jedimike said:
Nintendo was so late with on-line. They totally got caught with their pants around their ankles, then made the lame excuse about it costing consumers too much money and that they wanted to do it for free. Of course, die-hards, such as yourself, defended their decision and their $40 network adapters went unused.
Now, not only is Nintendo forcing consumers to buy a wireless router, but they are also charging fees for downloads. So much for the consumer...
Nice to see that you come along so well informed for these discussions:
1. Nintendo has, in fact, offered online capability of one form or another in every console they have released since the NES. Granted, this has gone nearly completely unused (and in some cases unreleased), but until now it was essentially just a big hole to throw money down.
2. The reason that Nintendo decided not to release any first party titles with online play for the Gamecube is that they didn't see it as a profitable venture, however, just like Sony, they provided the hardware and allowed third-parties to use it if they wished. And given the sort of profits that Nintendo still make in the industry, I'm going to trust them in their assertion that it would not have been profitable.
3. Actually, it would have been the die-hards who would be paying for any sort of subscription-based online service, and only the die-hards. And in this lies Nintendo's profitability argument, if the service is going to have to be supported by a wide variety of games and is only to be used by 5-10% of Gamecube owners, then it's simply not worth investing in.
4. The reason that the Revolution is the first console that Nintendo sees being profitable online is because of their retro game download service. By providing a completely free online gaming platform which is open to all they can both attract new customers and bring existing ones into Nintendo's online network, a network which is payed for by the retro games for sale over it. You will find quite quickly that the majority of casual gamers have a big problem with paying subscriptions for online gaming which they see as an added expense for a console and game they've already payed for, but have little to no problem spending a few dollars on a one off payment for an old NES/SNES game they used to love from their childhood. This is the mentality that Nintendo are going in with, and the one which will turn online console gaming into a profitable, worthwhile business.
5. Nintendo have never said that they would not include a 10/100 ethernet port in addition to their wireless connection in the Revolution. In fact, they have mentioned numerous times that the Revolution would act as a router for the DS to connect to the internet, which certainly implies that the Revolution would have wired as well as wireless network access.
Now that that's cleared up, we can actually get back to the purpose of the thread. My two suggestions are Metroid Prime 3 and Resident Evil 5.
Metroid Prime 3
Quite an obvious one, really, it's already been announced that it's in devlopment, it likely to debut close to the system's launch, and is following on the heels of two very impressive predecessors. A number of people have commented in this thread that,
technically, the Metroid Primes are not the most graphically impressive on the Gamecube. Which,
technically, is true. But wow factor is not only about polygon pushing (in fact it is becoming increasingly less so), it is about the artistic virtue of the game's visuals, and in this regard Metroid Prime, in my opinion, stands well above pretty much anything we've seen this gen. The art direction of Metroid Prime simply astounded me when I first played it, and is still just as impressive today, and without the limitations of the Gamecube's innards I have no doubt that Retro could perform an even more impressive feat on what will be brand-new hardware, and I would probably bet a considerable amount of money on this being the best looking near-launch title for Nintendo's next console, unless...
Resident Evil 5
This is tricky (and most likely depends on platform-specific sales of RE4), but there is a small possibility that Nintendo will be able to wrangle Capcom into releasing Resident Evil 5 as a Revolution exclusive near-launch title. And if they do, given what Capcom have done with RE4 on the Gamecube hardware, a next-gen sequel will certainly be something to look out for.