Bobby Kotick at Gamespot, Next-Gen and even GameIndustry.biz.
Me here (back in June no less!).
A cute little gem that Gamespot didn't have in their news piece?
"The Wii at its price point is now setting a standard and an expectation, and people say, well, the Wii is less complex technically. I don't think that really matters as much to the consumer..."
Games matter, there's no denying this. Capabilities matter, but probably not quite as much as we thought. But more than anything, price matters. We've already seen the dramatic improvement the 40g PS3 has had for PS3 sales, and Microsoft is lowering their pricing (too) slowly but surely while Nintendo sits happy at their current pricing. If performance was the only thing that mattered, the 360 and PS3 would be fighting it out alone with the PS2 and Wii a rapidly fading memory. But performance isn't the only factor.
To be honest, I don't think he's entirely off the mark. I've seen stories not once, not twice, but three times (and I'm sure there are more I've missed) about how most consumers don't know the half of what their console can do besides play games. Heck, even the people selling the systems aren't entirely sure of what they can or can't do (as Mac's friend found out the hard way).
You can look at the PC market and see the same thing. We all love the high-powered machines with blazing hot specs, but those machines aren't the ones most people buy. Budget machines with integrated video and sound, skimpy RAM, and modest processors are the big sellers. Its rather telling when even Apple, a company known for expensive machines (and a legendary 20% or higher rofit per item sold) even has a budget priced offering with the Mac Mini. You will never mistake a Mac Mini or that $399 PC for top-end gaming hardware, but its good enough for most people because it does what they want it to at a price they can handle.
Naturally, this drives Mark Rein crazy, since the lowest common denominator in terms of hardware limits high-powered PC games sales. Blizzard, realizing this, tends to keep their hardware requirements rather modest, and their biggest hit, World of Warcraft, is testament to the wisdom of that - it can run decently (for a MMO) on cheap, modestly powered PC's, compared to its rivals. valve even made sure Half-Life 2, a gorgeous game, could even be run on Direct X 7 video cards like the GeForce 4 MX! Dumb move? Not when you consider how well Half Life 2 sold.
Most of us have a pain threshhold for spending money, some higher than others. If we look at the Playstation 2, around 75% of its total system sales were from $200 and less. About half of its total sales were at $180 and less. Maybe 2/3rds or so were at $150 and less. Kotick seems to realize this; the mass market will not jump onboard until the system is at most $200. If you think your system of choice is selling well now, wait until it passes that magic price point. Last generation will not truly be last generation until one or more of the current generation becomes fully embraced by the mass market. And price is the major holdback to that happening, not games. There are enough good games on all the systems right now to make them worth owning if they were at that price point, and publishers will follow system sales like they always have.
But for now, price is the key.