Future: Nintendo could be only video game seller and have monopoly

[BoleroOfFire]

ViolentPhlegm said:

The analog shut off date has been delayed once.  While it's true that there was some dragging of feet in actually naming the date, the only date ever specified was February 17, 2009.  There has now been a reprieve to June 12 but over 400 stations have shut off already.

But this is largely irrelevant.  Would any of us excuse one of the major networks from broadcasting television in SD at this point just because the number of HD households is not quite at 50%?

Don't get me wrong here... I think Nintendo made the right move by putting out a console that wasn't at a price point that would limit it to early adopters at launch.  But I think they could have taken a little less profit (or even a slight hardware loss) at the beginning in order to make the Wii just a tiny bit future-proof (actually, "present-proof") with HD and 5.1.  It's disappointing when HD is hitting critical mass that a gaming console (which we'd expect to last until at least until 2012) has video resolution only suitable for TV's that have been off the market for some time.  The 360 is only $200 now so I think it must have been feasible to do WiiHD at an affordable price. 

Anyway, like I said, the scenario presented by the original poster (and he said the Wii could go on forever and ever) is a nightmare for a lot of us because we don't want to see games like Fallout having to be watered down because they're forced onto a lesser system.

By the way, Prince of Persia actually is on the Wii.  But it's a port of last generation's Tides of Time.  Don't you think Ubisoft would give the Wii a version of the current generation POP if it were at all feasible?  Dead Rising is a pretty good indicator of how well that would go.

 

The official shut off date, yes.  But I do agree that it's unlikely they'd want to go through Congress and delay it further.  That still doesn't mean most or even half of the households have HDTV's.  And again, we're only limiting this to the US.  

You seem to forget that 360 started off selling at a loss.  Nintendo doesn't have other divisions to back them up if their console doesn't sell well.  That is not their strategy.  You also seem to forget that Nintendo didn't just focus on visual upgrades; see the Wiimote.  Please tell me you didn't buy into the whole "PS3 is future-proof" slogan.  

Perhaps he needs to clear this up then.  He said that the other 2 companies may exit in the future.  This to me means the next generation.  I think it's silly they would exit now especially with Microsoft making a profit.  The Wii selling "forever and ever" will likely happen even with the release of its successor.  Kind of like the PS2.  

Don't know what game you're talking about.  I know of a Sands of Time and that was a multiplat release.  So again, I don't see a problem with any of those games you mentioned being on an HD Wii in the future.  DR:CtyD's sales are a good indicator of how watered down ports on the Wii would sell if third parties put no effort.