SAN FRANCISCO (AFX) -- Now that Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. have provided more details on the rollouts of new video-game players, Nintendo Co. Ltd. is expected to share its plans for a rival device at an industry conference this week.
Details on when the Japanese firm will ship its competing product, called Revolution, and how much it will cost may emerge during a keynote address by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Thursday at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif.
Nintendo may well differentiate itself from the competition by keeping the initial pricing of its hardware lower than that of Microsoft and, presumably, Sony, as it targets an enthusiast audience of younger gamers. Microsoft has priced its Xbox 360 console in the $300-to-$400 range, while Sony has not yet announced a price on its own PlayStation 3 (or PS3) console.
'If Revolution comes out at $150 to $250, people will pick them up just because they can,' said Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey.
The analyst noted that Nintendo's device functions more as a game platform than the multimedia 'hub' that characterizes the competition.
Playing for market share
Currently, Nintendo and Microsoft, which each commands roughly 20% of global market share for current-generation consoles, trail Sony, which has sold more than 100 million PlayStation 2 units.
Iwata's speech followed Sony's announcement last week that it would delay the release of the PS3 until early November -- mainly attributable to complications with digital-rights-management technology associated with Blu-ray, a high-definition DVD format.
Sony will be demonstrating PS3 features on the expo floor, which takes place at the San Jose Convention Center.
Microsoft is also set to establish a strong floor presence for its Xbox 360.
On Tuesday, the software giant said it was shipping two to three times more units to its distributors than it had in the past, improving the chances it will hit its goal of selling between 4.5 million and 5.5 million by the end of its fiscal year in June.
That news, combined with an upgrade of Electronics Arts Inc. , the largest game publisher, helped push video-game stocks higher Tuesday, though they finished Wednesday's session mixed to lower.
Results at video-game publishers have been hurt during the past 12 months as consumers delayed purchasing games while awaiting the next generation of consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.
Long-term significance
Together, the three new consoles are expected to drive the majority of video-game-publisher revenue over the next several years.
Yet the GDC is less a trade show to introduce new products and games than its larger counterpart, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), held in early May in Los Angeles.
Instead, 'GDC is the conference where game creators meet to talk about the nuts and bolts of making games -- without all the marketing, publishing and sales talk of a show like the E3,' said Joe Rybicki, senior editor of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine.
Keynotables
Sony Computer Entertainment Studios President Phil Harrison was scheduled to give a keynote of his own at the industry event Wednesday. His speech was expected to focus on the new creative and technical capacities of the device, designed to pack graphics and computing power superior to the Xbox 360, which became available last November.
In the conference's final keynote, Electronic Arts, the largest game publisher, was slated to serve up Will Wright, chief designer of its Maxis studio, the creator of 'SimCity' and 'The Sims' and one of the highest-profile developers in the industry's history.
Wright's presentation could be expected to provide an in-depth look at new Maxis games, including 'Spore,' expected out later this year. EA is hoping the new game, which allows users to control various life forms from the cellular level to the galactic level, can replicate the success of 'The Sims.'
Beyond keynotes, the trade show features numerous panels and sessions focusing on game design, as well as the expo floor with booths from the most prominent hardware, software and chip manufacturers in the industry.
'The expo floor,' said Rybicki, 'is sort of like being in a foreign country: There's a lot of very-high-level, very-tech-heavy content -- it's like popping the hood on your favorite games and checking out the innards.' This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see www.marketwatch.com.