February 22, 2006 - In a recent interview with Engadget, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing suggested that software houses everywhere should be able to get their hands on a Revolution development kit in the near future, if not already.
"We have shipped over a thousand controller dev kits to developers so that they can begin getting experience with the controller mechanics," Fils-Aime elaborated.
IGN Revolution has been in talks with a half dozen studios around the globe for further details about the nature of the kits. While the fundamentals of the innovative new controller can be experienced with the barebones development hardware available to most developers, the majority of kits out there are hardly representative of the final Revolution system.
Developers we spoke to confirm that - at least so far - three revisions of the development kits have been sent out to studios. The first development kit was, quite literally, a GameCube console with a wired Revolution controller attached. The second was the same with a few minor tweaks. And the third prototype, which was shipped to most studios about a month ago, follows the same structure, but also shows some boosts in CPU power, according to sources.
Insiders allege that some big-name publishers have recently received a more complete Revolution development kit - we call it revision three and a half -- complete with internal hardware more reflective of the 'new generation' system and a wireless Revolution controller. However, most uncommitted third parties will not gain access to this unit for several weeks, if not longer.
Developers making Revolution software that will show up at E3 2006 in playable form - high profile companies like EA and Ubisoft, to name a few - will soon be sent the official fourth SDK prototype, which promises to deliver between 90% and 95% of the final system's performance.
Software houses tell IGN that any studio familiar with GameCube's architecture will find that they can get their Revolution projects up and running in no time. The make-up of the systems is very similar, although Revolution will be roughly twice as powerful.
Asked whether or not Revolution's horsepower was insufficient, one development source said no. "At first, we were discouraged that it would be less powerful than Xbox 360, but once we got everything working with the controller, our concerns faded," he explained.
Other studios IGN Revolution has been in contact with have echoed this enthusiasm, always admitting that Nintendo's new console will be less powerful, but stressing that with the emphasis on the innovative controller it simply won't matter.
Final, completely finished development kits are expected to be made widely available this June, according to sources we contacted.
Every studio insider we queried said that they believed Revolution could launch for under $200, and possibly as low as $150 - a figure that would amazingly put Nintendo's new console at a price point hundreds of dollars cheaper than any competitor.
Nintendo itself has not yet commented on a Revolution price point, except to confirm that it would sell for less than $299. However, if the price of Revolution development hardware is any indication, the system could be very cheap indeed. Studios tell IGN that Revolution SDKs sell for about $2,000, which is thousands of dollars cheaper than a PSP SDK, let alone an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 one.
The Big N is scheduled to speak - even if only a little bit - about its self-described new generation console this March at the Game Developers Conference. IGN Revolution will be there.
