Hello dear readers,

No doubt you’ve noticed a few changes with the website. That’s right, Gamecube Europe is gone. Meet its much-improved successor; Revolution Europe. This is the latest turn in a project started by two students around seven years ago: Tim Symons and Gerben Stevast. From it came N64 Europe, then Cube-Europe, and now Revo-Europe. The difference between now and previous revisions? A change of the guard. It’s hard to believe, but Tim really has gone –moved onto to better things, and left me with the keys.

That’s not the only change. For the first time in our history, we are part of a parent company: the Advanced Media Network. Fret not, though, this will not compromise our independence; we don’t intend to morph into some lame corporate clone. All it means is that we’ll have better resources to support the site, and with AMN have some surprises for you that we're excited about. We're settling in well with the rest of the clan, and look forward to further developments as more of AMN's 2.0 relaunch comes to fruitiation. Stay tuned, we encourage you.

We’ve also got a slick new design. Gone are the greys of CE; we’re all about the white now. I think you’ll agree that it’s much easier on the eye – other design changes means we’re far more presentable. CE’s creaky old Xsorbit forums have been replaced with new vBulletin boards, offering you more features, better security and generally a preferable place to commune.

Still, even with all these changes, we’re hardly going to forget what’s the most important thing here. That’s written content. I’m not going to pretend we’re currently a bastion of insightful games journalism or anything, because we’re not. We do, however, have a talented staff, and we all have improved dramatically over the years (I myself remember writing some really shitty stuff back in the day). And we will improve with time, that I can say for definite.

Online games journalism can be a haphazard affair. Sites come and go. Some prosper and others fade. With our founder and director, and general rudder, departing, it would be easy to simply let the site go. But that would be doing the readers and the staff a disservice. I sincerely hope that I can be a worthy successor, and do intend to hold off crashing this boat for a while yet.

Tonight’s relaunch timing is a wonderful coincidence; it has to be said. In just a matter of hours Satoru Iwata should take to the stage in Tokyo and show off Nintendo’s next home console in a far more informative light. By this time tomorrow we should have a much better idea of where Nintendo intend to take gaming, and what on earth kind of console we’ll be writing about for the next five years (what are the odds they’ll change the name, and leave us looking like silly sods?). Seems rather appropriate that this will be the first thing Revolution Europe will cover.

On a personal note, this is very exciting (and all happening in the same month I move to and start University – when it rains, eh?), but it would narcissistic to end this piece without thanking certain important people. Tim Symons, for taking a chance on an inexperienced fourteen year-old in 2000 and showing mad dedication over the years; Shane Keane (aka Lammie) for his beautiful work on the CE and RE site design; Jan Varwig, our programmer, for getting us a proper database system and all his recent late nights to have RE up and running by today; Ken Cauley and the rest of the AMN folks for giving us a home; all the staff members for their work on the site and the forums; our sponsors, advertisers, and everyone who supported us; and, finally, you the reader. Without you this is all pointless.

Welcome to Revolution Europe. Enjoy your stay.

Regards,
Conor Smyth,
Director,
Revolution Europe