With great power comes great futility!

[Joelcool7]

Mifely said:

My reply to your other post is, essentially the main body of the post you just replied to.

I actually expect the Wii's sales to peter out long before the PS2's did, in its relative lifetime, however. It can't even play DVDs, and the casual gamer market is still, IMO, much smaller than the DVD-watcher market was back then. I think we'll probably see the PS3 slowly catch up to (I doubt it will ever actually catch it... but it might be close) the Wii over the next few years. Call me a nonbeliever, if you like. =)

 

You make a good point that DVD played a very big role in making the PlayStation2 a success. However I don't think that will set Nintendo back at all. You see the people buying Wii are doing so with the new viral marketing scheme of casual gaming. I think that Nintendo will release a new model and continue to target the base that nobody else is.

For example Hospitals are installing Wii's for their aging patients, bringing in Brain Age and other games to help the elderly. I could easily see it being incorporated into the Army , Police forces and other careers. A new America's Army on the Wii including boot camp. Police simulators already use Wiimote like controllers (RCMP Canada) theirs no reason why the Wii couldn't become a very efficient EduWare console.

Unlike PS3/360 Nintendo could maintain the hardware for at least 10-20 years. As soon as the next generation starts up Nintendo could open the development up to homebrew or just make the liscense availible for pretty much anyone. The console could then keep selling as Eduware for use in multiple applications.

Lastly PS2 was most definatly a casual console. Many of the successful games like the Buzz series , GuitarHero, SingStar etc....etc.... You are right that DVD helped it off its feet but I think the feature only helped build a casual user base for Nintendo to steal. I think likely almost everyone who bought a PS2 at one time or another tried picking up a game, likely a casual game. I am pretty sure the PS2 expanded the industry big time.

Fact is those people who bought PS2 as a DVD player are probubly the people buying Wii's. Then theirs the fact that Nintendo is bound to reveal a new model of the Wii sooner or later, every time Nintendo sees success they do end up releasing another model. I see a new model with a larger internal hard drive and DVD playback being released in place of a price drop.

In the end PS2 was casual and brought in tons of non-gamers, those gamers are buying Wii's. Will PS3 find success as a BluRay player, that is possible but the Wii will give it a run for its money!