I don't know if it spells the end of their home console business - but I do think Nintendo made a big mistake launching the Wii U without their bigger first party franchises being available.
Different people will have different tastes, certainly, and I'm sure many people will take advantage of this discount to purchase a Wii U if the current lineup appeals to them.
I purchased the Wii for my son because he was very excited about it, and really enjoys some of Nintendo's franchises, like Zelda. I think it will take some of those bigger well-known first party franchises to get people to buy into the Wii U.
They can discount as much as they like, but so far we haven't seen any really compelling games for the platform. My son already owns a Wii, and still wants a few more games on that console, but has expressed very little interest in the Wii U. The mainstream multiplats we'd get either on PC or on our other consoles (X360 and PS3).
Which leaves exclusives - and there just aren't any really good ones available yet. Sorry Nintendo, but you have to do better with the games. There would have to be at least 5 'must have' titles available to justify a purchase, either exclusives, or multiplats offering something significantly different on Wii U. :/
They just need to offload everything that is unprofitable to the company, and focus on getting good products to market at a reasonable price, because competition has been pretty fierce over the last decade.
Not sure I'll try for a beta key, but no doubt there will be footage to watch on youtube, so I'll probably watch that. I'm still in two minds about this game. I really enjoy the Elder Scrolls series, but I've still not played any MMOs, so I'm not sure if it's the right kind of game for me.
This is great news, and I hope the devs manage to achieve their funding goals. I'll probably back this project as I did with Wasteland 2. And it looks like the Unity engine is working out well for them. I just hope they can make a deep and compelling game.
I'm hoping for some news regarding Sacred 3, along with something to do with Saints Row 4 and Dead Island Riptide. If they announce something new as well, then great.
I thought the whole idea behind the Steambox was to offer a set of 'standard' specifications for PC hardware, so that you could guarantee X, Y and Z games would work without any hassle. In those terms it would make game development slightly easier as well, because the developers would have set parameters to work towards, just as they do on console platforms.
The thing that 'high end' gamers should understand is that something like the Steambox is not aimed at them. They are a niche of the market, and most likely would build their own PC to high specifications to suit their needs anyway.
But there are a lot of people trying to play PC games on outdated hardware that just isn't up to the job, particularly in terms of generic laptops etc. And many people playing on PC are confused by the sheer variety of different tech available. If the Steambox comes along and guarantees that you can play modern games at a decent framerate on high settings, it becomes a more attractive proposition, particularly if they can get the price point right.
I hope that it actually proves successful, because competition in the gaming space is always better for the end consumer. I don't care about Infinity Ward, but if Valve can get a lot of mainstream development studios interested in supporting a 'standard' PC platform, I view that as a good thing.
Gallowhand's comments