Author Topic: New Revolution rumors  (Read 11420 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Mr. Saturn

  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
New Revolution rumors
« on: March 20, 2005, 06:40:50 PM »
Please don't link directly to images -- especially when they are nearly a MB.  --Basically the latest Game Informer claims to have sources that state the Revolution controller will just be a touch screen so developers can create custom controls.  I can't tell you how absurd this concept is.  -Bloodworth

Wow I don't even know what to say about this rumor really, all I've got to say if this is true then its bye bye Nintendo.

Still theres always the possibility this isn't true, perhaps our fine feathered friend Noble~Feather can tell us if this info is true or not?  

Offline Caillan

  • Token New Zealander
  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2005, 06:43:29 PM »
Iwata has already said that the Revolution will not use touch screen controllers. These people are idiots, like the XBox site who said Nintendo will drop out next generation.

EDIT: Added link. (The quote is about half way down the page.)

Offline RickPowers

  • IT Director
    Senior Editor
  • Score: 2
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2005, 07:04:57 PM »
I've recently been reminded that there is a fairly major reason why the Revolution could not use a touch-screen as it's SOLE method of input, as is being suggested by Joystiq and other sites.  Touch Screen technology currently does not have the ability to recognize touch from two distinct points at the same time.  This would instantly obsolete several entire GENRES of game, such as fighting games.  That, with the above link to the Iwata quote should be proof that this is simply not going to happen.
:: Rob "Rick Powers" Stevens
:: Senior Editor Emeritus
:: Personal Blog
:: Wii Number: 7294 0910 3012 6153

Offline Ian Sane

  • Champion for Urban Champion
  • Score: 1
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2005, 07:51:05 PM »
"Touch Screen technology currently does not have the ability to recognize touch from two distinct points at the same time. This would instantly obsolete several entire GENRES of game, such as fighting games."

That's obviously a huge flaw but I don't think the fact that the idea is so limiting is proof alone that Nintendo isn't doing it.  History has shown that Nintendo is stubborn and doesn't usually care about any other developers' needs besides their own.  They didn't care that the Cube's d-pad was useless because they themselves never planned to use it for movement.  So realistically if they never planned on making any Rev games that would require two buttons to be pushed at once a touchscreen only controller would suit their needs.  I don't think it is a touchscreen because Iwata has said it's not.  But "the idea is stupid" is no longer a good enough reason to me to believe Nintendo isn't doing something.

Offline Urkel

  • Reggie Fart-Aime
  • Score: 3
    • View Profile
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2005, 08:28:51 PM »
Quote

History has shown that Nintendo is stubborn and doesn't usually care about any other developers' needs besides their own. They didn't care that the Cube's d-pad was useless because they themselves never planned to use it for movement. So realistically if they never planned on making any Rev games that would require two buttons to be pushed at once a touchscreen only controller would suit their needs. I don't think it is a touchscreen because Iwata has said it's not. But "the idea is stupid" is no longer a good enough reason to me to believe Nintendo isn't doing something.


Christ, Ian. Give it a freaking rest! We get it. You don't like how Nintendo has done things at sometime, someplace or somewhere. We know.

What I don't get is how you can still be so pessimistic about absolutely everything Nintendo does. The DS should be enough to show you that Nintendo is changing.

"Nintendo needs to go online! Because I say so! But they never will, because Nintendo is really stupid and stubborn and stubborny stubborn! I'm going to write a 7 paragraph rant on how Nintendo is f*cking up. Because they wont go online. Because they're stubborn. I'm going to assume that absolutly nothing has changed at Nintendo in the last 5 years.

Huh? What's that? The DS is going online... Er... yeah, well... the DS is for casual gamers! I'm a hardcore gamer, dammit! I'm just going to assume that all DS games are going to be short and simplistic, because the launch games are. I'm going to completely ignore the hundreds of games lined up on the DS that aren't short and simplistic... because they'll probably all get cancelled because the PSP will outsell the DS since it has an analog nub, and Nintendo was too stubborn to include an analog stick with the DS. Yeah."

We get it. You don't want Nintendo to make any more mistakes. But you're living in the past. Nintendo is changing.
"ROFS? Rolling on the floor... starving?"- Phoenix Wright

Offline slingshot

  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2005, 03:17:38 AM »
Simplistic games (though not MY favorite) can be fun too.  I have a 3 year old son (I'm 28)- and I love to sit and play Disney
games with him on my CUBE.  Nemo- and believe it or not Winnie the POOh!  These games may suck to many gamers playing
for themselves, but it is fun to play something with my son that is up to his speed, not too hard for him to play, or too violent.

And the CG cuts, and actual game play on these Disney kids games are phenominal.  So ... by being more versatile and
making games for kids and adults, nintendo is selling me twice as many games- because I'm buying for my very young child,
and myself.  I doubt X box has games for kids 3-5 yrs old.

Offline Grant10k

  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2005, 12:45:54 PM »
The trouble with magazine articles is that they write the article about a month in advance, so if you ever see a cutting edge article about a console designer's top secret insider info, it's probably either old news or wrong. The other thing is that they know they will be old news by the time they get to the news stands so they like to guess alot.
 Without data, you're just another schmuck with an opinion.
     -Chris Anderson, TEC speaker

Offline Galford

  • Score: 1
    • View Profile
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2005, 01:28:54 PM »
I can think of one reason why Nintendo won't use touch screens.  
Price and durability.  

Though the customization part sounds cool.
Wii Code - 8679 5256 1008 2077

Offline darknight06

  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #8 on: March 21, 2005, 01:50:35 PM »
The GC D-pad was very usuable with CvS2EO.  In fact I found it to be one of the better ones, it's actually got a lot of movement to it.

Offline Pale

  • Staff Layton Hat Thief
  • Score: 4
    • View Profile
    • PaleHour
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #9 on: March 21, 2005, 02:04:45 PM »
Quote

Originally posted by: Galford
I can think of one reason why Nintendo won't use touch screens.  
Price and durability.
Haha, was that supposed to be funny?
:: I was an active staffer forever ago, or was it yesterday. Time is an anomaly. Father of two boys.
---------------------
:: Grouvee :: Instagram

Offline KnowsNothing

  • Babycakes
  • Score: 11
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #10 on: March 21, 2005, 02:09:26 PM »
I think he was serious.....Galford, see [Nintendo DS, Page 1, Internet]...
kka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wa

Offline Bloodworth

  • Phantom
  • *
  • Score: 2
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #11 on: March 21, 2005, 04:23:18 PM »
Nintendo has been the only company to really focus on making the controller easy to distinguish by touch alone.  Making a touch screen controller, would force you to look at it, and you'd get a lot of fingerprints on it too.
Daniel Bloodworth
Managing Editor
GameTrailers

Offline Galford

  • Score: 1
    • View Profile
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2005, 03:48:35 AM »
Bloodworth said...
"Nintendo has been the only company to really focus on making the controller easy to distinguish by touch alone. Making a touch screen controller, would force you to look at it, and you'd get a lot of fingerprints on it too."

Amen to that
Wii Code - 8679 5256 1008 2077

Offline kennyb27

  • President of Nintendo. Seriously!
  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #13 on: March 22, 2005, 05:05:57 AM »
A touch screen-customizable controller would be horrible.  

Not only could you only have one point of input, but, depending on the developer, the entire layout of the buttons would change for every game.  That would suck.  I like at least knowing where the buttons are on the controller, even if I have to learn what each of them do.  Imagine having to spend at least twice the time in every game learning the controls.  Yeah, horrible.
-Kenny

Now Playing: I-Ninja (GC), Pokemon LeafGreen (GBA), Nintendogs (DS), Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (GC)
Just Finished: Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GC), Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door (GC) Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap (GBA)
Need money for: Advance Wars: Dual St

Offline Pale

  • Staff Layton Hat Thief
  • Score: 4
    • View Profile
    • PaleHour
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #14 on: March 22, 2005, 05:51:46 AM »
Maybe they invented a tactile touch screen.  It has the ability to raise and lower any part of the screen in order to make it feel like a real controller.
:: I was an active staffer forever ago, or was it yesterday. Time is an anomaly. Father of two boys.
---------------------
:: Grouvee :: Instagram

Offline Don'tHate742

  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #15 on: March 22, 2005, 06:56:45 AM »
Why does everyone (Ian / the media except PGC) like to completely ignore the FACT that Nintendo signed a contract with a company that makes gyroscopes for controllers. How much money Nintendo gave in the contract was undisclosed....hmmm...why? I'll tell you. Nintendo is giving them a large amount of money for them to make a custom gyration unit to be implemented into the controller, kinda like ATI and IBM are making customs chips to be used in the Rev console.

It makes sense, touch-screen does not....
"lol in my language that means poo" - Stevey

"WTF is your languange" - Vudu

Offline KDR_11k

  • boring person
  • Score: 28
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #16 on: March 22, 2005, 09:00:20 AM »
I think GI.biz also acknowledged that fact.

Offline Mr. Saturn

  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #17 on: March 22, 2005, 10:46:21 AM »
Quote

Originally posted by: Don'tHate742
Why does everyone (Ian / the media except PGC) like to completely ignore the FACT that Nintendo signed a contract with a company that makes gyroscopes for controllers. How much money Nintendo gave in the contract was undisclosed....hmmm...why? I'll tell you. Nintendo is giving them a large amount of money for them to make a custom gyration unit to be implemented into the controller, kinda like ATI and IBM are making customs chips to be used in the Rev console.

It makes sense, touch-screen does not....


Ok then I'm glad to hear that, but my only question is how exactly would gyroscopic controllers revolutionize the market and cause a paradigm shift?  I mean what uses would a gyroscopic controller have anyway?


Offline Pale

  • Staff Layton Hat Thief
  • Score: 4
    • View Profile
    • PaleHour
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #18 on: March 22, 2005, 11:13:03 AM »
Picture a unit that slides over your hand and forearm...  Think of it as shaped like Samus's arm...  Inside is something similar to the throttle on a motorcycle.  It has three axis of movement as well as buttons.  Now picture playing Prime with just this on your arm, where all the aiming is done by moving your arm.  Thats what I think gyration can do for games...

Only problem is it is all very game specific.  Coming up with a universal one would be another challenge all together.
:: I was an active staffer forever ago, or was it yesterday. Time is an anomaly. Father of two boys.
---------------------
:: Grouvee :: Instagram

Offline RickPowers

  • IT Director
    Senior Editor
  • Score: 2
    • View Profile
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #19 on: March 22, 2005, 11:41:42 AM »
Quote

Originally posted by: Don'tHate742
Why does everyone (Ian / the media except PGC) like to completely ignore the FACT that Nintendo signed a contract with a company that makes gyroscopes for controllers. How much money Nintendo gave in the contract was undisclosed....hmmm...why? I'll tell you. Nintendo is giving them a large amount of money for them to make a custom gyration unit to be implemented into the controller, kinda like ATI and IBM are making customs chips to be used in the Rev console.

It makes sense, touch-screen does not....


Simple ... the technology has already been used, several times, in fact.  Kirby Tilt & Tumble, Wario Ware Twisted ... the technology is in use.  Could Nintendo put it directly into the controller?  Sure!  Will they?  It's hard to say.  However, if Nintendo wants to have any hope of using that sort of input in console games, they'd have to either incorporate it into the controller, or release a special controller that can use it.

It's not that people are ignoring it, it's just that there is a logical answer already, and a more obvious one than possible future applications.
:: Rob "Rick Powers" Stevens
:: Senior Editor Emeritus
:: Personal Blog
:: Wii Number: 7294 0910 3012 6153

Offline nemo_83

  • Dream Master
  • Score: -1
    • View Profile
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #20 on: March 22, 2005, 02:38:18 PM »
Quote

Originally posted by: Mr. Saturn
Quote

Originally posted by: Don'tHate742
Why does everyone (Ian / the media except PGC) like to completely ignore the FACT that Nintendo signed a contract with a company that makes gyroscopes for controllers. How much money Nintendo gave in the contract was undisclosed....hmmm...why? I'll tell you. Nintendo is giving them a large amount of money for them to make a custom gyration unit to be implemented into the controller, kinda like ATI and IBM are making customs chips to be used in the Rev console.

It makes sense, touch-screen does not....


Ok then I'm glad to hear that, but my only question is how exactly would gyroscopic controllers revolutionize the market and cause a paradigm shift?  I mean what uses would a gyroscopic controller have anyway?



Gyration like an analog stick can use tilting for game input, but Gyration can do something that no analog stick can do.  Gyration can detect turning so in a FPS you wouldn't tilt the controller or controllers to look left and right; you would turn the controller left or right.  This will be the answer to the age old debate about what controls best?  Game console controllers which are geared toward the movement of the character or PC gaming which is geared towards camera control through use of moving the arm to control a mouse for accurate aim.  Gyration allows for both these controls to coexist and for console gamers to woop up on some trash talking PC gamers.  
Life is like a hurricane-- here in Duckburg

Offline Don'tHate742

  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #21 on: March 22, 2005, 03:04:31 PM »
Did those really use gyration Rick? Or did they use something akin to gyration? Did they actually pay Gyration for the use of their product in KT&T and WWT? I find it hard to believe that entering a contract for an undisclosed amount of money would only yeild a couple games that used it. You must see that concentrating on gyration rather than just implementing it in a few games, could easily cause a pardigm shift. Instead of making games that work off the gimmick of it; games of all genres could use it for the more advanced features, thus causing a shift. Come to think of it, what causes a paradigm shift?

My answer is more precise aiming. In history it went from D-pad to analog stick to dual analog stick. You can't get much more complicated than dual analog stick. Adding another would be disastrous. So how do you aim more precise when analog-sticks have reached their peak? Gyration, Dual-handed controllers. It will allow for "life-like" precision aiming and expand game abilities ten-fold. Even if it wasn't dual-handed, something like PaleZero mentioned would still allow for greater accuracy. The only problem I see with his idea is some genres seen today would be hard to implement. Fighters for instance would be ridiculous. A dual-handed flight stick type controller, that is essentially a "this-gen" controller split in half, would work for all genres while adding far more precise aiming. It would be like going from Golden-eye, which used the c-buttons for aiming, to Halo with it's dual analog controller. This jump would be far greater than an "upgrade." It would allow games that always relied on button naming, to use actual movements to replicate what needs to be done on-screen. It also opens up many new genres, and sub-genres. An archery game could never realized this gen due to it's lackluster ability to be entertaining. With this controller, you could essentially do all the things needed to fire an arrow, instead of pressing random button 1, that has nothing to do with the actually game itself.

They could add a track-ball for mouse-like aiming, but that isn't simplifing the process any. I use a mouse everyday, yet using a track ball seems ackward to me. I could adapt, but that's because of the "practice" I recieved from this generation games. Once you have to teach hard-core gamers something, you automatically lose.
"lol in my language that means poo" - Stevey

"WTF is your languange" - Vudu

Offline attackslug

  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #22 on: March 22, 2005, 05:59:46 PM »
I think some kind of gyroscopic controller technology is in the works.  Something was said about Revolution's control becoming more accessable to non-gamers.  One thing I always notice when watching my parents or non-gamer friends playing something, is that they are always tilting the controller in the direction they want to go.  It would make sense, could allow for some interesting new control schemes and gameplay, and seems more realistic than holographic images, VR headgear, etc.
The one thing that makes this seem pretty unlikely though, is that a gyroscopic controller could easily be produced for other systems.  There ought to be omething more "revolutionary" about the system itself, not just the controller.      

Offline Don'tHate742

  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
RE:New Revolution rumors
« Reply #23 on: March 22, 2005, 09:26:37 PM »
Quote

Originally posted by: attackslug
I think some kind of gyroscopic controller technology is in the works.  Something was said about Revolution's control becoming more accessable to non-gamers.  One thing I always notice when watching my parents or non-gamer friends playing something, is that they are always tilting the controller in the direction they want to go.  It would make sense, could allow for some interesting new control schemes and gameplay, and seems more realistic than holographic images, VR headgear, etc.
The one thing that makes this seem pretty unlikely though, is that a gyroscopic controller could easily be produced for other systems.  There ought to be omething more "revolutionary" about the system itself, not just the controller.



I came to that conclusion myself. Simply putting gyration in a controller doesn't make anything more revolutionary than what we've seen today (looks at Tilt and Tumble). Also, implementing gyration in a controller doesn't seem that hard for companies who at first lacked the feature, and are now trying to play catch up. Nintendo doesn't want their idea stolen, for that would obliterate their perceived advantage. If the idea is of paradigm shift proportions, then one of two things will have to be present in order to prevent other companies from stealing the idea: 1) Make it too costly for the competing companies to all the sudden switch 2) Patent or close a CONTRACT with the provider of the revolutionary aspect, stating that the company only makes products for Nintendo now.

It all makes so much sense and I hate to hype myself up, but all signs point to ------> Dual-Handed Gyration controllers.
"lol in my language that means poo" - Stevey

"WTF is your languange" - Vudu

Offline KDR_11k

  • boring person
  • Score: 28
    • View Profile
RE: New Revolution rumors
« Reply #24 on: March 22, 2005, 10:15:12 PM »
Depending on how the gyro systems are implemented they might be a nightmare to copy. Basically they're at least three, possibly six additional axises to keep track of. Also, why not assume Nintendo is doing more than just one new feature? The DS added a second screen, touch controls AND a mic. And besides, the time it takes a rival to implement similar technology, the time it takes for the controller to become widespread enough and the time it takes for games to make use of it will make their implementations much less significant. And imagine Nintendo bought Gyration, would it be easy to build comparable gyroscopes while not violating Gyration's patents?