EA finding Revolution a "challenge"

April 26th, 2006, 19:19 Posted By: wraggster

Although no official specs have been forthcoming from Nintendo regarding its Revolution console, reports from various developers seem to suggest that, performance-wise, it's got about two-to-three times the oomph of the GameCube. In fact, the company's gone on record many a time to state that it has no intention of playing with the big boys in terms of processing power, shunning HD support and relying on its own controller innovations to interest the public.

Although Nintendo's keen to point out the number of third-party developers excited to be working on its next-gen console, it seems others aren't quite so thrilled by the company's low-tech future. Speaking to Gamasutra, EA LA's vice president and general manager Neil Young had a few nuggets of wisdom to share.

Advertisement:First up, "One of the challenges for the Revolution is that it's not HD. If you think about RTS games, one element is the control scheme, but the other is the distance from the TV screen when you're playing a console game versus a PC game." Referencing EA's forthcoming Battle for Middle Earth II RTS, Young elaborated, "One of the reasons [it] works so well on the 360 is the controller, but the other reason is the HD - you can see everything, frankly, as well or better as you can when you're [as close as you would be to a PC]."

It's an interesting perspective certainly, but curious given the fact that developers have been successfully creating games for non-HD console for ages now. Equally, playing devil's advocate for a moment, it would be easy to point to Nintendo's own Pikmin franchise as an example of an extremely successful RTS which didn't require HD support to be eminently playable.

Young offered his personal impressions of the console too, explaining that "the other issue is performance. The hardware performance is sort of current gen plus, versus the 10x or 20x multiple that you get on next-gen. I mean, EA is building stuff for it, but I kind of prefer the DS. It makes the most sense to me."

So, add another developer not going tits-over-hat about the Revolution to the list then. Of course, as always, let us know what you think about Young's views - and, indeed, the necessity of processing mega-oomph as the next generation of home consoles gets properly underway - in the comments below.
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