I agree with Drinky, for the most part. I'm kind of used to it, as we share a hatred for Shenmue, but it's still weird.
The Revolution already has most of the advantages the DS does, plus it gets rid of most of the DS's weaknesses. And we all know how well that handheld is doing, even in its weakest territories.
Obviously, as Drinky mentioned, the main advantages to both the systems are the unique gameplay possibilities in a stagnant market and the lower price points. The Revolution trumps the DS in a lot of ways though:
- It just looks cooler. The DS is surprisingly clunky, given Nintendo's other recent handheld designs. I wouldn't necessarily say it's ugly, but it's pretty damn boring and comes off poorly next to the PSP. The Revolution, on the other hand, is a smart looking piece of hardware. Certainly its a hundred times better looking than the DS or Gamecube, and while people will debate this endlessly, as many people will tell you its the best looking of the next gen consoles as won't. That's not the case when it comes to the DS vs PSP.
- It's smaller than its competitors. Small is cool, ask Apple. The DS (and the PSP)...kinda big! It's such an inconsequential thing to me and I would imagine most serious gamers, but to the casual and even untapped market? I think its size could be one of the biggest selling points.
- The graphics are a good quality. They're not going to be comparable to the 360 and PS3, we know that, but it's still good 3D. By which I mean, it's beyond the pixellated, blurry PS1/N64/DS levels. It's not going to offend anyone's eyes, even if it's not AS good as its rivals. The DS to PSP is, of course, a completely different situation. That's going from the initial 3D era to the acceptable 3D era. The Revolution should be like the "acceptable" to the PS3/360's "even better".
- I don't know about you guys, but I reckon the Revolution's unique control method is far better than the DS's. I was always excited about the DS possibilities, and to a degree I think its proven there can be new gameplay ideas introduced with a touchscreen, or at least better ways of playing current games. I just wish developers (especially western ones) would stop trying to jam a square peg into a round hole. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. My point is, when we first found about the touchscreen, I was excited about what developers would come up with, but not really coming up with so much myself. I figured "Hey, I'm not a developer, it's no surprise I can only think of a few ideas". Turns out there have only been a few games so far (the likes of Kirby and Yoshi) where developers actually have come up with things I hadn't thought of. The Revolution though...completely different from the beginning. As soon as I understood the controller, I had idea after idea, and I wasn't alone. IGN had stuff I hadn't thought of, other people on the board were coming up with things, and this was only like minutes after we understood the thing. I just think it offers so much more straight away than the DS ever could.
Of course, the Revolution isn't without its disadvantages when compared to the DS. Nintendo were coming off a freakishly good handheld run, the Revolution has to follow console after console getting less and less sales. I think this would be a better point in the DS's favour if Nintendo had used the Gameboy brand, but it's still important to note. The other thing is that people are used to poorer graphics in a handheld. To me it seems almost like people look at the DS and that was their expectation for the next handheld, a jump to N64 quality. Then when they see the PSP, that exceeds expectations. With the Revolution, people are expecting better graphics. What they're going to get will be below expectations.
When it comes down to it though, regardless of what people think on a personal level about Nintendo's direction, we know they couldn't go toe to toe with MS and Sony forever. I really see absolutely no reason to think Nintendo would have finished anything but third in this generation had they tried to take on the other two in the same way again, even if they might have eaten into Sony's marketshare slightly without the time advantage of last gen.
Honestly, I think Nintendo would have to go out of their way to make the Revolution anything but a success. I don't really want to put a number on it, but I would expect something around N64 level sales than GC's (which is roughly double). With everything I've mentioned above plus the virtual console, the low price, the free online...I just don't know how they could fuck it up. Let's wait and find out!