UK game industry types talk Revolution

GamesIndustry.biz has a feature that follows in the grand tradition of asking game developers to wax thoughtful on Nintendo's revolutionary Revolution system and, most interestingly, how it will differentiate itself from the Gamecube's lackluster retail presence.

Relentless Software's Andrew Eades said, "Gamers in the know will buy a Revolution as a 2nd machine to play another Miyamoto classic, but the mainstream consumer needs something less abstract to latch onto. The Revolution must be both niche and mainstream." Our entirely informal poll indicated a plurality of gamers were not only interested in getting the Revolution as a second choice in a next-gen combo platter, but were also interested in getting the console as their primary gaming system.

Frontier Developments' David Braben says, "There is also a potential downside - assuming it is a huge success, it could be a pyrrhic victory; I am not convinced that others - third or first parties - can't offer similar styles of controller for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, eroding the Revolution's advantage." Think SplitFish whose DualFX controller, though it may not be a copy of the Revolution controller, offers a similar interface. There's already rumors that Sony and Microsoft are working on similar functionality for their respective systems; is Nintendo's final trump card going to be enough to keep competition at bay?