Q&A: Nintendo Vice President George Harrison

[score]

From Gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com) :

At this year's E3, both Microsoft and Sony showed off their new consoles, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with much fanfare and flashy tech demos. Not so in Nintendo's case. While it did show off a prototype of its Revolution console, it preferred to keep its cards close to its chest. The company did not show any next-generation gameplay, nor did it reveal the unit's controller, where the real "Revolution" reportedly lies.

But as far as Nintendo senior vice president of marketing and communications George Harrison is concerned, that's just fine. Like fellow speakers president Satoru Iwata and vice president of sales and marketing Reggie Fils-Aime, he believes Nintendo's long-standing history of innovative gameplay and its ever-popular franchises will trump anything rolled out by its rivals. He also hinted that the Revolution will be more powerful than expected, and that Nintendo is making an effort to make it the easiest next-generation console to develop for.

Read More (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/26/news_6126595.html)

[Goronmon]

Why is it that I am more excited about a comment likeHe also hinted that the Revolution will be more powerful than expected from Nintendo than all of the demos and CGs from Microsoft and Sony?

[Redline]

Look. I know it's sad, but as long as there's yet another iteration of Mario Kart, Mario and Zelda on the Revolution I'll probably buy one.

[Abednigo]

Look. I know it's sad, but as long as there's yet another iteration of Mario Kart, Mario and Zelda on the Revolution I'll probably buy one.

That's not sad! I totally agree. Even if they had zero third party support, I'd buy a Nintendo console for their franchise games. They are ALWAYS incredible. I'll be honest, as a fan of Nintendo for 20+ years, I was a little disappointed by the lack of Revolution info at E3. And whether this interview was just someone blowing smoke will remain to be seen, but I'm much more encouraged and excited about the Revolution now.

[Rommel]

he believes Nintendo's long-standing history of innovative gameplay and its ever-popular franchises will trump anything rolled out by its rivals.

Then why was the GCN third? Fairy land dreams and pussy fucks.

[Joshinji]

I thought George Harrison was dead? What's a former Beatle doing working for Nintendo? /being a jackass

[Bone]

After playing Warioware Twisted, I am more positive than ever that the Revolution controller will contain the same accelerometer device (or whatever it is) that detects motion. My wife and I had a blast with that game last night- and driving a car by twisting a controller is cooler than I ever thought it would be.

I've been "tilting" my controller involuntarily since the Atari, I'm glad a developer like Nintendo was smart enough to realize it could be harnessed.

[cjrizzo]

I'm calling what Nintendo has done with the Revolution "Phantom-like", meaning they say 'oh, this will be incredible', 'we will be easist to develop for', etc. All promises, no delivery, and no execution up to this point. I like Nintendo's franchises as much as anybody, but they are on their own island right now and cannot keep up with the competition. They have alienated third parties through their last two generations (N64, GCN) and offer what I consider the 'boutique' gaming experience - good quality but not a lot of choice. What made NES and SNES (and to an extent GB and GBA) the huge successes that they were is that the 'boutique' of excellent first and second party content was always supplanted with lots of third-party choices. Unless Nintendo can reverse the lack of third-party support their systems will only be good for maybe 10-15 quality titles in a system generation and if I spend hundreds of dollars on a system I want a lot of choice when it comes to the games .

[Stryfe01]

meh. i'm getting a ps3 and 360. when nintendo displays the "Revolution" i'll make my decision on getting it. I certainly wont be buying it for a mario game.

[kokyunage]

And the haters around here don't realize that as long as they keep doing this (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/26/news_6126572.html), no matter what position Sony or Microsoft are in, they will be in the console business.

[Heretic Machine]

I have no doubt that Nintendo will be around for a long time to come. Doesn't mean I have to put up with their bullshit anymore than I do Sony's. Tell me what the damn Revolution is, or STFU.

[Kamalot]

Why is it that I am more excited about a comment like from Nintendo than all of the demos and CGs from Microsoft and Sony?

"When you see the graphics, you will say WOW!"

[Kamalot]

I have no doubt that Nintendo will be around for a long time to come. Doesn't mean I have to put up with their bullshit anymore than I do Sony's. Tell me what the damn Revolution is, or STFU.

Hey, I'd rather them keep the revolution a mystery instead of lying to me like Sony.

[Abednigo]

Why don't you all just wait until Nintendo unveils the thing before discounting it altogether. If it's a disappointment to you at that point, then fire away. And yes, I know that their last few consoles have been disappointments to some people, but let's wait until they actually show us the thing and give us all the specs before assuming it's going to suck. Those rushes to judgement are just stupid. Like my man Napoleon said, "You guys are retarded!" ;)

[Paranoia]

I quit on Nintendo after getting fed up with their AAA titles being bunch of Marios/Zeldas/Dongkey Kongs.

I like animation, but I don't think I can stick to watching Disney animations when clearly there are better ones (Japanese animes for example)

[Goronmon]

I quit on Nintendo after getting fed up with their AAA titles being bunch of Marios/Zeldas/Dongkey Kongs.
Thats funny...those games are the main reason I still buy Nintendo products ;)

[riposte101]

I like nintendo games. I just don't want to have to buy another console so I can play them, but I will reluctantly.

[31 Flavas]

I like nintendo games. I just don't want to have to buy another console so I can play them, but I will reluctantly.Nintendo makes games that you just have to play, but they are sooooo not hip like Sony and MS, eh? Heh, well, sorry, but that's your problem.

[mister_slim]

I'm calling what Nintendo has done with the Revolution "Phantom-like", meaning they say 'oh, this will be incredible', 'we will be easist to develop for', etc. All promises, no delivery, and no execution up to this point.
How do you deal with MS and Sony hype? Nintendo has been pretty sedate, really.
Unless Nintendo can reverse the lack of third-party support their systems will only be good for maybe 10-15 quality titles in a system generation and if I spend hundreds of dollars on a system I want a lot of choice when it comes to the games .
Considering the most you could have spent is two hundreds of dollars, maybe you should be complaining about the Xbox.
I have no doubt that Nintendo will be around for a long time to come. Doesn't mean I have to put up with their bullshit anymore than I do Sony's. Tell me what the damn Revolution is, or STFU.
Considering MS is launching by Christmas, they should probably either shut up about '1 billion people' or show some games with broad appeal.