Alternate history, 7th gen: Clash of the HD dreadnaughts

[The_Liquid_Laser]

curl-6 said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

It is possible to get by with 20 GB on a PS3, and I'm sure the same is true with an XBox360.  You really can't get by with just 256 MB.  Quite a few games require an installation that is greater than 256 MB.  On the other hand, I've never had problems with gigantic installs from Nintendo first party games.  I've never even had to delete anything off of my Wii, Wii U or Switch.  It's not an issue.  When it comes to storage 10 GB on a Nintendo console goes much farther than 20 GB on a Microsoft or Sony console.

This is another reason why a $350 "Wii HD" would be a better value than the $400 XBox360 at launch.  Effectively you would get more storage space, since Nintendo uses their storage a lot more efficiently.

Maybe not for you, but storage on both Wii U and Switch was totally inadequate for me as an owner of both, I've had to expand both by purchasing hard drives/SD cards. I expect most serious gamers will not be able to make do with the paltry internal memory Nintendo tends to offer, which in 2006 would've been even less than they provided 6 years later with Wii U due to memory costing more back then.

And again, a cut to just $100 less than two years in didn't save Gamecube from third place, so even if a price advantage is perceived by some customers, I don't think it would make a significant difference to sales.

Add in Nintendo's struggles with HD development as we saw on Wii U, resulting in crippling droughts of system-selling software, and I expect a traditional HD Gen 7 console from Nintendo would've been lucky to outsell the Gamecube.

1) Some people will get by on less HD space.  These people would prefer the "Wii HD" at $350.  Again I am saying that Wii HD would appeal to budget consumers who wouldn't need the biggest hard drive available anyway.

2) Gamecube and XBox both trailed far behind PS2.  XBox360 faired much better, because it had a lot more multiplat games from third parties.  A Wii HD would get most of the same multiplats.  Price advantage would help Wii HD, even though it didn't help Gamecube, because a Wii HD would have a lot more multiplat games just like the XBox360 did.  Basically Wii HD would get many of the same advantages that XBox360 got.  The Wii HD would not end up like the Gamecube, because the XBox360 did not end up like the XBox.

3) Slow releases plagued PS3 and third party devs throughout generation 7.  Wii HD would be in the same boat as the other consoles.  Wii HD is very different from the Wii U, because it wouldn't be a generation behind.  Given, I still don't think Nintendo would win, but I think it would be a close 3-way tie with Sony getting the advantage in the end.  (Instead of the 2-way tie that we actually got between Sony and Microsoft.)