people

  10. I’m still treating these details with caution. On the one hand, these could just be another set of rubbish details and irrelevant to the final product, or they are partly true. Now I would firmly believe the former, but I could just as easily be wrong and the details are in fact true!

    I’m not too worried, even if specs are low what matters is how to use it efficiently.

  11. I still say that Graphics is important but game play and the fun factor should always be first. Knowing what Nintendo will do with the Rev. Why wait so long to release the system??? They now have much to prove…so they should have been the first to market. I honestly feel that once PS3 comes out it will eat up the Nintendo market share and be dominant again.

    I was going to get the Revo without a doubt but now….It’s a wait and see thing for me now.

    As great at RE4 was…its foolish to say it’s on the level of the Xbox360 graphics. Not even close!!!

  12. No surprise here. We’ve always knowed that the Rev was only going to be 2-3 times stronger than the GC.

    I’m already fine with the quality of the games coming out on the GC. Bring me the cheap price point and the delicious controller!!!

    p.s. Finally got a chance to play some Xbox 360 on a HD TV… Am I missing something, or is the 360 only 2-3 times better than the original xbox?

  13. Nintendo needs to come out and set the record straight. No matter how you take this info that, for some strange reason, only IGN have… will hurt them more so than drive interest in their new system. I for one have lost some interest in the system and I am sure many other fans feel the same way……

    Where is Jim Merrick words of wisdom when you need it?

  14. Despite what it has for CPU/GPU, if they release the Revolution for under $200 I’m buying it.

    I just wonder how much each extra ‘remote’ controller will cost. I’m betting $40-$50 each.

  15. True, take all of this with a grain of salt. The low price rumors have been present in the past, so there might be some weight to that, but the rest of them I’d advise being a “wait and see” person on. I’m not saying this as a person in denial, but as someone who knows that no one knows what’s really go on yet.

    PS3 and to a lesser extent 360 have started gaming down a slippery slope, so to speak, in that they are pushing out the casual gamer and enhancing/locking in the hardcore ones. Pretty soon this is going to be just like in computing (like my roommate), where the only gamers that care about what Sony and MS are offering are the guys who have the kit and the modified hardware to play photorealistic Doom. The rest will have moved on.

    Not me. The best game I’ve played to date is on a portable system using N64 hardware, Partners in Time. Sure it’s goofy, but that’s what it tries to be. It also, however, implements an incredibly intuitive battle system where one button has basically been broken into several diffferent actions. Same with titles like Smash Bros.

    Maybe this is all some temporary nostalgia phase where I’m yearning to go back in time to relive my youth, but I don’t think so. Nintendo titles just have a feel and a playability that’s lacking in the Xbox, PS2 and PSP games I’ve played. There’s this trend in the industry to go balls to the wall gore fest, with violence and vulgarity trumping gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the GTA’s, but for every GTA there are at least 5 games made by 50 Cent.

    It’s the SNES/Genesis Mortal Kombat blood debate debate all over again, and look who won that one.

    All these “hardcore” gamers would do themselves some good to sack up and at least try Nintendo out. A little less insecurity could do them some good., because they’re wasting a lot of money on “Re-mastered FPS No. 8”

  16. My point with my last comment was hardcore gamers need to stop thinking that just because natural hardware progressions are what have always taken place in this industry, it is the right or proper way to evolve. It’s really a primitive way of looking at it. They think they want it only cause that’s all we’ve ever known. Nintendo always introduces a change to their controllers because they know that you have to change the game as well as the hardware it’s played on. Now, as the competition strives to be the most cutting of edge in tech, Nintendo wants to make the system all about ur experience with it. They no longer want to pander to the ppl who think they know what Nintendo should do more than Nintendo itself. These self-proclaimed analysts (experts and gamers) couldn’t predict 6 o’clock at 5:30. Reevaluate what you think a next generation should be.

    *stares a hole into Jadnice*

  17. I think many of you are just looking at it in numbers on paper and taking that as a true representative figure of how games will be.

    Nintendo have been too truthful for people and I think it is hurting them…Microsoft and Sony have obscured/blurred the fact that when they give figures it isn’t number and figures based on what their machines are actually capable of when a game is running. FACT.

    Yes Nintendo have been brutally honest and said it won’t be as powerful as the competitions but they also said it would be comparable…s surely that tells you that they aren’t that much away off the competitions machines in terms of graphical capabilities on regular sets ofcourse not HD-sets.

    The 360 is said to be only at the most 4 times more powerful then the X-Box…but again that is a statement that only holds true on paper not in actual true representation in games. Now when Nintendo said the Revolution would be 2-3 times as powerful as the Gamecube they were in my opinion stating what they think the Revolution is capable of in actual gaming numbers and figures.

    In any case none of this has been confirmed to be true…but we all knew the Revolution would be less poweful but I think people are being too melodromatic because the way Nintendo throws figures around is more reflective of what is really capable of rather then Sony and Microsofts figures which are paper based and look like the Revolution needs to bend before them in awe when in fact Nintendo are masters of efficiency in console making and fine-tuning and it should be Sony and Microsoft to bend before Nintendo in awe of how Nintendo can pack so much of a punch with such small consoles.

    The Revolution doesn’t need as much RAM as the other two consoles because it doesn’t need to run games in Hi-Defination. Thus the reason for big memory cells in the Sony and Microsoft machines so that they are able to run more smoothly in hi-defination. The lack of RAM/processor in Nintendo’s machine will not be a stumbling block either for porting games to the Revolution. The only stumbling block is Nintendo interface…

    Don’t let anyone make you believe guys that Nintendo will bring out a console that is not graphically capable of beautiful games because it is and will be. The leap in graphics this next-generation is not that big a-leap as Microsoft and Sony would like you all to believe…this is their selling point for their machines and you are all eating their propaganda pie and it is working.

    The big leaps in graphics are long gone now and the only thing left that will cause a ripple in the video-games pond visually is Virtual Reality graphics machines and we are some years away from that let me tell you.

    So chill out people…Nintendo will not disappoint on a visual level nor gaming level.

  18. That $150.00 price tag sound way too low! I always thought a reasonably cheap price for a next-gen console would be between $200.00 and $250.00. But $150.00?!?!? That would make the console as cheap as the portable (DS)! I don’t believe it… Somehow I preferred the $200.00 price tag. I don’t want Nintendo to cut too many corners!

  19. mmmm, considering Ign has a relation with Nintendo in Gamespy online segment, and the fact that the gamecube editor, I can’t recall his name, was so against nintendo a while back and weeks before the controller unveiling, was so rooting for the console, this launch of the revoution channel with an rumour like that, sounds true. About horsepower Nintendo can get a system like that but, if you aim toward a diferent price point is a totally diferent market. If the Xbox360 is a Porsche Cayenne, the PS3 is a Hummer and the Revolution comes to being a Suburban which one do you think would sell the most. Of course if you got oney to buy the hummer you’ll get one, but most people look for value against show. I rather have 60 frames per second than 2 meg textures on a 25 frames per second game, which is what the 360 offers. I rememeber playing Grant Turismo 4 at 60fps and Forza Motorsports at 30fps with car damage. Which one seems more real?

  20. “I don’t believe it… Somehow I preferred the $200.00 price tag. I don’t want Nintendo to cut too many corners!”

    what? you rather pay more? why you consider things at a lower price cheap? you probably are an Apple fan. I for one, expect low prices for the things I want.

  21. Rollin said…
    My point with my last comment was hardcore gamers need to stop thinking that just because natural hardware progressions are what have always taken place in this industry, it is the right or proper way to evolve. It’s really a primitive way of looking at it. They think they want it only cause that’s all we’ve ever known.

    Yeah I can’t believe the SNES dared to have rotation and scaling. NES hardware was just fine, why I’d bet Chrono Trigger would be better with 8-bit graphics and an MMC5 sound chip.

    Also it was blasphemy for Nintendo to ditch the cartridge in favor of a disc. Disc sux, cart rulez! GameCube should have had cartridges so we could save games without memory cards…stupid Nintendo.

    Nintendo always introduces a change to their controllers because they know that you have to change the game as well as the hardware it’s played on.

    Which is why it’s on the 32X equivalent of the GameCube for the time being. Nintendo won’t state if these are stage kits, Matt seems to suggest the full specs for the final system are out so I wouldn’t hold my breath.

    Now, as the competition strives to be the most cutting of edge in tech, Nintendo wants to make the system all about ur experience with it. They no longer want to pander to the ppl who think they know what Nintendo should do more than Nintendo itself. These self-proclaimed analysts (experts and gamers) couldn’t predict 6 o’clock at 5:30. Reevaluate what you think a next generation should be.

    *stares a hole into Jadnice*

    Actually, I’m with Jadnice. I’m for easing development costs and all but seriously, not competing or competing, Nintendo makes videogames, Microsoft and Sony are in the industry…you can’t ignore that fact.

    Also, since Microsoft and Sony got their foot in the door to define next generation graphics, everyone and their mother expects Nintendo to do the same, new controller or not. To put it simply, some want the 360/PS3 performance without the price (albeit a 10 to 30% reduction of geometry). Maybe gamers like you and me on the net would be all wet about what we can do with the controller rather than the graphics, but what about the public? The poser celebrity gamers who carry more influence to the masses than the game characters and dare I say…the games themselves? Just look at Halo 2.

    Anonymous said…
    I think many of you are just looking at it in numbers on paper and taking that as a true representative figure of how games will be.

    No 360 game has pushed 500 million and we don’t expect developers to. No PS3 title has given any indication of a title running at 500 or 800 million either. For all we know, what looks like a massive mound of millions of polys could be nothing more than advanced shading techniques. Who knows

    Nintendo have been too truthful for people and I think it is hurting them…Microsoft and Sony have obscured/blurred the fact that when they give figures it isn’t number and figures based on what their machines are actually capable of when a game is running. FACT.

    5 years ago when XBox used Pentiums and a low level GeForce based chip, PS2 used its own proprietary GPU. Also before IBM whored itself out to Nintendo’s enemies (that’s right I said enemies, business is no picnic or My Little Pony party) Nintendo had the clear cut advantage.

    ATi works on Microsoft and Nintendo’s hardware. IBM worked on Revolution as well as the XBox360 and PS3.

    Do I think the specs are inflated? Maybe so, but more honest and believable even if only Peak numbers are stated. The Xenon GPU is based on the upcoming R600 line from ATi, my Radeon 9800 shoots out 380 Million triangles per second and a figure like 500 million doesn’t seem too far off. a 3.2Ghz 64-bit PowerPC based processor? That number’s a bit fishy seeing how Apple has problems getting to 3GHz which ended their Apple relationship. 3.2Ghz is either inflated or put on a scale of PC clock cycles. One thing’s for sure, a lot of heat generates in those boxes and there were crashes all around. Big problem.

    PS3 is a different story. For one, the Cell architecture is scaled WAY down from any RiSC processor and that includes the PowerPC cores. This means that XBox360’s processor could be better suited for performance until the system links to a Cell-enhanced cellphone or HD set unless that turns out to be hype too. NVidia doesn’t seem like the type to inflate their performance numbers. Unless NVidia is involved in foul play, I do think realistic figures have been given out this time. Sure Sony’s products usually look better than they really are (on paper and in a visual) and are susceptible to inferiority in real world performance or product durability (anyone who’s been burned by a Sony product can probably share their horror stories), but at the same time Sony’s partners are Nintendo’s partners and the advantage in performance will be ignored for the advantage in bigger numbers.

    Yes Nintendo have been brutally honest and said it won’t be as powerful as the competitions but they also said it would be comparable…s surely that tells you that they aren’t that much away off the competitions machines in terms of graphical capabilities on regular sets ofcourse not HD-sets.

    I too believe the Revolution will still be good enough. Although not hitting the peak numbers their competitors have put out and stayed with, it’s still the performance and the games that come out on it. If more developers think like Itagaki, we may have a problem though.

    Also Nintendo doesn’t push developers to push their hardware to the limit. If they don’t no foul, if they do no harm. That’s all.

    The 360 is said to be only at the most 4 times more powerful then the X-Box…but again that is a statement that only holds true on paper not in actual true representation in games. Now when Nintendo said the Revolution would be 2-3 times as powerful as the Gamecube they were in my opinion stating what they think the Revolution is capable of in actual gaming numbers and figures.

    4 times seems real, good enough too. GameCube successor being only slightly more powerful than the original XBox whe 2-3 times more powerful makes me wish it was just a little more graphically.

    In any case none of this has been confirmed to be true…but we all knew the Revolution would be less poweful

    Less powerful and underpowered are two different things. Less powerful would be anywhere between 5% up to 30% less powerful. Underpowered would in the area of the previous generation’s (on a whole, not just Nintendo) area of power to slightly above it. That’s my definition of the matter.

    but I think people are being too melodromatic because the way Nintendo throws figures around is more reflective of what is really capable of rather then Sony and Microsofts figures which are paper based

    Even though it has Nintendo’s advantages either in processors or GPU.

    and look like the Revolution needs to bend before them in awe when in fact Nintendo are masters of efficiency in console making and fine-tuning and it should be Sony and Microsoft to bend before Nintendo in awe of how Nintendo can pack so much of a punch with such small consoles.

    I’ll have a bottle of champagne next to the computer waiting for the big news from the Kodak at that time.

    The Revolution doesn’t need as much RAM as the other two consoles because it doesn’t need to run games in Hi-Defination.

    The term is “High Definition” but true. Also 1T-SRAM is the one Nintendo technical advantage that 360 and PS3 don’t have. Often gamers overshoot the specs either because they want Nintendo to run very fast or be overpowered and overpricey.

    Thus the reason for big memory cells in the Sony and Microsoft machines so that they are able to run more smoothly in hi-defination. The lack of RAM/processor in Nintendo’s machine will not be a stumbling block either for porting games to the Revolution. The only stumbling block is Nintendo interface…

    At least people grown to the remote. There’s the shell or a reconfiguration of the game to suit the remote/stick to remedy that. Retooling the graphics could offset development 6 months or so

    Don’t let anyone make you believe guys that Nintendo will bring out a console that is not graphically capable of beautiful games because it is and will be.

    GameCube was pretty and slightly improved Gamecube visuals are prettier. Next Generation? We’ll just have to see, XBox wasn’t pushed to the limit since most games were developed on a PS2 standard. Do I want more? Hell yes! Easy ports, good graphics all at a $200 price tag as well as original games. Manufacturing costs differ from retail costs, 1T-SRAM is cheaper than DRAM and faster (plus Moore’s Law) which make it fairly reasonable why Revolution could spring for a few things more without surpassing the $200 price tag but at the same time is still slightly rather than significantly weaker than XBox360.

    The leap in graphics this next-generation is not that big a-leap as Microsoft and Sony would like you all to believe…this is their selling point for their machines and you are all eating their propaganda pie and it is working.

    The problem with that is that Microsoft paid for a NEXT GEN PC GRADE GPU and Sony DIDN’T MAKE THEIR GPU THIS TIME. 500 million triangles/sec is still a peak number rather than a performance number with effects turned on.

    However if for any reason RE5 or Sonic can’t be done on Revolution in the state it’s in, I wouldn’t call that hype.

    The big leaps in graphics are long gone now and the only thing left that will cause a ripple in the video-games pond visually is Virtual Reality graphics machines and we are some years away from that let me tell you.

    Graphics haven’t peaked ON CONSOLES just because Nintendo supposedly doesn’t sport a high polygon count like their enemies in terms of the Revolution. There can be graphical improvements to detail modeling, better shaders, 64-bit color/lighting. Important? Maybe not but if developers want that option, why not? Makes it more immersive.

    So chill out people…Nintendo will not disappoint on a visual level nor gaming level.

    I hope so, there’s a lot of mixed messages.

  22. I’d address the rest of it, but i’d forget my rebuttal by the time i finished. So i’ll just respond to what was directed at me.

    Hardware upgrade- I wasn’t undermining graphics. In other words, visuals are not the only thing that should be looked at. What i’m saying is everyone wants Nintendo to match the comp because they think it’s what has to be done, when it isn’t. If i felt like u sed, i’d be upset cause the leaked specs r too good.

    Matt didn’t suggest anything except that we have a solid expectation of what the Revolution might be like. In regards to the GPU, he made it clear that the devs believed what they are working on is a close approximation of how Hollywood might be. Everyone is twisting his words.

    Nintendo isn’t ignoring them. Of course they’re competition. With the DS, Nintendo always sed they weren’t competing with the PSP. But what does Reggie do every other week? He boasts about how DS is stomping the PSP in every single region. It’s a business strategy. They know what they’re up to.

    You’re not looking at it the right way. Try not to give a rat’s ass what commercial Busta Rhymes appears in next, it doesn’t matter. This influence only goes so far. It boosts popularity among existing mainstream gamers only. Nintendo isn’t playing to these ppl. The scope is too limited among some of you guys. Horizons are expanding with Nintendo, remember that.

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