Revolution Launch Gossip Strikes 'net

The internet's been a-flutter this weekend with the news that Nintendo's latest financial report has earmarked the Revolution for a Japanese release as early as spring 2006.
Unfortunately, no sooner did the rumours settle in for a comfortable probing than a cold sharp gust of reality swept in, sending them scampering away. Of course, as is the way with these things, the spring 2006 titterings were immediately usurped by yet another blip of light at the end of the release tunnel. Revolution rumour-mongering ahead!

First up, this financial report: as you've no doubt seen already (but it's worth a quick recap), Nintendo's reported a tumble in sales from 190 billion yen to 175 billion yen - a slump that the company's attributed firmly to GameCube ringing in the death knell over in the US, as well as a whole bunch of aggressive price cuts for the DS and development costs for the upcoming Revolution.

However, thanks to a faltering yen exchange rate, Nintendo managed to massively outperform its predicted six month profits reaching 36 billion yen rather than the expected 19 billion yen.
Anyway, the part that sparked off all the frantic clamouring across the web was the bit at the end, reportedly claiming that the Revolution was set to see its Japanese launch in spring next year - and, you know, you can't get much more official than a report straight from Nintendo's own chattering gob. Except, of course, it turns out that it was all a big whoopsie on the translation front.

However, fanning the news flames even further, it seems that Nintendo of America is gearing up for an Autumn 2006 release of the console, all the same. On it's official Nintendo Power hotline in the US, selecting the Revolution option reveals the message: "As the company with the strongest heritage of innovation, Nintendo moves the bar for all next gen systems by employing a wide-ranging strategy that will attract more kinds of gamers to more kinds of games. When Nintendo's new console, codenamed Revolution, arrives in the latter half of 2006, everyone will discover the meaning of all-access gaming".

So, assuming it's not all one big cock-up on NoA's part, it's looking increasingly likely that the Revolution's set to see daylight before next year's out at the very least. Of course, where this leaves PAL territories is anyone's guess. Perhaps the big N's going to do a Microsoft and push for a near-as-global launch as possible. Of course, going on past experience, maybe it's not.

File all this lot under 'not totally unconvincing speculation' for the time being, while we wait for some official word from Nintendo itself. Eventually.