Nintendo Revolution to launch in June?
CVG reported on a couple rumors yesterday. First, the Nintendo Revolution is going to get renamed this week at the Game Developer’s Confrence. That makes a lot of sense to me and it’s only a matter of time. Second, that the Revolution could launch in June. That’s right, June.
This is not the first place I’ve heard this rumor. A friend of mine in the game industry has been speculating on this lately as well. Now, this is of course rumor, but at the same time if you connect the dots it makes a lot of sense. First, launching alongside the PS3 in November would not be a good strategy. People will be caught up in PS3 hysteria, much as they were with the Xbox 360 last November. The Revolution needs to be different and that included the launch date.
Second, Nintendo needs to have time to market the console. In most hardcore gaming circles gamers are aware of the Revolution, but not everybody is sold on the idea. Most gamers who don’t really follow the industry that closely don’t know much about the Revolution and aren’t exactly psyched about it. Non-gamers have no idea what the Revolution is at all. By contrast, if you say Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, people tend to know what those are. Thus, Nintendo has a large task of marketing the Revolution and making people understand what it is and why they want it.
Third, Nintendo is only working on three Gamecube titles right now. Odama - which comes out in April, Kirby - which has no release date, and Zelda: Twilight Princess - which comes out in November and is compatable with the Revolution. So, Nintendo has no games releasing for the Gamecube between April and November. That seems a bit odd to me. However, right between April and November is June/July. Conspiracy? I think not.
Now, the business reasons for launching in June or July are obvious. There are fewer games releasing in the summer since October/November/December is when most games come out. There aren’t any other consoles launching in June or July. The biggest reason of course, is the element of suprise. Nintendo is becoming more like Apple in their system design as well as their mantality of doing things differently. Apple loves surprise annoucements, so expect Nintendo to adopt a similar tendancy.
All in all, Nintendo launching the Revolution in June or July would be a great move that very few people saw coming. It would put even more pressure on Sony’s November PS3 launch. In the end, if Nintendo has a 4 month lead, Microsoft has a 1 year lead, and Sony isn’t able to get more than a couple million systems out by Christmas, people will probably buy the Revolution or the Xbox 360 instead of wating for the PS3 to be widely available next spring. It’s just that simple.
