Just when we were ready to count Nintendo out of the running they
jump back into the arena with guns blazing. At E3 2003 this past
month Nintendo unveiled a playing card with a scraping of peanut
butter on it, their latest bid for the home console market. The
tasty cards look like the next generation in gaming, at least from
the outside. The most striking feature of the design isn't the solid
chunks of peanut or even its tiny size, but is the complete absence
of a controller. 4BG were given a brief interview at E3 with the
playing card's designer, Shigeru Miyamoto.
4BG: "How will gamers
interact with the playing card? Does it somehow involve the scraping
of peanut butter?"
SM: "I think it's not wise to hypothesise about something
you know nothing about."
4BG: "Well that's why
we're talking to you... we just want a hint as to how gamers 'play'
it."
SM: "Innovation is the key, your thinking is too
linear."
4BG: "What does that
mean?"
SM: "Look at my eyebrows. See the way they rise hypnotically
up and down when I talk, like some kind of oscilloscopic magic
trick? Are you watching them? Watch them! That is how you play."
Above:
Nintendo's latest threat to the home console market.
Interestingly the new console, nicknamed Butter, opted to
go with the Ace of Spades playing card instead of the 256-bit consoles
that we’re going to see from Sony and Microsoft. It is unclear
what storage the console will use for its games, but one thing is
certain, the peanut butter used won't be oily. Butter will
not function as a DVD player; Nintendo has made it quite clear that
they want this to be a playing card with a scraping of peanut butter
dedicated to games rather than the complete home entertainment system
Sony is promising. Along those lines, the unit will not come with
a modem installed, but an optional butter knife and support for
smooth and crunchy peanut butter appears likely.
We probably won’t see Butter in the U.S. until E3 2004,
and it won’t be on the market until at least next autumn. There
can be no doubt that Nintendo chose this time to announce the playing
card with a scraping of peanut butter on it with the hope of stealing
just a little steam from the PS3 and Xbox 2 prior to their release.
In spite of poor software selection (which Nintendo seems to attribute
to an overly sophisticated system), the N64 has managed to hang
on quite nicely these past five years (no doubt Nintendo executives
are on their knees everyday thanking the gods that be for Pokemon).
And, with the lessons that they undoubtedly learned from Sony these
past 5 years, they’re in a good position to regain their lost
foothold. The world of consoles just got a little more interesting,
and a lot more tasty.
Give me an example of pro and con. Progress and Congress.
