Nintendo Briefly Details its 'Revolution'

Potentially opening the door for its rivals to steal valuable market share, Nintendo announced over the weekend that its next-generation gaming console, code-named Revolution, won't go on sale until 2006. Unlike Microsoft's Xbox 360, Revolution will be Nintendo's smallest machine to date.

"In its final form, Revolution will be about the thickness of three standard DVD cases and only slightly longer," the company said. Nintendo partnered with ATI and IBM to develop hardware that fits into the small form factor.

Revolution will play horizontally or vertically, and utilize 12cm optical discs for games. Nintendo will also add support for its 8cm GameCube discs as well, bringing backward compatibility to the Revolution. Microsoft, meanwhile, has not yet decided if the Xbox 360 will support original Xbox games.

Learning from its past mistakes, Nintendo will add online multiplayer gaming to the Revolution, building in wireless Internet connectivity.

"There's much more to Revolution that will be revealed over the coming months, but the combination of its compact size, wireless Internet, backward compatibility, quick start-up time and quiet, low-power operation add up to the start of a great game system," Nintendo said. "Get ready for the Nintendo Revolution in 2006!"

Nintendo will hold a press conference offering more details on Tuesday, which BetaNews will be covering live from Los Angeles.