Iwata: Revolution To Launch Before Thanksgiving In U.S.

In remarks made to Japanese newspaper Sankei Shinbun and partially translated by consumer website GameSpot, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has indicated that his company's next-generation Revolution console will launch before Thanksgiving 2006 in the North American territory. Specifically, while unwilling to reveal a specific date or even month as of yet, Iwata commented: "We have no plans to miss out on the year-end [console] sales battle. As for North America, we need to release [the Revolution] by Thanksgiving, or otherwise we won't receive support from retailers. So the Revolution will be released prior to that date." This year's Thanksgiving begins on Thursday, November 23, giving some credence to earlier unconfirmed reports that Nintendo is targeting the week prior to Thanksgiving as a possible U.S. launch window. In addition, following the company's habit of showing increasing amounts of Revolution hardware and software details at each major event, Iwata confirmed that a playable version of the Revolution would be on show at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles this May. However, no indication has yet been given regarding specifics for any possible Nintendo showing at the other major event between now and then, Game Developers Conference in San Jose this March, following Iwata's keynote in 2005 in which he discussed the DS' Wi-Fi capabilities. Finally, Iwata continued Nintendo's vague pronouncements on Revolution pricing most recently showcased in a Yahoo! Japan interview in which Iwata assured the public that the console would cost less than its competitors. In his Sankei Shinbun interview, Iwata commented on the Revolution's pricing: "The amount of money that people are willing to spend on videogames is getting less every year. Even if it's an amazing machine, it's not going to sell if it's 50,000 yen ($434). We plan to make [the console] affordable."