Ign is reporting on their source's descriptions of the Rev's capabilities so far.
Revolution tech Details EmergeSome key quotes:
"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."
""To be honest, it's not much more powerful than an Xbox. It's like a souped up Xbox," a major third party source revealed to us. "But it's the controller that makes the difference and the controller is really nice." "
"Revolution will not have the RAM capacity to store and display an abundant source of high-definition textures. Third parties have revealed to us that the console will top out with 128MBs of RAM, and possibly even less. One studio would not give us an exact figure, but did say, "The same as GameCube plus an extra 64MB of main RAM." That number is by comparison nearly triple the amount of memory in GameCube. However, it is a far cry from the 512MBs present in Xbox 360."
"No developer that chatted with us had, or was willing to share, details on the console's GPU, Hollywood."
"Finally, quizzed about publishers' internal reaction to the device, a source responded: "People are interested, but they're still taking it all in at the moment. I'm sure [Nintendo is] going to get a fair amount of support. Probably a lot of people will initially look at existing franchises and whether or not they can kind of do customized versions for Revolution using most of the assets they've got. But whether they'll say, "Okay, let's do something completely original for it," that's the other question because it could be quite expensive to do that. Not as expensive as doing a PS3 or Xbox 360 game. But if you're a third party and you want to do cross platform, if you're doing a game on 360 you can do it on PS3 or PC using the same assets and that does make it a bit easier.""
My personal take:
Seeing what the GC can do with RE4 and Zelda:TP, the Rev will do perfectly fine on standard definition TVs. Also, this is NOT GC level graphics, we are looking at an increase in power, but an increase that doesn't push into diminishing returns like the PS3 or X360.
What this actually does suggest is that Nintendo may be looking at really hitting a low price point. Very impressive, especially if they can launch at sub $190. Can you imagine the revolution dropping to $99 within one year of it's release, yet still being competitive with PS3 and X360 based purely on revolutionary gameplay experiences?
But of course, we're still apparently waiting for news on the graphics chip.
~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com