Nintendo’s back… but can they hang on?
Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 at 7:08am by Staff
GigaGamez has an interesting little piece examining how Nintendo can keep its newly found mojo. From the article on how to keep the home console momentum: “The first thing they should do is in two to three years introduce a $249-$300 Wii 2 that is capable of HD graphics, that supports the winner of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD battle, and, most importantly, is completely backwards compatible with the Wii remote and the nunchuk. This would give them an HD console at a price that should still be competitive with PS3 and 360, but still takes full advantage of what makes the Wii so much fun.”
It’s interesting to note as one angry commenter point’s out in the very same post, “Nintendo’s biggest problem, according to all this, is the utter incompetence of everyone else, solvable only by holding everbody’s hand through the magical land of Nintendo.”
February 3rd, 2007 at 7:35 am
Personally I’d be really annoyed if they did that, and I’m sure many others would be too. Nintendo has never redesigned even the aesthetics of their home consoles (except the NES), let alone the capabilities/functionality. If they’re going to update the console, they should just wait until the end of the Wii’s life cycle and then release an actual Wii 2, not just a Wii 1.5. We’ve got enough people whining about how the Wii is supposedly a “GameCube 1.5″ as it is.
February 3rd, 2007 at 8:33 am
Expect a new Wii by 2010 at least. Nintendo is making tons of money on their first month, why anyone just would think they are just going to release a new $250 system in 2 years is probably due to narcotics. In two years I expect a new DS announcement not before with probably release by spring 2009. Some people just don’t understand business, makes me think how fucking easy is running a site if they have that kind of ideas. Wasn’t everyone saying a month ago the Wii was just silly and going to fail? now everyone says “It might be succesful for a couple month but it will fail by next christmas. Amazing…
February 3rd, 2007 at 9:46 am
in two to three years introduce a $249-$300 Wii 2 that is capable of HD graphics, that supports the winner of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD battle
HD graphics
Probability: 20% (mabye less)
If Nintendos strategy works they don’t need HD at all until the next generation in 2010/2011.
supports of Blu-Ray/HD-DVD
Probability: 0%
Will not happen, why should they do this - they don’t even have DVD support yet. Also this would mean that they have to make a major redesign of the box because the need all the oomph to display HD.
The whole article is wishful thinking of Nintendo fanbois. Fun read if you love Nintendo, but absolutely unrealistic when you really know Nintendo and their behaviour in the last 15 years.
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:36 am
HDTV is not going mainstream anytime soon. They are just too expensive for for average consumers to justify doing. Consumers don’t “upgrade” to better TVs like a computer.
Modern life is already getting expensive enough with the rising cost of health care.
Only technophiles crave for the latest and greatest technology despite the price.
February 3rd, 2007 at 2:57 pm
I actually think if Nintendo merely did 720 and boosted the graphics power (or heck, stay 480 but boost those graphics) they’d be fine without having to go all the way to 1080.
HD or Blueray? 2-3 years from now is suicide in case the opposing one wins. MS was smart in not supporting either out of the box in case either format dies out.
Still, I’m guessing we’ll likely be waiting till 2010-2011 till the Wii sees a successor unless graphics really hurt its sales (which I doubt… look at the DS).
February 3rd, 2007 at 5:08 pm
You guys realise that you keep saying “we won’t be seeing a Wii successor until 2010…”… you do realise 2010 is THREE years away. Which is what the article said.
I sure hope we don’t see one until at least 2012 so the Wii can at least have time to mature.
February 3rd, 2007 at 7:08 pm
2007: 1 year
2008: 2 years
2009: 3 years
2010: 4 years
2011: 5 years
Normal lifespan of a console is 5/6 years (Gamecube late 2001/2002 - 2006).
February 4th, 2007 at 1:13 am
wow… what’s with the god sized fonts?.. is my PC messed up or are you guy’s making bad experiments?
February 4th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
popdem, it’s your computer.
Anyway, I just wanted to add something else — I buy home consoles because I hate PC gaming. I’m sick of Sony and Microsoft’s attempts to turn consoles into PCs (adding oversized hard drives, convincing everyone that if a game doesn’t have online it’s not worth playing, coming out with new add-ons you have to buy later like the HD-DVD drive, multiple console SKUs, emphasis on being your multimedia centers with content streaming, etc).
I don’t WANT the Wii to be like the computer industry with so many freaking upgrades all the time. I want to buy it once and have the confidence that every Wii game will be designed to that spec, and not have to worry about whether I should have waited around for a couple years for updates and missed out on countless awesome games in the process. Let the PC nerds spend their thousands of dollars on videocard/processor upgrades every other month for infinitesimal graphical improvements. Just my input.
February 5th, 2007 at 2:53 am
I think some of you are mixing up two separate technologies:
1) A console can display games in HD without having an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player in it;
2) HD may not go mainstream this year, but it certainly will by two years time! Just this year, the price of HD TVs will go below $1,000 for most models under 50″, and they will certainly be under $500 in two years.
3) DS owes its success to something completely different from the success of Wii, being that it is a portable machine, so graphics play a different role on each media.
I’m not agreeing 100% with the source article’s arguments, but they do have a point. The hardware inside Wii was not meant to last the regular 4/5-year lifetime of a console.
February 5th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
I agree with Invisibleman. Just because the DS is successful without the need of PSP-type graphics doesn’t mean the Wii wil be successful without better graphics. The Wii hardware is obviously no more than just an slightly upgraded GCN, and it’s not meant to last the typical 4/5-years console cycle. Nintendo must be fooling itself if it thinks a mere GCN upgrade will get it through this new generation. Dont get me wrong I love my Wii, but I believe Nintendo was more than capable of putting 720 on the Wii and stil keep it under $299, but they chose not to just cause they didn’t want to be on the same MS/Sony league. That’s just a narrowed business mentality if you ask me.
February 7th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I TOTALLY disagree with Wii not hanging on 5 years. 5 years will come and go faster then Fat Bastard can pump out corn loafs. I don’t believe anyone has seen Wii’s full potential even Nintendo. The console will undoubtedly last 6 years. Oh they will hang on and take #1 again, Satoru will start wearing gold ties and Miyamoto will wear gold crowns. I want them to shove Sony in a shit hole. I am not down with love for all systems, respect yes, purchase no, love no. Because of Yamauchi Nintendo became arrogant and ignorant when they hit the top, I believe they are in a more Zen like state have a Buddhist attitude. If they reach the top again they will be humble and that’s key.