Revolution- In May??

Staff 23 Comments 765 views Infendo

Since the Revolution was shown off this past May, there’s been a lot of chatter about it’s release. When? How much? Nintendo has given us very little to base our predictions off of.

Today, though, I came upon some exciting information. My mom runs the Customer Service department at the local Target. She know the local Nintendo representative (brings in new demos, sets up Nintendo products…an actual NOA employee) pretty well. Today, the rep came into the store, doing some last minute Christmas shopping. According to the rep, the Revolution will be released in May next year. She was described as saying this in a “real quiet” voice.

Now, I’m certainly not claiming this to be 100% true. The source is reliable, being an NOA employee, and has given some accurate tidbits of info in the past. However, I think it’s worth considering. If Nintendo were to show off some of the Revolution features in early May, then follow up quickly with a release, while it was still being hyped, it could set up for a great launch.

Would May be a good move for Nintendo? Could we possibly see this?

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23 Comments

  1. I’d always thought that the summer was the worse time for the videogame industry.

  2. well if EA can have a game for World Cup ready that month is would be a sellout in the whole market. Not to mention All Nintendo games being launched. I don’t think nintendo would try for november since Sony probaablywill launch the ps3 that month. Summer is a great launch idea. low releases, everyone is home staying away from the sun in the AC. No Tv Seasons starting, big movies launching with games tieins. I support the idea.

  3. I know I shouldnt because it’s pure wishful thinking speculation, but I just can’t shake the feeling that a late spring/summer 2006 launch can very readily happen!

    I mean, if both Nintendo and third parties say that the Rev has absolutely zero learning curve and since games were being developed on GC dev kits way before full dev kits were made available… AND if this Twilight Princess close-launch-frame is true… Well, now the only thing missing is whether Nintendo can manufacture enough units in less than 5 months to meet launch demand.

    ~Carmine M. Red
    Kairon@aol.com

  4. i agree…i think if is in fact as easy as they say to make…then why not? if relased in may i think that they should announce the release a good month and a half before e3 and then use e3 to keep the hype on them only a couple weeks before the launch and i think they would be set to go.

  5. Summer = GREAT!!! (its my birthday)

    I think late summer is good, can pick up some hype, and sell really well at christmas..

  6. Not to mention, if they’re ready to launch late spring/summer 2006, then they’d have a second wave of deeper and more accomplished titles ready for Holiday season 2006, AND by then they’d have ironed out any hardware malfunctions or supply difficulties.

    ~Carmine M. Red
    Kairon@aol.com

  7. I think it would be a good time because alot of people don’t like the idea of the remote controller. If nintendo was to lunch the rev. that early they would have great opening sales and by the time the speculators tryed the controller and like it christmas sales will be even better.

    my birthday is in may 🙂

    the sooner the better, i can’t wait

  8. I never knew this many other people had May birthdays! If the Revolution came out in May, do you think the Japanese one will be released in April? March? Is it possible that the Japanese Revolution will be released before E3 and show attendees will be treated to playing with a full product? Hmm…

  9. Just to let you know, the reps know little to nothing about launch dates when it comes to new product.

    Sounds like they were blowing your mom smoke, or it was just a guess on their part.

  10. Well all I know is after the E3 extravaganza i can see them exploding Rev sntuff ito the market and keeping the hype fresh, while beating PS3 to the market.

    Also (as mentioned) game companies will see it is doable and blow out games for the upcoming holiday season. The DS just became a must have because of this holidays line up, and my phone call from gamestop said they would not release TP until after Q1.

    I stated it before, but we will never know what Nintendo is doing until it is anounced and even then things change last minute somtimes (TP release date anyone?)

    The sooner the better. Nintendo needs to punk PS3 next holiday, and that is for sure. And maybe the guy was just passing along secrets to your mom.

    I don’t work at nintendo and he does. He will be the guy setting up the rev Demo kits so I don’t see why he wouldn’t know, but then again he gave away big secrets and thats why they dont tell anyone but big wigs and developers stuff like that.

  11. Maybe he said “come out” in May and meant it as being unveiled in May, at E3. Who’s to say, alls i know is that i have it down for Summer and that’s that. ‘;’

  12. I have a contact that supports the reps at NOA. NMI reps know less than true NOA employees.

    And that’s probably what they meant Rollin. 🙂

  13. Let’s take a step back and look at the big picture of what Nintendo will have to do if a May launch is the goal. Let’s assume the system is released in the US first, in the last week of May (let’s say Thursday the 27th) and is launched worldwide over 14 weeks, as it’s been suggested. That means the end of the 14th week will be September 1st, which will mean the Rev will be out worldwide before the PS3 – a good goal, one which places it in the middle of the 360 and PS3 would truly make it the “other” console. People with 360s buy it to get something diffeent fromt heir high def graphics fests, people waiting for PS3s get one to tide them over.

    The Revolution’s graphics chip has just been completed, which gives Nintendo 21 weeks to start manufacturing the units and get working, full dev kits to developers, including their own internal teams who need to finish and translate 2 or 3 first party titles for launch worldwide.

    So a May release is certainly possible, however it goes against the previous moral that Nintendo has proposed, that it doesn’t like releasing things during the summer, as it thinks people, children especially, should be outside getting some exercise (this maybe different now, however, with Yamauchi moving on).

    Will they have time enough to hype it? Yes. It’s already begun. Slipping hints that Sega may be in on the backwards compatability list, telling people there’ll be more info released next year before E3, making a big thing on announcing the grand unveiling AT E3. The list goes on. The media is abuzz with speculation, mainstream publications like the BBC and Time are hyping the Revolution.

    So, possible? Yep. A good business move? Yep. Plausable? Yep.

    This is not out of the question. The source, however, is a little less than credible.

  14. I’d like to see this become reality..

    I’m very keen on playing the next Zelda game, and have previously owned a GameCube and well over a dozen A list titles. But I’m not prepared to go and purchase another GameCube just to do so. (I lost my GC, when a friend who was borrowing it, up and left town one day) I’d like the option of going straight for the Revolution, the downloadable content, and everything else.

    So I’ll be waiting till the Revolutions’ release to pick up Zelda:TP.

  15. I assume May would mean in America and Nintendo said they would launch about 14 weeks apart. 14 weeks from May, about 3.5 months, puts the system in September for Europe. This would also mean that Revolution would be launched in Japan in February.

    Reggie speaks on February 9th!!!?

    And so far Nintendo has told us squat concening the system so they cannot release the system in Japan in February. It is just not enough time to have games ready for the system launch.

    However from that NGC magazine talking about Zelda the word is that the Rev launches in Nov in Europe. That would put the Revolution launch in America about August and May in Japan. That does equate what the PR person said.

    But I do not know about this.

    However, word is that Zelda TP launches in April about a month before E3 and a Revolution launch late may for Japan, a late august launch for America, and a late Nov launch for Europe?

  16. Blah blah blah blah blah. It’s comin next year, how about that.

    *wasted*

  17. I’m perfectly fine with either November or May. November is when my birthday is. May is when my brother’s birthday is. XD Either way, I’ll be able to trick my mom into getting one for me and one for my bro.

  18. hey remember when saturn pulled a surprise launch in may? that sure was a resounding success.

  19. Hmmm, if I remember correctly, Nintendo said they might try a different approach to this launch. They said thy might release in other countries first than in Japan. So imagine US 1st, Japan 2nd, Europe 3rd, rest of the world 4th. They already told developers before the controller was even out to start builds on GC dev kits, that they would be able to transfer over easily to Rev Dev’s. Did eveyone forget all of this? which mean’s, they should by now be pretty far along in Game Dev, which means, Rev for May in the US FIRST isnt that far fetched. In fact it is down right smart if you ask me. Plus on release, most of the Games will be First and Second Party as always. Third doesnt have to be done until Next year Fall/Winter. Think about it.

  20. To seth,

    Yeah I remember that, but that was not the reason why it failed. Monster sized round controllers, bad games, and few titles, little to no support, released shortly after one iteration after another… It actually helped Dreamcast fail…miserably.

  21. Released or revealed? Please double check.

  22. “So imagine US 1st, Japan 2nd, Europe 3rd, rest of the world 4th.”

    I would imagine that if I was sooooo drunk and couldn’t see the difference in numbers between the us and Japan concerning Nintendo. Japan sells so much more Nintendo stuff than the US its ridiculous. Maybe a simultaneous release…but I doubt it.

    —
    FRiSBY

  23. I hope that the Rev comes out in May. IGN said that the Rev might come out in November for the US I think. But I can’t that long for it.

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