Late Night Consoling

If the usually reliable UK trade publication MCV is to be believed, Nintendo will be announcing new details about Revolution at this year's Game Developers Conference from March 20-24. Last year, company president Satoru Iwata gave a frequently cited keynote address entitled "Heart of a Gamer," in which the former HAL Laboratories developer laid out some initial details on Revolution and described Nintendo's next-gen strategy. MCV goes so far as to suggest that Iwata will give an address that discloses details such as final release date and pricing information about the console. Since the company had not announced official attendance at GDC, many had previously assumed the company was waiting for E3 to speak any more about Revolution.

Japanese publication Famitsu has compiled the results of a survey asking 47 developers, 113 retailers, and 370 consumers for their expectations about consoles in 2006. It asked respondants questions including which next-gen console they expect to be most pleased with in 2006, which current- or next-gen console will be the top seller in 2006, what price point is expected for PS3, and what price point is expected for Revolution.

Perhaps not too surprisingly, Xbox 360 came out on the bottom of each category, except for one, in which consumers declared PSP the least likely to be #1 in 2006.

In terms of developers, 53.7% expect to be most satisfied with PS3, and 41.5% expect that from Revolution (choosing only from next-gen consoles). In the same category, dealers had very similar numbers, while consumers were a bit more split with PS3 at 46.3% and Revolution at 43.9%. Xbox 360 scored its best results in the consumer expectation category, with 7.9% believing it will be the most satisfactory.

As far as which console (both current- and next-gen) will be #1, 49.5% of developers chose Nintendo DS, 16.7% chose PS3, and 10% chose Revolution. Of the dealers, 38.3% chose DS, 31.5% PS3, and 12.3% Revolution. The consumers disagreed, putting PS3 (40.3%) above DS (32.6%), followed by PS2 (11.8%) and Revolution (11.5%).

Both developers and retailers expected PS3's price to come in at the equivalent of $339, while consumers expected $424. On the Revolution side, retailers expected $212, consumers $255, and developers a surprisingly low $170. Retailers probably have the right idea in the case of the Revolution, as that is a traditional price point for Nintendo consoles. As a side note, industry analyst PJ McNealy announced an expectation for Revolution to come in as low as $200 in North America.

It makes sense to see the developers and retailers expect the DS to perform the best, as they are the ones who would be most acutely aware of the system's seemingly unstoppable market share. Similarly, consumers will expect the PS3 to lead the pack given Sony's domination of the home console market for the last decade. All three groups had basically the same expectations from the actual quality of experience of each next-gen machine, with the Xbox 360's dismal results showing Microsoft still has a long way to go in capturing that market. It will also be interesting to see whether Nintendo can manage to keep its momentum with the DS; the recently announced redesign should help. It certainly scored better than Sony's PSP, which did not garner more than 5% of the votes in any category; it's certainly odd to see Sony performing (in both sales numbers and industry hype) better in non-Japanese territories than on its own turf with one of its consoles.

Atlus sent word today that the company is bringing Yggdra Union to Game Boy Advance in North America. The game is an RPG from developer Sting, the studio behind last year's well received and somewhat more easily pronounced Riviera: The Promised Land, also on GBA. Yggdra Union is set in the peaceful land of Fantasinia, which suddenly comes under attack by the Empire of Bronkia. The Princess Yggdra of Fantasinia flees with the legendary sword of the royal family. In a Zelda-like turn, the player controls another character named Milanor, rather than the titular princess. Milanor is the leader of a band of thieves who must turn the tide of the war.

Manga artist Satoko Kiyusuki will be handling the game's character design, with Riviera character designer Sunaho Tobe returning to do the card design for the game's card-based battle system. Yggdra Union will ship in fall 2006.

Press release

Based on a now removed post at Star Wars fan site TheForce.net, rumor spread today that another Lego Star Wars game is in the works. After contacting original publisher Eidos and Star Wars license holder LucasArts, GameSpot learned that Eidos does not have a license for any further Lego Star Wars games. The wording from Eidos was rather suggestive, however: "We're not involved in the next Lego Star Wars game...I'm not sure what the deal is." Unsurprisingly, LucasArts declined to give any details.

It seems likely, however, that LucasArts would want to continue the franchise, given the surprising multi-million copy success of the original, which was published on PS2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and PC. The first game was developed by UK-based Traveller's Tales. No mention was made as to whether the studio would be involved in the sequel.

Brian D. Crescente from Kotaku shows how he can somehow play both Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution at the same time.