Will the Wii be 3rd Place? Two perspectives.

[cAPSLOCK]

Cryoakira said:
One question : how many of you think that the Wii will last as long as the PS3 or X360 ? That the Wii will have a life cycle of 6 years or more ?

Within the first 18 months, Nintendo will have release all its core gamers top titles (Zelda, Mario, Mario Party, Mario, Metroid, SMB, Mario Kart, Mario Paper, Animal Crossing).
So what's next ?
Can the Wii rely solely on casual gamers ? The ones that own Wiisport, Wiiplay, and may buy Wiifit as their first real "game", then wait for the next big Nintendo casual concept ?
Considering the Wii is already at the massmarket price, how much a futur price cut can boost the sales ?

I doubt the Wii life cycle will exceed 3 or 4 years and other said it better than me : this console War is not a sprint, it's a marathon.
So yes, IMO, the Wii can finish last.

I don't see any problem with it lasting 6+ years. The problem is you're thinking of it in terms of other consoles. Don't. It doesn't apply to the Wii.

There's nothing on either of the other 2 systems that offers an experience anything like the Wii. If graphical technology is the main argument, then I'm sorry to report that the 360 and PS3 already got embarrassed by Crysis. They can't even do DX10. The 2008 PC lineup is probably the strongest of any platform AND reasonably future-proof PC components are very affordable now. (you can build a system that runs Crysis smooth as a baby's butt for ~$600)

I know it's getting cliche to say it, but with the Wii you have to look past the graphics and consider the experience. If cutting edge graphics are what you want then there's not a console on the market that will satisfy you. If scope and depth of experience is what you want, again, PC is your platform. 

Also, PCs being expensive is a myth generated by retards. You should study where technology is going you can build a 4 year system for around $600, with *maybe* 2 upgrades in that time before the next tech jump and full system upgrade. And with the money you save on games ($10 cheaper than consoles, sometimes even less expensive), even buying 1 game a month you save $120 a year, plus $50 for online (xbl). It's very affordable and very easy to keep up a badass gaming PC.

If your answer to this PC graphics/power dilemma "so what? 360/PS3 is more fun/it doesn't have to be cutting edge" then you just answered the Wii longevity question.  Yeah it's graphically weaker, but so what? All 3 consoles are pretty laughable compared to what PCs are doing right now on the tech level. They couldn't even make COD 4 hi def for the consoles.

You have to look at it in terms of what consoles do outside of horsepower. What else do they bring to the table? What does X console give me that a PC can't? With my PC I play online for free, my games have much better graphics, insanly customizable, can be modded, godlike backwards compatibility, the whole 360 shooter library (at least the notable games).

As far as upcoming games: 

The launch title Zelda game was essentially a Gamecube game, my guess is a new one is already in the works or will be, completely designed around the Wii from the ground up. In the NES days they had no problems releasing multiple Zelda and Mario games. Plus we don't know what new franchises are on the way. This one is really hard to predict, maybe something will come out of nowhere and end up insanely badass. It happens often enough in the game world.

What makes the Wii so hard to predict is that it essentially snubs all the rules of console gaming convention. It's obvious from people like the cnet dude that most people don't have the first clue how to consider it, let alone predict anything about it. There's nothing standard about it, no basis from which you can draw any accurate predictions. The closest thing to the Wii is the DS. 

I imagine it'll do really well. I imagine it'll last 6 or so years. That's my guess.  I could be wrong, mostly because I don't have the first clue of how to look at the system. Furthermore, if anyone tries to analyze the Wii in terms of consoles of the past or this generation of consoles, it's a pretty safe bet they're pretty clueless, too.