An article in the New York Times hinted that DVD playback might be included, but now straight from the plumber’s mouth:
Thanks to Nintendo’s hardware development partners IBM and ATI, the small system will be packed with power that will enable it to wow players with its graphics. Nintendo’s legions of loyal fans will be happy to learn that Revolution will be backward compatible, playing both Nintendo GameCube 8cm disks along with its own 12cm optical disks in the same self-loading media drive.
I don’t really care whether it has DVD playback. Sure, it’s nice as an additional feature, but it won’t be the deciding factor when choosing which console. The issue I have is if space restrictions will require developers to scale back graphics or extras to fit everything on multi-platform releases or skip a port to the Gamecube entirely. Piracy is certainly a consideration but Sony and Microsoft seem to be doing okay.
Also from the article:
In its final form, Revolution will be about the thickness of three standard DVD cases and only slightly longer. The versatile Revolution will play either horizontally or vertically, allowing the user total flexibility in setting up a gaming session wherever they have a television.
We already know the Xbox 360 can go in either way, so it falls to Sony to break from the pack and limit the orientation to vertical or embrace the true future of diagonal alignment. What it lacks in efficiency of space usage it more than makes up for in the sheer shock and amazement it inspires in onlookers.
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