| Sky Render said: Loud_Hot_White_Box, don't bet on HD vs. SD having any impact on the Wii. The average consumer does not value HD over SD, and the few that do don't account for nearly enough sales for it to matter. We've discussed this already at length in the topic, in fact. The "quality" of a product is insignificant next to the "value" of the product to the consumer. The "value" of a product is derived from how well it does the job the consumer wants the product to fulfill. Normal consumers buy a product to fulfill a single job, usually with a very simple definition which does not prioritize things like quality of visuals over things like quality of experience. Ergo, HD has nothing to offer over SD (the experience is identical, it just looks better). |
I invented these arguments in earlier threads, as a matter of fact. ;)
PS2's success as a cheap DVD player provides a counterexample to your argument (dual use: console and DVD player and both contributed synergistically to its success).
Your lesson in consumer purchasing is sophistry. Average people will take an HD video feed for their HDTV rather than an SD feed, if available at a "value" price. Similarly, as most TVs become HDTVs, when choosing consoles and a cheap PS3 being available, they'll take HD along with a horde of other benefits. That offers value to the consumer. Then again, Wii and PS3 don't compete all that directly, and a lot of people will end up owning an HD console and a Wii, which I fullly admit.
On to the "experience": you and I know that the experience of an AAA HD game on an HDTV is not the same experience as that of a Wii game. Further, the different game libraries themselves offer different experiences. In a way, it does come down to marketing, "buzz," and cheapness, then, and Wii has those, just as PS2 did. On the other hand, the difficulties faced by Wii and not by PS2 are real (advent of HD, and a Wii successor will neuter Wii sales...It would be funny if Nintendo went 10 years without a Wii successor just to keep the Wii going, but I guess if you want to argue in hypotheticals, it could happen).
