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Gamerace on 04 June 2009
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Consider this. All the so called experts have been saying since launch that Nintendo would be forced to come out with Wii HD before this generation ends to remain competitive.

In fact, the very reverse has happened. Instead of Nintendo needing to compensate for their competition's strength - HD graphics, the competition has been forced to try to emulate Nintendo's strength - motion control.

The motion control that Sony and MS have shown - while impressive - does not suit the games that those systems specialize in. They may get a port of Boom Blox and motion controled Grand Slam & Tiger Woods (once they have enough of a base to justify EA spending extra $$ to support the motion control) and possibly a motion controled GT5 / Forza 3. But neither would work in the FPS/TPS/Action genres that they now dominate do to lack of an analog stick or alternative for movement. Both will be extremely late to the game with flimsy support for thier motion control devices.

So it's not going to hurt Nintendo any.

On the flip side, if Nintendo did come out with a Wii HD now, you could expect every single 3rd party HD game to immediately be on it with full WiiMotion + support, IR support, etc. And it would not only be comparible to PS3/360 gameplay-wise but would control much better. Plus it would be fully compatible with all Wii games and I'd expect they'd continue to sell the Wii as well at a lower price point. That 1-2 combo ($250 Wii HD, $150 Wii) would be a crushing blow to MS and especially Sony who still hasn't even achieved profitability. Plus it would totally negate any hope of Sony returning to dominance with a $300 PS3.

However, I'm not sure Nintendo will do this. They have never specialized in those genres anyway and their profit margins are greatly improved without HD development costs. Plus they've already won this generations without HD so they don't need to. But if they do decide to take the fight upstream, their competition should be very, very worried.