Revolution Launch Date Announced by Nintendo”s CEO

There is a revolution that is so quiet that it has almost gone unnoticed by the gaming community. Of course, we™re referring to Nintendo™s Revolution. But the quietness is breaking as Sankei Shibun, a Japanese newspaper, has reported details on a possible launch date for the next-gen console. The report, translated by GameStop, indicated that the Revolution maybe coming to U.S. shores in November. According the news report, Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo said, “We have no plans to miss out on the year-end sales battle. As for North America, we need to release [our next-gen console] by Thanksgiving or otherwise we won’t receive support from retailers. So the Revolution will be released prior to that date.” Iwata™s comments on not missing out on the year-end sales battle are in reference to the traditional shopping sales boom which takes place during the Thanksgiving holidays, just before Christmas. In a possible cue learned from Microsoft, in which their Xbox 360 was released just before Thanksgiving, Nintendo is hoping to repeat the buying frenzy that the Big M experienced during this period. Nintendo is hoping that their Revolution will spawn a new revolution of gamers who will adhere to their next-gen offering. What is Nintendo™s strategy for doing this? In previous comments made by Iwata and Nintendo, the strategy is to provide a game machine that will be less expensive to buy then their competitors, furnish their machines with top notch games, and offer a console which is easy to program for developers. It™s anyone™s guess as to whether Nintendo will even survive the onslaught of competition from Sony and Microsoft, but one thing is evident, Nintendo is serious about making the Revolution a success. One has to wonder why Nintendo is even entering the fray. If GamerNode may offer one theory in two letters: DS. When Nintendo released the handheld DS, it was pronounced dead on arrival by many game industry pundits and gamers alike. As the saying goes, the rest is history. The DS is not only still alive, but it is breaking sales records for all game consoles everyday. Nintendo is banking on lightning striking twice with their Revolution — Mario and Yoshi won’t be getting too much sleep until the November launch date.