Wii to Attract New Developers with Low Cost Development Kit

Nintendo has announced that it will offer its Wii development kit to 3rd party developers for under $2000.  Compared to the development kits for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 that run between $30,000 and $50,000, Ninendo once again shows that they are wanting to set the new paradigm for game consoles.

Now there are even reports that the ATI Hollywood GPU that will power the Wii will even produce visuals that will rival the Xbox360 and Playstation 3.  While many E3 patrons were not overly impressed with the Wii graphics, an ATI representative at the conference stated that what was seen at E3 was just "the tip of the iceberg".  The ATI team that is developing the Hollywood chip is the same team that developed the "Flipper" chip that powered the Gamecube.  So ATI is very familiar with the Nintendo product line.  Also keep in mind that ATI is also the same company that developed the GPU for the Xbox 360.  So it would not be suprising if the final release of the Wii console ships with a GPU that will have amazing visual while offering sucha  unique gaming experience.

Despite all of the criticism of the console since the name release, Nintendo is really positioning itself to give the gaming world a revelution.  Unique game play, low development cost (which means low game costs to consumers), stunning graphics; it will be a revolution indeed.