The Wii

New console releases from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo will determine the future of video games for the next half decade. Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 late in 2005 to get a head start on the competition--Sony and Nintendo will launch their new consoles this year. The Xbox 360 sports excellent hardware and a robust Xbox Live online platform, plus Microsoft has pockets deeper than the Mariana Trench. The PlayStation 3 will be just as powerful, with advanced Nvidia graphics, a custom-designed IBM Cell processor, and new Blu-ray drive technology. And Nintendo will have a new controller that bares a striking resemblance to a television remote control.

If there's one console manufacturer that marches to the beat of a different drummer, it has to be Nintendo. The originator of the modern console-gaming era has been a traditional player in every single console generation, first with the Nintendo Entertainment System, then with the Super NES, then with the Nintendo 64, and now with the Nintendo GameCube. But Nintendo promises that its next console system, the Wii, will be a major departure from the current console CPU and graphics-hardware arms race.

We shouldn't be surprised by Nintendo's move. This is the same company that rolled the dice on the Game Boy and the Nintendo DS. Nintendo may have missed the mark with the Virtual Boy, but you can't produce huge winners without taking some risk. Only a company like Nintendo could release a new console system right after the collapse of the entire video game industry, and only a company like Nintendo can release a new game system that's dramatically different from today's proven console models.

Nintendo has been fairly secretive about its new console after announcing it at E3 last year. We know it has an IBM processor and an ATI graphics chip. It's rumored to be two to three times as powerful as the GameCube, but we may never discover the final hardware specifications because Nintendo believes that comparisons should be based on the quality of the games, not on numbers in a specification list.

Nintendo is wise to leave its spec sheet at home, as the forthcoming Wii will likely not be able to compete with the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360 in terms of pure silicon brawn. The PS3 and Xbox 360 have specification sheets a mile long, littered with numbers and lots of technical jargon, some of great import and others of little consequence.

Nintendo's hardware won't let it run with the big boys when it comes to powering high-resolution displays like HDTVs. While the Xbox 360 renders graphics at 1280x720 (or 720p), and Sony claims that the PlayStation 3 will render at 1920x1080 (or 1080p), the Wii will output at 853x480 (or 480p). The good news--you won't need a brand-new HDTV to take full advantage of the Wii.

It's almost certain that Nintendo will have an online experience like Xbox Live, but Nintendo has not released specific information about how the service will work. We do know that the service will give Wii owners access to more than 20 years of games by making NES, SNES, and N64 games available for download online via the Virtual Console, for a fee of course. At the 2006 Game Developers Conference, Nintendo announced backward compatibility for the Sega Genesis and Hudson's TurboGrafx-16. The Wii will also be able to play GameCube games, and Nintendo will release a Wii edition of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess with special controller support.

Nintendo has announced the price point for its new living-room console, the Wii, which will be launched globally in Q4 2006. Although for now the pricing is not exact, it will not exceed $250 in America or 25,000 yen in Japan. No estimate was announced for the European market, but the indication given was that it would be a "similar, affordable price."

In addition, Nintendo said it will soon release details on the Virtual Console, and "exact launch dates." Nintendo's wording of the "launch dates" is ambiguous--it could refer to Wii games alone, or it could mean a staggered launch of the system, or both. Regardless of when the launch happens, the publisher said it expects to ship 6 million consoles before the end of March 2007, as well as 17 million games.

The news comes hot on the heels of an earlier posting by the company of a 19 percent drop in annual profits, and a warning that results for the current financial year would be 3.5 percent lower than previously thought.

However, Nintendo still expects sales to grow by 18 percent globally, based on continuing sales of the Nintendo DS, and hopes for a successful Wii launch. The DS Lite, a new, sleeker version of the twin-screen handheld, is due to launch on June 11 in America and June 23 in Europe, and new key titles such as New Super Mario Bros. will no doubt cause sales spikes globally.

Nintendo's pricing decision will compare directly with key Japanese rival Sony, whose PlayStation 3 console will ship for a significantly higher price at around the same time, and will cost up to $599 for the top-end model.

When Sony and Microsoft kicked off E3 2005 with splashy next-generation console announcements, many wondered how Nintendo would respond. The Japanese giant answered with claims that its offering would revolutionize gaming, accordingly dubbing its effort the Nintendo Revolution. Over the past couple of months, Nintendo has kept pretty quiet amid an ever-escalating war of words between PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 advocates, but some information has managed to leak out. Here's a look at what we know about the enigmatic Revolution and what remains a mystery.

Confirmed: what we know
Appearance: The Nintendo Revolution is the most diminutive of the three next-gen consoles, living inside a sleek rectangular box that's similar in size to the slimmed-down Playstation 2. As with the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, the Revolution can stand either horizontally or vertically. Nintendo's E3 mock-up was jet black, but the company also showed the console in a variety of colors. The eye-grabbing feature has been its LED-illuminated slot-loading optical media drive, which will accept standard five-inch, DVD-style discs as well as the smaller discs from Nintendo's current-generation GameCube. Nintendo has said that "a small, self-contained attachment" will enable the Revolution to play DVD movies, though you can expect to pay extra for the privilege.

Controller: Nintendo had hinted that the controller would be the truly "revolutionary" thing about its GameCube successor, and the company did not disappoint. Unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show on September 16, the wireless Revolution controller has the appearance of a wandlike remote control you might use to change the channels on your TV. In fact, it uses a motion sensor, so the movements in your hand can be translated onscreen--imagine, for instance, manipulating an onscreen lightsaber in real time instead of just mashing buttons, or pointing your weapon in a Metroid-style first-person shooter. In addition to the motion sensor, the controller features a four-way directional pad and two sets of buttons, including an over/under trigger configuration. Flip it on its side in a horizontal orientation, and the controls revert to old-school Nintendo--the D-pad on the left, two buttons on the right--a configuration recognizable to any Game Boy or NES player. It also features an expansion port that allows for the connection of an analog joystick and other control options. But while no one will doubt that the Revolution's controller is unique, is it so radically different from what gamers are used to that it won't appeal to the masses? Opinion seems evenly divided for now, but it will certainly take users getting some literal hands-on experience--and seeing how Nintendo and third-party software developers exploit the controller in its next wave of games--before a verdict is in.

Hardware specs: The console packs a customized IBM-developed CPU paired with an ATI graphics chip, alongside 512MB of RAM and an expansion SD media slot for saved games and user-specific content. Nintendo's latest will also feature wireless controllers, a pair of USB 2.0 expansion ports, and built-in, router-style support for Wi-Fi Internet access. Unfortunately, it appears that the Revolution will not support high-definition output; this may prove to be a serious shortcoming since the PS3 and Xbox 360 have wholeheartedly embraced the standard.

Backward compatibility: The Revolution's flexibility doesn't stop with GameCube games. The console includes a built-in emulator that will let users download and play just about every game from all of the Big N's past systems: Nintendo 64, SNES, and even the original Nintendo Entertainment System. That's a catalog of retro favorites stretching back to the 1980s, one that could reap significant long-tail rewards for Nintendo while recapturing some of the company's more nostalgic retro gaming fans. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has confirmed that the downloads won't be free, though we can hardly blame Nintendo for trying to make an honest buck; we can only hope that the content comes in cheap, impulse-buy-friendly increments.

Rumor and speculation: what we don't know
Developer support: In a much-publicized interview, Electronic Arts vice president David Gardner pooh-poohed the Revolution, saying that EA would likely give greater support to the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Since EA publishes the bulk of the A-list titles these days, its hesitance has been serious cause for concern among Nintendo fan boys. But don't panic just yet; at this point, it's likely that not even EA knows what to expect from the Revolution. We will say that Nintendo's frequent, ambiguous promises of a wholly original gaming experience probably aren't helping the situation; game studios are perhaps justifiably skittish about limiting sales by committing to make games that won't be easily ported to Sony and Microsoft's consoles.

Release date: Nintendo hasn't specified a date beyond "2006." Impatient fan boys can take heart in rumors that the Revolution may hit sooner rather than later. Nintendo has already scheduled a big PR event at E3 2006, which is all but certain to be the Revolution's coming-out party. Nintendo's known for flexibility with its deadlines, but the company could very well be planning an early release to undercut the Playstation 3's  even vaguer launch.

Price: There are rumors of price tags as low as $100 and more than $350, but Nintendo hasn't confirmed anything. Nintendo has traditionally kept costs down on its console hardware, and the omission of costly extras (internal hard disk, high-definition support, or next-gen Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive) makes us think the Revolution will be priced to move. We predict that Nintendo will sell the Revolution for $200 to 250. That price tag is possible with the Revolutions's relative lack of high-end tech and would give the system a distinct edge over the much more expensive Xbox 360.

The bottom line
With sales figures for the original Xbox and the PlayStation 2 trouncing those for the GameCube, once-mighty Nintendo needs a big hit to retain its foothold in the home-console market. There's a lot to like about the Revolution, but the lack of HD support could be a crippling flaw, and it doesn't seem to pack the groundbreaking technological and graphical acuity of its rivals. One wonders if Nintendo's emphasis on retro gaming means that the company is reliving its past glories at the expense of cultivating the more-advanced technologies that next-generation customers will demand. Fortunately, Nintendo has always focused on creating games that are fun to play, and the Revolution will be the only place you'll be able to take new Mario, Zelda, and Metroid titles for a spin. We'll keep you updated as more information comes to light.