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Hawkeye said:
Do you think the hardcore wll become marginalized? Or will the new gamers eventually drift towards the center of the gaming circle? The NES had rob and duckhunt and basically did the same thing as the Wii, and then got kids to become hardcore with bridge titles like Mario. Existing PC/arcade hardcore had games like metroid or FF. Then SNES got more people to be hardcore, and then Nintendo lost their market to Sony. Will this likely happen again?

If I can chime in on this one, and correct me if I'm wrong Sky:

Nintendo uses the term "bridge title" to explain games like Mario Kart Wii. The purpose of games like this is to bring the newer players to these higher tiers of gaming. So you get someone who bought the Wii for Wii Sports or Wii Fit who sees this game and it's non-threatening Wii Wheel and decides to give it a shot.

Well, now instead of the old fart playing Wii Bowling all day and being a "non-gamer" playing "non-games" you now officially have a gamer, playing a real game.  If they don't like it they'll go back to the old non-gamer pasture and if they do like it, chances are good they'll keep crossing bridges.

"Gateway drug" isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.

If anything, this strategy is bringing in new people who will cross those bridges and check out the higher end titles.

*GASP* Maybe even buy a PS3 or 360

I imagine Super Mario Galaxy and other such games will have unusually strong legs (like the DS counterparts) not because of old Nintendo hands that continue to buy them but because this new market of gamers who are moving across those bridges and discovering these titles for the first time.

I know anecdotal evidence sucks, but I can tell you for a fact that this is the case for my neice, my 32 year old sister, my 35 year old brother, his wife, her husband, my 54 year old mom who is now going through Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and my wife who beat Gears of War with me.  That's just my immediate family. But all of them are somewhere in the gaming lands and have crossed a bridge or 2.

It will strengthen the market, obviously. It's just that the dumb and weak companies will be gone. Adapt or perish in the business world.