Iwata: N5 will 'create a gaming revolution'

"Our revolution is well underway" was Satoru Iwata's triumphant E3 message today, as the Nintendo chief outlined the company's plan to make its next home console take gaming forward in a new and innovative direction.

"The word different defines our next home system," Iwata boasted. "Better technology is good, but technology is not enough - today's consoles already offer [near] photorealistic experiences. Simply beefing up those graphics will not for most of us make a difference."

Iwata has made similar points recently back in Japan, and used E3 as a platform for once again emphasising that merely competing on tech specs isn't a game Nintendo feels like playing. Doing things as differently as possible evidently is its raison d'etre right now.

"So what should a new machine do?" he asked. "For both game creators and game players a new machine needs to do much more.

"They must offer different playing experience - something no other machine has done before . Our vision of a new machine must be different. I want you to know that Nintendo is embarking on our next system and that system will create a gaming revolution.

But before the audience could get too excited about the prospects of a GameCube successor, he kept everyone guessing as much as possible in true enigmatic Nintendo style. "Internal development is underway," Iwata-san confirmed, "[but] when the impact of our new home machine comes our revolution will be here."

Clearly enjoying teasing the partisan crowd, he said: "I suppose I could give you a list of the technical specs - I bet you'd like that, but I won't for a simple reason - they really don't matter - the time when horsepower alone made an important difference is over," Iwata-san declared.

"From this time on we must create something more and with technical experience the same way we have with Nintendo DS.

"So let me repeat: our revolution is well underway. When you see [it] you will be excited because you will experience a gaming revolution."

And with that, he was off to rapturous applause as an excitable international crowd lapped up the implications of Nintendo's approach.