Nintendo cautious on PS3 announcement, Revolution prepares for war

In the wake of Sony's confirmation that PlayStation 3 will be shown in some form at E3 next year, Nintendo Europe has reaffirmed that its Revolution console - first mentioned at E3 in May past - will be "discussed" in greater depth at the LA event in 2005 and will be released in a timely fashion to compete with PlayStation 3 and Xbox 2.

"In terms of PlayStation 3, 'exhibited at E3' and 'coming to market' are two very different things," said Nintendo Europe's head of PR, Shelly Pearce today. "What we've always said is that we'll be releasing Revolution in the same timeframe as the others. What that timeframe will be is very up in the air at this point."

Pearce added, "I'm not really sure what Sony will actually be exhibiting at E3."

The current timeframe for PlayStation 3, while unconfirmed by the company as yet, is being mooted as 2006 by insiders. Smart money is putting Microsoft ahead of the pack, with Xbox 2 likely to be looking at a late 2005 release in the US, with possibly a March 2006 release for Europe, closely followed by the Japanese release.

Nintendo's comments came as Ken Kuturagi, PlayStation godfather and SCEI grand overlord, confirmed that the as yet unnamed successor to industry staple PlayStation 2 will be showcased at E3 2005. "We will exhibit our next generation console at E3 next year," he said earlier today.

No specific information regarding what will be seen from Sony has emerged from the company as yet, as Nintendo has been quick to point out this afternoon while spelling out what we can expect from Revolution next May.

"Our plan is to talk about our vision for Revolution at E3 next year, and how we're going to revolutionise console gaming," Pearce told Eurogamer. "At next year's E3 there'll obvious be a lot more discussion about next generation, and we'll be talking about ways we're going to take console gaming forward without just focussing on graphics. But it's far too early to talk about specifics now."