Revolution Report: A number of Web sites have inferred that Revolution will be significantly inferior graphically. While it certainly seems like Revolution won't output in HD, is it safe to assume that Hollywood will not feature a comparable polygon count or the same amount of graphical effects as the Xbox 360's GPU?

Swinimer: What I can say is that ATI is focused, as is Nintendo, in making [Revolution] a great, gaming entertainment platform. I know that a lot of journalists are very focused on specs. It's the big thing; as a geek, I look for that too. The key thing to keep in mind is that Nintendo, with ATI's help, is trying to create a game console where you don't have to look at [specs].

From a broader perspective, we share in Nintendo's position that this console will be devoted to the general gamer. When you have a game developer developing [for] this, the goal is to ensure that they don't have to worry about the complexity that is required to develop the games by making them "jump through hoops." That was one of the benefits of working on the GameCube; developers were saying that it is quite easy to develop for and there are not a lot of complexities so they could produce titles easily. That being said, we want consumers to look at the game, play the game and be involved in it. We are doing our very best to make this Nintendo gaming experience the very best it can be.

Frequently Asked Nintendo Revolution Questions

March 30, 2006
Report: Revolution CPU, GPU's Modesty Defined
According to an unconfirmed but detailed report on consumer website IGN, developers currently working with Nintendo's Revolution development hardware have provided specification-based insight into the power behind the upcoming next-generation platform.

The information, which is concerned primarily with Revolution's IBM "Broadway" CPU and ATI "Hollywood" GPU, reinforces Nintendo's strategy with the new hardware as being notably different from its competition, focusing on simpler, more accessible, and innovative titles rather than high-end graphics and horsepower.

According to the report, IBM's "Broadway" CPU employed by the Revolution is clocked at 729MHz (as a comparison, the Xbox 360 runs three symmetrical cores at 3.2GHz) while its ATI-provided "Hollywood" GPU will clock in at a relatively modest 243MHz. Though numbers do not paint the whole picture, it is clear that Nintendo has no plans to match its competition in terms of raw power.

Additionally, according to these reports, the Revolution will operate using 24MBs of main 1T-SRAM, as well as 64MBs of external 1T-SRAM for a grand total of 88MBs on top of the 3MB texture buffer on the GPU.

Of course, this is in contrast to statements made by former Nintendo of Europe senior director of marketing, who said in October 2005 that there would be no significant difference between the graphical abilities of the console compared to other next-generation systems.

However, while there is much speculation at this point as people wait for something more concrete to come from E3 in May, the report from IGN indicates that their information is based upon official Nintendo documentation or benchmark tests with working Revolution kits, and that the Revolution is expected to be only marginally more powerful than the existing GameCube hardware.

Breaking: Nintendo Announces New Revolution Name - 'Wii'

Nintendo has officially announced the final name for its Revolution next-gen console, naming it the 'Wii'. According to its official Wii website, the new name for the console "represents the answer", and "will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else."