A weaker Wii and 3rd party support- Mistake or brilliant move by Nintendo?

[ramberk]

The Wii was designed for these reasons: 1. Affordability (for the consumers) 2. Profitability (Nintendo makes money on each console sold from the start) 3. Ease of Development (its just like the gamecube, so devs are familiar with it) 4. Backward Compatibility (VC and GC games can be played on it.) The issue at hand though is that the Wii is not as powerful as the 360 and the PS3. But here are some interesting things to think about... If the Wii did not have the Wii-mote, would it be as popular is it is? No. It would be a bigger "failure" then the Gamecube and N64. If the 360 and PS3 were slightly more powerful (or as powerful) as the Wii-- would either console be as popular as they are now? No, probably not. The thing that differentiates the 360 and PS3 are their computing power (and X-Box Live). So, here's the interesting thing to think about. Nintendo already "won" this console war. They are already making a ton of money on the Wii. Let's say they fall to "third place". It doesn't matter. They already "won". Now, the problem with Sony and MS is that the only way they can compete is by creating a SUPER CONSOLE. Thats the only way Sony and MS can compete with each other and with Nintendo-- by making the most powerful console because gamers love powerful consoles. The problem with this, is that SUPER CONSOLES are expensive to develop and manufacture. And Sony and MS can't sell these SUPER CONSOLES at too an expensive price or else few people will buy them. So that'st the problem with Sony and MS, is that they can only compete by making a SUPER CONSOLE, but they can't make a profit or be successful unless they sell a lot of CONSOLES and gamers buy a lot of GAMES for their console. So, for MS and Sony, in order for their SUPER CONSOLES and their GAMING BUSINESS to be successful, they need to be "#1". They need to have the biggest marketshare and they need to totally beat the competition. Whats worse is that MS and Sony have to sell more games for their console to be profitable. And their games are more expensive to develop and sell for more at retail then Wii games. So developers have to sell more games to make it worthwhile to develop games on the 360 and PS3. But its tough to sell a lot of games, especially if they are more expensive to buy. So, here's the funny thing. MS and Sony will not get a large chunk of the console marketshare and it will be tougher for their games to be super-mega-hits during this round of the "console wars". NOPE. The best scenario for MS and Sony is that there will be a "3-way tie" in terms of console marketshare. Even, if there is a "3-way tie" MS and Sony already "lost". I really doubt we'll be getting a "3-way tie" anyway. Nintendo already "won". I'm not even sure if MS will put out another X-Box even if they can get some profit from the 360. If you spend billions and billions of dollars in the video game market and only make millions of dollars-- is it really worthwhile to stay in the business when you could invest that money in something else more worthwhile? That question is what Sony and MS are asking themselves now. Will there be a PS4? An X-Box 720? I don't know... MS didn't even make a profit on the first X-Box...