i think for this post, kwaad's ultimate point is woth thinking about, but his arguments that reached there are mostly off-base.
the thing to realize that it's not because of nintendo that the industry is moving in that direction. nintendo is only reacting to the economic realities. just how many "epic" sized games can the market out there support? especially if the cost of making those games is only gonna spiral upward from $10, $20 mln?
i think we WILL get to the "epic" genre games; but it's not because the Wii delaying them, it's because of the Wii it will happen sooner. the gamer crowd simply is too small to support routine $20 mln upward games. first thing you do is to expand the market--Nintendo is doing that. spielberg currently has a few projects on the Wii, and i would hope those are warmly welcomed by the movie going audience--i.e. the general public.
for kwaad, his "ideal" game is, well, an ideal. broadening the spectrum a bit, those kind of games/entertainment will come in another generation--but certainly not THIS generation, even it's not for the Wii. it's simply too early--cost is a factor, interest is another. the wii is appealing to the general public, it's doing it's fair share. cost will come down, but Sony in this aspect is doing the opposite by introducing complex Cell architecture which most programmers don't really understand. maybe sony is investing for the future. but as john maynard keynes said, "in the long run, we're all dead." sony is looking too far into the future.
the Wii is an epidemic.
