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Iwata said that the product will "enable fun and movement not seen before." He added: "I expect it to become a third pillar, next to GameCube and Game Boy." ... company representatives have previously confirmed that it would not be a full-blown to successor to any existing hardware. ... "We want to launch the product worldwide simultaneously, but we don't know if that will be possible because of the issue of production capacity," stated Senior Managing Director Yoshihiro Mori.
Fun and movement not seen before... If we interpret that to be mobility, then it would suggest some sort of mobile, perhaps online, gameplay. But that's been "seen before"--though maybe the "fun" wasn't quite there--so that's probably not it. I think an important question is why Nintendo wants to launch the product simultaneously in all regions. It's likely not simply a connectivity type thing, be it online with people across the globe or between friends in the same room using gba's and/or gamecubes--since that would hardly qualify it to be a "third pillar".
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What game applications benefit from a Gyration game controller?
GYRATION: The ease accuracy of moving a cursor or crosshair across a screen by pointing makes Gyration technology an excellent choice for 1st person shooters and other action games that require fast and precise targeting.
Which patents did Gyration license Nintendo?
GYRATION: US application Patents 5,898,421 and 5,440,326 which deal with tracking human motion and translating it into linier movement of computer graphic images.
Will the patent licensing affect the availability of Game Boy's Tilt motion feature that is currently available in Japan but not the US?
GYRATION: Not specifically, but the patents that Gyration has licensed Nintendo encompass this particular Game Boy feature in the US.
This gyration stuff is probably seperate from the unique mystery machine... but that's just a guess. Nintendo did team up with Logitech to produce a pretty good steering wheel a while back. They could just be pursuing another quality accessory. As for 1st person shooters and other action games requiring fast and precise targeting, it's possible Nintendo is finally making a light gun; hell, the let True Crime get made and released on the gamecube, and plenty other mature and/or gory games get made, too. Heh, or maybe Nintendo is bringing back that "Force" thing where you stand inside an octagon that senses your movements--whatever it was called... This stuff, I believe, has little if anything to do with the "unique" product.
I wonder if the word "unique" is a hint in itself. I don't know if the word was given in English or translated either literally or by meaning... perhaps some sort of biometric device? Okay, this is pure fanboy speculation now, but here goes: Maybe it could be a small device that you wear on your head. It could track the movement of your eye or head and then react accordingly.. Or a device that could monitor your biometry and change the environment, characters. i.e. characters could "smell" your fear and become aggressive.. Although, obviously, none of this could be consider or would become a "third pillar".
For this "unique" device to become a third pillar as Iwata expects it to, it would likely have to be able to stand on its own. It couldn't
rely on being interfaced with either or both of the other two systems, but it could still connect to either or both systems. For some reason, I suddenly thought of the e-Reader... and thought that it could perhaps to be new device, with its own LCD, that could play e-Reader games, and also connect to the gamecube and/or gba to enhance those games cheaply and effectively. But I keep dwelling on the word "unique" and thinking that maybe it will read fingerprints or retinas or some such thing, and randomly--or not so randomly--generate content specifically for each gamer. But the costs would probably keep that from happening... Or maybe unique simply means that there really has never quite been anything like it before--which rules out quite a bit... I would personally love to see a new type of virtual boy thing with true 3d, but that seems unlikely. ... Well, whatever. I dunno.
The main points are that the mystery machine:
will be "unique",
will enable "fun and movement" not seen before,
is expected to become a third pillar next to GBA and GCN
(and will not be a full blown successor to any existing hardware),
and will be launched simultaneously worldwide if possible.
(And may possibly incorporate gyration technology, though I personally believe that's a seperate thing altogether.)
Topic: Innovative New Product 2004 (Read 5864 times)
