Why are people so threatened by the Wii?

[MikeB]

Interesting thread. First I will start by stating that the Nintendo Wii should be capable of excellent impressive games, for example Mario64 for the N64 is still one of my favourite well designed games. So does raw power really matter? Well could Mario64 be done on a Snes? Could GTA: San Andreas without making significant sacrifices beyond just the graphics be done on the N64? Do people remember the time when people spend huge amounts of money on upgrading their PCs or buy new ones just to play Doom well enough (People could have stuck to Tetris and Pacman)? Do you prefer your Nintendo DS with better graphics and more complex game design over the original black&white Gameboy? The XBox 360 and PS3 offer by far more creative freedom to developers to design the game they really want to deliver us, at least in terms of graphics, audio, game complexity and performance. With regard to these points IMO the Nintendo Wii competes more with the PS2 than with the more highly specced platforms. Pricing is also important, the Nintendo is affordable to a larger group of people and even more so is the PS2 which still enjoys quality releases with for example Singstar and God of War 2. I am actually happy the Nintendo Wii exists and addresses a lower end of the market still not served by the PS3 and to a lesser extend the XBox 360 due to higher price points, but this while still feeling fresh due to introducing a new style of gameplay! I would have been thoroughly dissapointed if Microsoft and Sony aimed at the lower end market competing directly with the Wii but at a cost regarding the points I mentioned earlier. I am happy there are the current differences between consoles as more people can be served this way at this point of time.