Updated details have emerged regarding the technical specifications of Nintendo's next-generation home console codenamed Revolution, according to several developer sources of IGN.com. The specifications shared by sources place the console as more technically advanced than the original Microsoft Xbox but still well behind the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. This falls in line with all info released and rumored to date pertaining to Revolution's "Broadway" CPU and "Hollywood" GPU.
So without further ado, N-Sider has compiled the information from IGN and compared the specs to other consoles currently available and/or arriving to market in the next year.
| Sony PlayStation 2 - | 299 MHz |
| Nintendo GameCube - | 485 MHz |
| Nintendo Revolution - | 729 MHz |
| Microsoft Xbox - | 733 MHz |
| Microsoft Xbox 360 - | 3.2 GHz |
| Sony PlayStation 3 - | 3.2 GHz |
| Sony PlayStation 2 - | 147 MHz |
| Nintendo GameCube - | 162 MHz |
| Microsoft Xbox - | 233 MHz |
| Nintendo Revolution - | 243 MHz |
| Microsoft Xbox 360 - | 500 MHz |
| Sony PlayStation 3 - | 550 MHz |
| Sony PlayStation 2 - | 32 MBs |
| Nintendo GameCube - | 40 MBs |
| Microsoft Xbox - | 64 MBs |
| Nintendo Revolution - | 88 MBs |
| Microsoft Xbox 360 - | 512 MBs |
| Sony PlayStation 3 - | 512 MBs |
Recall that Perrin Kaplan told USA Today in May 2005 that the Revolution would only be "two to three times more powerful than GameCube". "It's not all about having 'turbo power,'" she told the site. "It's about what you do with it."
Nintendo's former president Hiroshi Yamauchi, conveyed similar thoughts in an interview with the Nihon Keizai Shimbum all the way back in February 2004. "I have been saying this for some time, but customers are not interested in grand games with higher-quality graphics and sound and epic stories," he noted. "Cutting-edge technologies and multiple functions do not necessarily lead to more fun. The excessively hardware-oriented way of thinking is totally wrong, but manufacturers are just throwing money at developing higher-performance hardware."
Yamauchi told the paper that in a move to oppose the "bigger is better" mentality he thought up the idea of the Nintendo DS. This approach has proven successful, especially in the Japanese market where the Nintendo DS has been selling out week-after-week. The Nintendo DS hardware has sold over 14.4 million units since its American debut on November 11, 2004. It's likely Nintendo's new president Satoru Iwata, whom Yamauchi hand-picked for his shared philosophy, gave birth to the ideal behind the Revolution. Nintendo is betting on the fact that the Revolution controller will be the new source of fun to reinvigorate the games industry.
Many speculate Nintendo's choice of specifications will allow it to release the console at a low price - in the range of $100 to $200. At this point however, Iwata has only confirmed in a January interview with Yahoo! Japan, that the console will be less than $300.
Finally, it's worth noting that the most successful consoles in history including the PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and Game Boy, did not succeed due to their graphical finesse. Instead, it was entirely the result of the depth and breadth of their software library.