Dunno, guess not. But I can see it having a 7-8 year life cycle. And I'm pretty sure the next machine from Nintendo will be fully compatible with the Wii and and allow users to make a seamless transfer from the older machine to the new.

 Sony may be showing that at the moment but it is a rather common thing between generations so the PS2/PS3 was not the first to show it.

Pachter says there'll be a Wii with High Def this E3. And I always back Pachter over Malstrom, because I enjoy being wrong. Ergo, the Wii's lifetime will end this time next year, so that its graphics can be on par with the 360 and PS3. After all, it's always been true that the system with the best graphics wins the generation, and if the Wii starts to look graphically outdated, then it's d00m3d!

You are into something here, but for backward compatability to succeed, you still must use the current technology to make the games backward compatible. Just like the Wii was a gimped gamecube the reason why it can also play gc cds without emulation.

It can go on forever. There is nothing "This Gen" about the Wii, so by all standards we knew, it should never sell. The fact that it does means it sells regardless of technology.

I can see the Wii selling for 15-20 years. I am sure they will update it over that time, but at its core, it will be the same machine.

You're absolutely wrong and Patcher, who predicts the obvious is almost certainly right.

There will be a Wii 2, an HD Wii, when HD reaches high enough market penetration that the market demands it and that its no longer bleeding or even cutting edge technology.

The first reason is common sense for business.

The second fits with Nintendo's technology philosophy, not to use technology when its bleeding edge, but to use it only once its cost effective. The gameboy and Nintendo's decision not to use Color is a perfect example of that philosophy in action. But in time color became effective and Nintendo made the Gameboy color.

Finally, Nintendo actually makes money on consoles it sells (unlike MS or Sony) so it clearly has at least some financial incentive, assuming a similar business model, to introduce a new console.

Hence,its incredibly reasonable to assume that once HD (1080P, etc) becomes prevalent enough and cheap enough, Nintendo will follow suit with an HD console.

Your reasons are also quite fallacious. Nothing to improve upon? The wii's graphics (on an HD TV, 10-15% of the TVs I believe) are not the quality of those that PS360 are capable of generating. The wii also does not use the newest generation of media (blueray/HDDVD) so when these become practical Nintendo will almost certainly use them in its next console (one case where Nintendo's use old tech failed miserably was with the N64, its only a matter of time before DVDs are effectively as outdated as catridges were then).

Secondly, your ipod model won't work for video games. Games cannot simultaneous push for the best graphics one console is capable of and be backwards compatible with older consoles.

P.S. If you're going to discuss an article please include a link to the article.

Well I'm sure they'll think of something. It can't be that hard to create a significantly improved machine that's compatible with Wii. After all, if they drop all Wii support when the next console comes out, they'll totally alienate the userbase they worked so hard to establish. I think Nintendo will make sure their installed base will be able to switch over rather seamlessly. Aka making a significantly more sophisticated machine, while keeping it in line with Wii (same channel-layout, architecture, easy-to-use, things like that.. you get the point).

Do you know that the PS2 was almost 8 years since its launch right? And it still selling right? The PS2 launched in 2000 if you forgot.

Let's get this straight. No one will have a 10 year lifecycle before the next cycle is introduced. The reason is that by year 6 or 7 Microsoft will introduce a new Xbox which will force Sony's and Nintendo's hand. So I expect by 2013 will will see the next generation.