-5 points for the use of 'hard-core' without telling me wth you meant by it. From what I understand I could replace your 'hard-core' with 'graphics whores' and it would be the same meaning.raahsnavj

apologies, my fault for not clarifying that. but you have to admit, when u see the graphical prowess of games like gears of war, assasins creed and mass effect, you want to play something similar on your wii. imagine a game like mass effect on the wii. perfect for fps, and rpg alike. yet we will never get a game of that scale. it goes beyond graphics - you want that depth and content in a game.

with the wii's current hardware, a developer doesn't need to put that sort of effort into development to make a game a hit. we may not get that for quite a while. people want the best of both worlds. why settle for poor graphics and power, when you can get better.

I know many will look at this topic, and dismiss it as junk, stupidity, or quite simply, unthinkable.

Let me get one thing clear, right from the start: I DO NOT WANT THIS TO HAPPEN. this post is to explore the possibilities of nintendo taking such a step in it's future "blue-ocean" strategy, and in no way reflects what i want. it is simply opinion, and not fact at all.

Lets wait a second and think about this one. Briefly looking back at what nintendo did during the N64 and cube era. N64, and cube, both substantially stronger than the competition, and technically superior (i.e. stronger than the PS1 and PS2). yet, major flaws in their bussiness design led to their downfall. many will argue they should not have persued cartridges for the N64, or chose the colour purple for the cube - in my opinion, a reflection of the lack of understanding, or the simple "follow the crowd" mindset. The cartridges for the N64 had little to no bearing on the quality on gameplay they provided. ok, so the cartridge could not store large videos, and space had to be utilised intelligently, but these technical flaws were easily overcome. similarly, the cube was released in purple, but at the same time, released in black as well. to reject a console on the basis of it's colour is, simply, ridiculous.

A little thinking will easily reveal the problem was in the one department that matters most for any video game console: "content". lack of third party support and a small trickle of "good" games slowly ate away on the success of these beautifully engineered machines. You may think this is fairly obvious, and sure, yes it is. But at the same time, fundamental to the matter at hand.

Why 3rd parties did not jump onto nintendo's boat is upto you to decide. there's a brutal spiral, possibly stemming from nintendo's lack of co-operation, to poor sales. I'll be honest, i do not know their "3rd party" strategies, so im not in a position to comment about them.

The biggest technical weakness of the wii, however, is paradoxically, its strongest asset. Think about it: the console doesn't need massive production companies, no massive budgets, no grand plans.. nada! reggie was right, its the console where "the good idea wins, not the good budget". companies exploit the wii's weakness. they set up sub-studios to develop especially for the wii. It doesn't need alot of money (comparativly), and brings in a hefty profit. the result - wii has a lot of "crap".. but crap that sells.. and that is vital!

so now the big shots at nintendo sit down, and wonder what they're planning to do for their next generation. they look at the weaknesses of their failures, and vow not to let that happen again (so don't expect a console more powerful than the competition). then they look at the strengths of their success - originality, an untapped fanbase and 3rd party support.

The wii has already sorted out originality, and any successors using the same formula will surely continue to grow into these untapped individuals. as far as 3rd party support is concerned, nintendo has done something with the wii, and it's worked. They made it weak - so weak, it costs very little to develop for. 3rd parties like that. they invest in the console again, and wii is successful. Nintendo will no doubt choose a similar concept again.

the wii"2" will probably have an enhanced controller (easier to develop for motion control? more accurate nun-chuk? 4 buttons, rather than 2?). they are expected to include HD technology. by the time it comes out, HD will most probably be pretty standard, and not a major consideration for a console. yet, the actual power may not change.

You read that, and instantly go to click the "quote reply" button to prove me wrong. i know that doesn't make sense. the power has to increase to display HD. yes, it will, but only enough to get the job done. in other words, only enough to make sure its still "standard" and "mainstream".

I seriously do not think nintendo will make a console as powerful as the 360 or PS3 - it does not want developers to have to spend millions of pounds to make a game successful. The graphics will be toned down on purpose, so the bar is set low to begin with. this gives them, and 3rd parties an excuse, again, to develop nonsense for the console, and let it sell again.

If your still with me till now, i'll SUMMARISE: nintendo will choose to produce a console with specs increased only to fit the mainstream market, rather than grossly transcend it and cater to hard-cores. this strategy has worked before, and will work again. if HD is standard, the console will have HD - but thats it. don't expect the physics, processing power and raw brute grunt to match the 360 or ps3; its simply not required for success, so why do it?

My view is from nintendo's point of view, rather than from a consumers. yes, a consumer wants the latest gadgets, but at the end of the day, nintendo is a bussiness company, and wants to sell the most of its products for the largest profit. to do so, it'll have a cheap, easy to manufacture console, invariably leading to minimum required specs for success.

Theres what i think. feel free to chip in, and present what you think.

the portion in red is for those who are too lazy to read the whole article.

Ahhh wall of text!!!

I read it and I understand what your talking about. I think Nintendo will go with the same approach they took with the Wii. But i can see the Wii 2 being as powerful as the 360 or PS3 even though sony and microsoft will probably up there systems

baker63

i really hope nintendo delivers a console as powerful as that. coupled with motion sensing controls, you don't need anything better than that. true the ps4 and xbox"3" will be much more powerful.

but for some reason, i get the impression that nintendo doesn't want to provide the hardware which makes making colossal games possible - an excuse for cheap production. at the end of the day, tht's wat im trying to get at.

I know many will look at this topic, and dismiss it as junk, stupidity, or quite simply, unthinkable.

Let me get one thing clear, right from the start: I DO NOT WANT THIS TO HAPPEN. this post is to explore the possibilities of nintendo taking such a step in it's future "blue-ocean" strategy, and in no way reflects what i want. it is simply opinion, and not fact at all.

Lets wait a second and think about this one. Briefly looking back at what nintendo did during the N64 and cube era. N64, and cube, both substantially stronger than the competition, and technically superior (i.e. stronger than the PS1 and PS2). yet, major flaws in their bussiness design led to their downfall. many will argue they should not have persued cartridges for the N64, or chose the colour purple for the cube - in my opinion, a reflection of the lack of understanding, or the simple "follow the crowd" mindset. The cartridges for the N64 had little to no bearing on the quality on gameplay they provided. ok, so the cartridge could not store large videos, and space had to be utilised intelligently, but these technical flaws were easily overcome. similarly, the cube was released in purple, but at the same time, released in black as well. to reject a console on the basis of it's colour is, simply, ridiculous.

A little thinking will easily reveal the problem was in the one department that matters most for any video game console: "content". lack of third party support and a small trickle of "good" games slowly ate away on the success of these beautifully engineered machines. You may think this is fairly obvious, and sure, yes it is. But at the same time, fundamental to the matter at hand.

Why 3rd parties did not jump onto nintendo's boat is upto you to decide. there's a brutal spiral, possibly stemming from nintendo's lack of co-operation, to poor sales. I'll be honest, i do not know their "3rd party" strategies, so im not in a position to comment about them.

The biggest technical weakness of the wii, however, is paradoxically, its strongest asset. Think about it: the console doesn't need massive production companies, no massive budgets, no grand plans.. nada! reggie was right, its the console where "the good idea wins, not the good budget". companies exploit the wii's weakness. they set up sub-studios to develop especially for the wii. It doesn't need alot of money (comparativly), and brings in a hefty profit. the result - wii has a lot of "crap".. but crap that sells.. and that is vital!

so now the big shots at nintendo sit down, and wonder what they're planning to do for their next generation. they look at the weaknesses of their failures, and vow not to let that happen again (so don't expect a console more powerful than the competition). then they look at the strengths of their success - originality, an untapped fanbase and 3rd party support.

The wii has already sorted out originality, and any successors using the same formula will surely continue to grow into these untapped individuals. as far as 3rd party support is concerned, nintendo has done something with the wii, and it's worked. They made it weak - so weak, it costs very little to develop for. 3rd parties like that. they invest in the console again, and wii is successful. Nintendo will no doubt choose a similar concept again.

the wii"2" will probably have an enhanced controller (easier to develop for motion control? more accurate nun-chuk? 4 buttons, rather than 2?). they are expected to include HD technology. by the time it comes out, HD will most probably be pretty standard, and not a major consideration for a console. yet, the actual power may not change.

You read that, and instantly go to click the "quote reply" button to prove me wrong. i know that doesn't make sense. the power has to increase to display HD. yes, it will, but only enough to get the job done. in other words, only enough to make sure its still "standard" and "mainstream".

I seriously do not think nintendo will make a console as powerful as the 360 or PS3 - it does not want developers to have to spend millions of pounds to make a game successful. The graphics will be toned down on purpose, so the bar is set low to begin with. this gives them, and 3rd parties an excuse, again, to develop nonsense for the console, and let it sell again.

If your still with me till now, i'll SUMMARISE: nintendo will choose to produce a console with specs increased only to fit the mainstream market, rather than grossly transcend it and cater to hard-cores. this strategy has worked before, and will work again. if HD is standard, the console will have HD - but thats it. don't expect the physics, processing power and raw brute grunt to match the 360 or ps3; its simply not required for success, so why do it?

My view is from nintendo's point of view, rather than from a consumers. yes, a consumer wants the latest gadgets, but at the end of the day, nintendo is a bussiness company, and wants to sell the most of its products for the largest profit. to do so, it'll have a cheap, easy to manufacture console, invariably leading to minimum required specs for success.

Theres what i think. feel free to chip in, and present what you think.

the portion in red is for those who are too lazy to read the whole article.

Are you, y'know, "special"?dieworm

thts a shocking thing to ask!.. btw, just so u know, theres a disease called Huntington's disease, which is purely genetical, and the typical age of onset is 20-25 with a life expectancy of 5-15years after that. ur parents do not have to have the disease, since the mutation occurs during conception. no symptoms are present before onset. so infact, u could be "special" too.....

u go to ur respective country's nintendo wii site and order it from there. i has been away for a while and missed 2 weeks of info in the middle, so completely missed out on the wii jacket thing. was wondering what was going on about that. just ordered mines right now, so dnt know when they're gonna arrive by. btw, u guys who already have one, do they help improve ur gameplay quality/comfort, or do they merely serve as protection barriers?

for groudyogre, if ur in the uk or ireland, click here: http://wii.nintendo.co.uk/22690.html

for the US or canada, click here: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/jacket/jacketrequest.jsp

for Aus and NZ: http://www.nintendo.com.au/nintendo/news/index.php - u have to phone them from here

apologies if ur anywhere else in the world, but u probably get the idea.