Only worth £50 now. :S

[UK Jester]

Hmm...that's pretty nutty. GCN's are still all the rage, but my bro. got a PS2 for Christmas.

Both my stepson and daughter used their birthday/Xmas money in 2003 to buy a PS2 each. In 2004 my stepson brought a 2nd hand Gamecube with his birthday money despite constantly stating that the PS2 is the console of consoles. Despite having a PS2 in her bedroom, my stepdaughter spent most of 2004 on her Mums Gamecube. For her birthday, my stepdaughter got her own platinum Gamecube so that Redhead and I could get to play on a Gamecube!

Lee-yoshi has made an excellent comment about the Revolution. This new Nintendo console needs to get the hyperbole and mass market interest that the DS received. I don't mean just pages of news only - I mean the mass demand that the DS is experiencing. I do see one problem for the Revolution though, what may work on a handheld console may well not translate to a home console. An example, based on some leaked press realeases about no D-pad or A and B buttons:

The Revolution controller is based around the movement of the controller pad. If you want to move left you tilt the pad left. (This is not a fact but an example created by myself)

As a novelty for a game this could generate lots of interest alla the Donkey Konga Bongos. It could even support a whole range of games like the Eye Toy or the Dance Mats. Make this the staple control of a system and you have the next Atari Jaguar. Could you imagine playing Resident Evil 5 using this kind of control system?

Lee-yoshi is right about the on-line capability of using Revolutions as servers. This is innovative in my opinion for the console market, imagine what fun Resident Evil: Outbreak could have been for Europe if Capcom had come up with that idea for the PS2.

All is not over for Nintendo as a company - but they must start to innovate on their home consoles, instead of trailing the market on the Gamecube front. Microphone and dance mat games in late 2004/2005 is hardly innovative. Sony and, to a lesser degree, Microsoft have been there, done that and brought the T-shirt. Nintendo hit on connectivity; it seemed great until the logistics of getting 1 Gamecube, 4 Gameboy Advance owners and 4 GC to GBA leads reared its head for the big games (all two of them, oh and Pac Man vs). Winder Waker was bang on the money for connectivity but very few other companies, including Nintendo themselves, actually put that much effort into the concept to add value and playability to a game.

Regards

UK Jester