My SMG prediction is looking grim...

[Mummelmann]

Good post Renar, and good points. I think we see eye to eye in most matters, because I also believe that a good 10% of the 3rd party games might be worthwhile enterprises.
And, there really were some casual titles already in the NES days that sold fairly well, like Tetris and Dr. Mario, and even my mother and some of her friends played those.
They even played Super Mario Bros and SMB 3 and loved it, but their kind has since vanished, seemingly put off by the advanced and hardcore gameplay of modern day games.
Here in Norway, this group, or these groups counting all nongamer casuals, don't play any games regardless of platform today, including the Wii.
Fact is; here in Norway it is generally believed by everyone outside of gaming society that Nintendo stopped making consoles after the N64.
Too me, it's fine to try to reel in and cater to these customers as a sideproject, but I am very disappointed in Nintendo for aiming primarily at these players with their new console.
Its not that they don't deserve to play games (like they used to), but I feel it is just wrong to let this audience be the one to decide the future of gaming as a whole. And my fear is that this will happen sooner or later!

Well, to sum up; I am mostly a PC gamer, but I have owned and still own several consoles. This generation, however, has given me aches and troubles over choosing what to do! I wanted the PS3 all along, but then people started shouting "doom" and that all major support would shift over to Nintendo. Which was a shame I thought, since the two best consoles I've owned are both Sony's. I then decided to try to like the Wii, but it just wouldn't sit with me, I completely disagree with their bussiness model and their decision to utilize old technology, and I hate (d) the image of playing mundane genre games with a Wiimote in my hand. The 360 is not an option at all for me, between hardware failure and all those games it shares with either PC, PS3 or both, I see no reason to get it.
All this gives me a headache, and I'm left as a sad gamer in a time we should rejoice over a burgeoning game market.
So, here I am, playing games from 1991 on my PC in DosBox wailing over the unsettling (to me) situation on the console market, hoping I'll still get to play my favourite games with my favoured control scheme.

PS: This looks stupid, my summary was longer than the post itself...