Nintendo Development Kit - Only $2000!

Nintendo has been saying all along that they intend Revolution development to be really cheap. I consider this to be evidence that they are in fact following through with that.

I really do forsee the Revolution to be the Indy developers console platform of choice, which is something I am going to absolutely love. I am also going to predict that Nintendo is going to take advantage of the virtual console by allowing Indy developers to work with the SDK's of much older gaming engines so they can release new games for the NES, SNES, and N64 for download. The thought of new games being produced on the Mario 64 engine, or the Mario 3 engine makes me very excited.

I can also imagine right now that a lot of people on the internet with money to burn are actually looking into how they could buy one of these dev kits themselves so they can get a preview of what the system will offer. Obviously they won't be successful since Nintendo probably won't sell dev kits to just anyone but the thought is quite interesting.

Good news or bad news? Very good news, especially when you take into account what many developers have been saying recently:
Asked whether or not Revolution's horsepower was insufficient, one development source said no. "At first, we were discouraged that it would be less powerful than Xbox 360, but once we got everything working with the controller, our concerns faded," he explained.
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Nintendo itself has not yet commented on a Revolution price point, except to confirm that it would sell for less than $299. However, if the price of Revolution development hardware is any indication, the system could be very cheap indeed. Studios tell IGN that Revolution SDKs sell for about $2,000, which is thousands of dollars cheaper than a PSP SDK, let alone an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 one.
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http://revolution.ign.com/articles/690/690730p1.html

Heck the PS2 development kit cost $20,000 and the PS1 kit cost $5000 at the beggining.
http://www.revolutionreport.com/articles/read/316
 
I know! I read this last night and was very glad to hear it! I hope this means that more and more independent developers will get a hold of one and concentrate on lots of interesting and innovative titles that bigger devs couldn't take a risk on (or adventure games :thumbs: ). Hopefully with online support and digital ditribution, some of these independent developers won't have to rely on trying to convince big publishers to publish their wares! Great news indeed :)
 
this is why nintendo is going to win the next gen....becuase of the creativity that will emerge from less-rich devs to work on games
 
Nintendowned.

This will go great for Nintendo! Awesome!
 
Nice going, a large and diverse library is prbably the most important factor in buying a console.
 
That's actually a brilliant move on Nintendo's part.

/me buys a development kit and makes the coolest game ever
 
I would totally buy this if I could. That sounds awesome.

Well, I would ofcourse need the skills necessary, like coding...

But there's always tutorials :p
 
Seriously, if I had $2000 for a new toy... that's what I would want.

Then, we could gather people from HL2.net and make independent Revolution games.
 
Good move Nintendo!
I'm really looking forward to the Revolution. :)
 
It would be cool if the Rev used standard DVD's, so you could buy a game from a dev's site, download it, then burn it onto a DVD then play it on the Rev.
 
StardogChampion said:
It would be cool if the Rev used standard DVD's, so you could buy a game from a dev's site, download it, then burn it onto a DVD then play it on the Rev.
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It does use DVD's doesn't it? o_O
 
Ren.182 said:
It does use DVD's doesn't it? o_O
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I wouild have thought it used special CD things like the GC.

But yeah even small devs could transfer their PC games to Revolution no doubt.
 
It does use standard DVD's:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_revolution
Self-loading optical disc drive compatible with both 12 cm Revolution optical discs (8.5 GB) and 8 cm Gamecube optical discs (1.5 GB) as well as standard DVD discs. (A first for self loading drives)
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Nintendo has also talked about a seperate purchase that would enable the Revolution to play DVD movies. Many assume it will be in the form of a flash memory card that has the firmware for DVD playback on it.
 
a low price is neat and all, but they need some new good games, not another sequel or spin off of mario or some other nintendo character.
 
Now I just need to get 9 friends to chip in 200 bucks apiece, and we'll make our own pwnage games!
 
destrukt said:
a low price is neat and all, but they need some new good games, not another sequel or spin off of mario or some other nintendo character.
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You might not have heard Reggie talk in that recent interview about all of the exciting new IPs they plan on offering on the Rev, not to mention serious additions to the current favs. I would love to see Nintendo own this generation!
 
Fantastic! I plan on buying a Revolution when they come out.
 
Nice idea, they will make up for it in game sales anyway. If you didn't already know nearly all games go through Nintendo before they are released and infact I believe Nintendo actually put them out there. They also take part of the sales cost by doing this :p

This is what I believe from what I have read anyway.
 
destrukt said:
a low price is neat and all, but they need some new good games, not another sequel or spin off of mario or some other nintendo character.
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The only Nintendo sequels that really suffer from feeling like rehashes are the Mario Party games. The rest of them are usually more like new games but with old characters. The strategy behind that is to use familiar characters to draw consumers to new games that, otherwise, might not have caught their interest. They can take more risks on a big game if it involves a character/setting with a built-in audience. That's their bread and butter. To keep their "stars" from getting overextended, they usually introduce a few new IPs for each console they make... often resulting in a new franchise. Admittedly, that group was a bit sparse in the GC cycle... but, as said by VictimOfScience, they plan to give it a significant boost on the Revolution. The third tier of their system is made up of the experimental games (albeit using the word "game" would be a stretch in some cases, like Electroplankton) which they use to test the market for future development.
 
as much fun as super mario strikers and smashbros are, i want the 'true' variety that is on xbox/ps2/xb360 and ps3, some time in the far future.

so, we'll see.
 
Well you must remember destrukt, the Gamecube never really got to many 3rd party developers. Revolution, well with 2k for its development kit a very neat controller that most developers want to make a game with...well in the end your going to have tons of 3rd party developers plus all the great games nintendo makes themselves.

So expect possibly even more variety than the other consoles plus Nintendo's own games.
 
this is a good move,but I think the best move is for the cheap

cuz seriously is nintendo make the console very cheap sure they are going to sell a lot
cuz imaginate being a parent and hearing your kid asking to buy a 500% dollars machine that is not usefull at all,but if it ask you to buy a machine that is not usefull at all but not so expensive then it will be better
plus that makes more people buying the console
nintendo ruelz
 
They already said the Rev is going to be $299 or likely less. So they've got that covered.

I tip my hat to Nintendo. They're coming out of the gate this time around looking to totally sucker punch the other contenders.
 
The Rev should get so many different games its unbelievable. With that controller, that thing should have so many diverse games instead of those damn FPSes that come out every ****ing day.
 
A fps with that controller tho would be the shit!
 
How much are PC dev kits selling for these days?

Anyway, its good to see a console company finally take notice of indie games. Hopefully this heralds a new era for console gaming- cheaper games, more innovation, less EA-style "flood the market with sequels" production. Lord knows Nintendo needs every edge it can get to break Sony's stranglehold.
 
Would this also make games cheaper to buy? If so, go Nintendo! (Even if it was a $400 console I'd still buy it)
 
What a change in policy. With the NES they required the "official nintendo seal of quality"


I think its great, but watch out for the crap! Ametuer develepors tend to be the most creative, but the least talented.

duh.
 
Pajari said:
How much are PC dev kits selling for these days?

Anyway, its good to see a console company finally take notice of indie games. Hopefully this heralds a new era for console gaming- cheaper games, more innovation, less EA-style "flood the market with sequels" production. Lord knows Nintendo needs every edge it can get to break Sony's stranglehold.
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Game engines? Just find the game engine of the game you are playing, find their website, and buy it. I'd imagine it can range from 100$-2000$. It all depends.
Hell, you could buy the Source engine.
 
Current-gen engines sell for a bit more than $2000
 
PCs only really need a compiler as a "dev kit" and that's free(gcc.gnu.org)

I dunno if console dev-kits actually come with engines, probably just some example code of how to use the console's graphics API.


also, good game engines(like source or unreal) cost several hundred thousand dollars for a license, iirc.
 
Computer5k said:
PCs only really need a compiler as a "dev kit" and that's free(gcc.gnu.org)

I dunno if console dev-kits actually come with engines, probably just some example code of how to use the console's graphics API.


also, good game engines(like source or unreal) cost several hundred thousand dollars for a license, iirc.
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Yea thats pretty much what I was thinking. But Im all for independant developers working on consoles.

Personally though, I like developing on the PC.

I don't want to learn and learn and learn, only to make games for one system that might only be around for 5 years or so, having all my knowlege obsolete for any other system.
 
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