Nintendo has, at last, revealed the first details of Revolution, ahead of its pre-E3 press event here in Los Angeles, which begins at 4.30pm today (UK time).
As previously reported, Revolution is roughly the size of three DVD cases. In other words, it's tiny. Interestingly, it's completely lacking in visible buttons or ports (the controllers are wireless), making it by far the most minimalist of the three next-gen machines.
However, what it does have in common with PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 is that it can either sit horizontally or be stood up vertically.
Discs are housed via a front-loading slot and it will play games on full-size DVDs, as well as being backwards compatible with the smaller Gamecube discs. It will, as we revealed last week, also be the first Ninty console to play DVD movies.
As for online functions, Revolution will include broadband access to a free web-based player matching service - not unlike Microsoft's Xbox Live. The service will also allow players to download almost every game in Nintendo's back catalogue, from the original Donkey Kong to more recent classics such as Mario Sunshine. Nintendo has yet to decide whether the downloads will be free or paid-for content, though.
As for the console's specs, Nintendo is claiming that Revolution is around two to three times more powerful than Gamecube. While Ninty has been saying for some time that it wasn't going to place a focus on ever-more-powerful hardware, it's interesting to note that Xbox 360 is said to be 10 to 13 times more powerful than Xbox, while PS3 is, according to Sony, a whopping 35 times more powerful than PS2.
Nonetheless, analyst Richard Doherty of the Envisioneering Group says that developers will find it much easier to code games for Revolution than other next-gen consoles.
"They do not need to make major changes from the games they were designing," he told USA Today. "They have better performance without having to do a lot of extra work."
Nintendo Revolution is due to go on sale in 2006. A firm release date and price have yet to be revealed. Expect loads more details later today as we report back live from Nintendo's LA conference.