I'll hit you with this little tidbit right off the bat. At 28 years old I personally know at least 20 people who own a Wii. I wish they could have been there for the debate, but we didn't decide to have it until it started......

Your panel consists of:

Dave (that's me! OMG!): Age 28, 25 year gamer, indifferent towards Nintendo since 1999.

Jamie: Age 32, 27 year gamer, indifferent towards Nintendo since 2000.

Andy: Age 26, 21 year gamer, Nintendo fan that is bordering on indifferent.

Jon: Age 30, 26 year gamer, Nintendo fan, but far from fanatic.

Remember, each of us also owns a 360 and Andy and myself also own the PS3. We collectively have 99 years of gaming experience between the four of us. We know gaming in a big way. This was fun. It shows that even the dedicated Nintendo faithful like the four of us can see what Nintendo really wants and who their new audience is.

Topic 1: What is your primary gaming console?

Everyone said 360. The consensus was that the Wii is a satellite system for the hardcore gamer and does not carry enough appeal to be the primary system for the hardcore.

Topic 2: What drives you away from your Wii?

Me: Shovelware, poor motion controls in some games, milking Mario.....

Jamie: Poor online, no voice chat, motion controls in general.

Andy: Too many kidz games, lack of games for hardcore/mature audience, milking Mario.

Jon: Poor online, kidz games, no must have games in the next 4-5 months.

Topic 3: What are you looking forward to for the Wii?

Me: Mario Kart and then ??? Nothing until fall after Mario Kart.

Jamie: I can't wait for Mario Kart! (This guy is a heavy metal rocker with maces and swords on his walls and dragon statues and other crazy stuff in his house. Think Metalocalypse, except this guy has been doing it for the last 15 years.) Besides that......um......Soulcalibur IV for 360! Haha!

Andy: I want to say Mario Kart, but it seems like a step back from Double Dash. I might pass on it. I really don't see anything in the next 6 months that I want for the Wii.

Jon: Mario Kart and then it's all 360 the rest of the year.

Topic 4: What do you think of the Wii being marketed to kids and casual gamers?

Me: I hate casuals......they don't even qualify as gamers. They don't know the history. They can't throw down in Soulcali. They have never played an FPS, one saw my Halo fleece at a Gamestop and asked me what a "Hah-Low" was. They have no clue what a Ridge Racer or a Need For Speed is. Kids are mostly clueless as well. A few go back and play Atari, NES, SNES, Genesis, etc......but most of them first gamed on a PS2, Cube or GBA. They have no knowledge of the first 20-25 years of gaming history and their ignorance makes them ten times more annoying. Casuals buy almost no software because gaming isn't even a hobby for them and kids buy almost no software because they have no dinero.

Jamie: Bad move by Nintendo........just bad. Adults have money, kids don't. At work I hear people talking about Wii Sports and then I ask them what else they have for the Wii. The answer is always "Nothing, my wife/husband and I just got it for the Wii Sports after we played it at so-and-so's house."

Andy: Exactly! They can sell all the hardware they want, but if parents only buy their kids a couple games a year then there is money left on the table. And I agree about the casuals, they just don't fit. Casuals don't buy enough software and they could lose interest just as quickly as they "found" it.

Jon: I can't buy games for my Wii if they are almost all geared towards kids and casuals. I guess Nintendo would rather sell millions of Wiis than sell hundreds of millions of pieces of software.

Topic 5: How do you feel about Nintendo constantly recycling the same franchises for the last two decades?

Me: New IPs please......playing the same 6 franchises over and over is getting old. There is only so much Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, F-Zero and Starfox a person can take.....

Jamie: Same here, anything new would be nice. I hate how they play it safe and keep trotting out the same games every cycle. All of the originality seems to be on the 360 and PS3 these days.....

Andy: Zelda, Metroid and Starfox still feel fresh because they keep evolving. Mario Galaxy is great, but it's a dumbed down Mario 64 for kids. It's way too easy. And unlike Dave, I'm looking forward to Mario Super Sluggers. (I gave him the finger for that comment, lol.)

Jon: I don't mind it. I love the main franchises. They really do need some new ideas to keep us older guys with them though. After two decades of Mario, Zelda and Metroid you start wanting new experiences. But those franchises still deliver good games to a broad audience.

Topic 6: Will you buy Nintendo's next console?

Me: I buy everything.......so sadly, yes.

Jamie: No. I'll go with Microsoft and Sony next round.

Andy: No. I'm going with just Microsoft next gen.

Jon: Yes, but I don't see myself buying many games for it. Just the usual franchises.

Bottom Line: Nintendo has been shifting toward a casual audience since the DS launched in 2005. That's why there is a 360 or PS3 sitting next to many Wiis. The Wii is geared toward hardware sales more than software sales with the idea that more software will sell. That may be true, but it doesn't change the fact that hardcore gamers are buying more games for their 360 and PS3 than they are for their Wii. Nintendo truly has shifted gears and only someone with blind devotion can't help but be annoyed by this. How many hardcore gamers will purchase Nintendo's next console after being shunned this generation? I'd bet that Sony is going to regain some ground in the next few years because of Nintendo's "sins" against the hardcore this generation.