Iwata: Revolution game development now underway

During his keynote address at last week's GDC, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told those present that software development kits for the next-generation "Revolution" console would be sent out by E3. However, less than a week later, the controversial executive told Business Week that some of the Revolution SDKs were already in gamemakers' hands.

"Development kits are already out there, depending on which stage you're talking about," he said, meaning that someone, somewhere is already in the process of making games for the Revolution. "All I can say right now is 'in the near-future' for the basis platform information they will need to get started on games."

Regarding the forthcoming next-gen console battle between the Revolution, the PlayStation 3, and the next Xbox, Iwata waxed philosophical. "Whether Nintendo is a winner or loser on Revolution totally depends on how our customers react to it, and since they do not know much about it, I can't respond. A year or two from now, it will be interesting to know who ultimately made the right choices. I'm confident we have made the right decisions."

At GDC, Iwata was kind enough to share Nintendo's "decisions" about the Revolution. He said the machine would have built-in Wi-Fi and would be backward compatible with GameCube games. He also unveiled the device's "technological heart," which consisted of a custom IBM central processor and a custom ATI graphics chip.