Look, Nintendo says they're doing there own thing, blah blah blah. They have an opportunity here to be first to market in the next generation of consoles by years! Problem is, they're after markets they've lost and are taking the fans they have for granted. To get this right they're going to have to do 3 things they've never done successfuly. First, they'll need to get several top tier N titles out at launch and not one every six months to a year, they must retain/win the traditional fan that has carried them since the SNES. Hopefully if they really have learned something from the Gamecube and 3DS it's that they need a Mario and other software to buy day one. Second they'll need to convince the casual fans that bought the Wii 3 years ago that in the heart of a recession the same little Johnny that breaks the straps on his Wiimote should get a $300+ touchpad. I don't have a clue how you do that. Then third they'll need to encouragethe key 3rd party developers to do something totally new and put real money into developing for a Nintendo system.There are books written on this relationship, and even when companies like Capcom and EA doport over the big games the Wii difference has either sucked or been an obvious add-on. These companies will have to make real attempts at something special if people are going to buy a Nintendo console thats about the samepower as the Xbox/PS3 they already have to play the same adult titles on a new machine. The only solution I see would be something really different and reach out to the PC guys to bring over some new types of games. Things that have been PC mainstays for years but due to themouse vs controller has never worked for consoles, thiscould be the hard-core gamer difference. Not shooters (can you picture playing COD holding the touchpad?),try RTS, city building games, Diablo hack'n'slash. It must be stuff that cannot be done as wellwith a traditional controller.

Leaving the price part out of it, this is all very doable. Problem is, I can't picture a Nintendo which is acting like Sony circa PS3 launch in both attitude and arrogance going out and doing things it never has. They have done a greatjob of reinventingthe user interface, leading the waybefore the Wii actually all the way back to the NES (bumpers, analog stick, rumble, etc) but they haven't been able to do something new on the business side. I guess thatswhy deep down we all want them to succeed, I know I do; I'm just afraid in the end it'll all be about Mario and Zelda. They're great, but how long can you hang the entire company on them?