When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. You should check for job openings with IGN Australia.

Nah, I don't think anybody would argue that. There are a few games you can play local multi with a single iPad, like Scrabble, but most games would require each person to have their own device and a copy of the game. It's not like a console where you get one console, one game, a fleet of controllers and you all have a party on the big screen.

The guy in the article was obviously conflating Nintendo's handheld business with their console business, and that's a mistake. Other than the rumour that Nintendo may be more wary of Apple's handhelds than Sony's, the article is pretty useless.

It doesn't have to make sense if it's true. The PS3 and 360 are getting the third party dev support and the Wii is getting shat upon. Of course it's only happening because over the years the market has become divided as traditional or hardcore gamers went the the HD systems to follow all the third party games that were coming out for them while the Wii was being shat upon.

What this article really fails to mention (as an unfortunate incident of timing) was that Wii Party is going to be another evergreen 10 or 15 million plus seller.  Nintendo's pretty smart sometimes.

Oh, the only reason I brought up Mario/Zelda/Metroid is because those are the 3 pedigree brands usually pointed to by industry press.  I wasn't making any "quality" statement myself.  Personally I think Wii Sports Resort is very much a high quality game for example.  But it's also not just the Wii Sports/Fit/Play games bringing in audiences (indeed Mario Kart and NSMB are pulling just as much weight sales wise).  And it's not just Wii I'm talking about either, it's DS as well with games like Pokemon, Mario Kart, Brain-Age, Nintendogs, NSMB, Animal Crossing, Tomodachi Collection (wait for it), etc.

I do think quality plays into it generally as well though.  Arguably the least critically successful Wii ____ game (Wii Music) failed to perform up to par with the others, so this goes for the massmarket too to some extent.  It's also likely why similar EyeToy games back in the mid 2000s didn't mimic Wii's success (and indeed why Move Sports/Party/etc won't either).  And you're right, even though consumers overall chose PS over N64, several of N64's top titles (Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Zelda OOT, Goldeneye, etc) themselves actually sold on par with the best in the industry (and the best on PS1).

Well sure, but that doesn't really answer my question for how you define a "commercial" versus a "non-commecrial" game (unless you're saying it's defined by results?).   I mean Pixar and Ghibli are both inherently commercial film studios, does that mean the same for Nintendo (EAD) then?  Is it like art or pornography, we can't define it but we know it when we see it?

Also, I'd say Double Dash is pretty easily the worst Mario Kart (MKWii is leagues better tuned, better polished, better looking, with dramatically more content and online play), unless you count the Namco Arcade GP games (which are absolute CRAP).

You seem to be a little confused... This is text, there are no voices involved. So what I actually will not do, is stop writing my opinions.

Hope you're feeling a bit more enlightened now.

Speaking of assumptions... I addressed this before, but you're mistaking "quality" for what's "better".  Quality can certainly be a component in determining worth, but quality is inherently subjective, market performance isn't, and I'm speaking exclusively to the latter.

I'd also argue games don't get any more "traditional" than Nintendo this generation.  Deconstructed, the design of Wii Sports or Wii Play is about as gamey as you get, they're basically like mid-1980s NES games at their core.  Something like Halo, God of War or even Mario Galaxy is hugely abstracted and further complicated by comparison, and thus further from "traditional", even if they use mainly decades old interfaces.  The secret to Wii's success is in accessibility, but that's due just as much to software design as it is interface, and for as many people as it's brought into gaming, lapsed gamers likely account for just as many as legitimately new gamers.

Obviously devolopers make games to make money, but I see the more commercial games as the one's that have been designed to reach a big audience, and obviously not only the "Wii series" fall into this category, but also the CoD's, Uncharted, GTA, GoW, Halo and practicly every game which is able to sell "great" in one of the regions.

Games like Blazblue, Disgaea or Fragile Dreams on the other hand are more niche and even with a bigger marketing machine behind it, they could just reach a certain type of audience. Sometimes they can of course give us a surprise, like Demon's Souls did last year.

When I look at Double Dash in retrospective it probably was a dissapointing title, but atleast the better player had a higher change of winning and mantain a distance of the computer or the noobs if he was better than them. The balance was already gone compared to the other versions, but Mario Kart Wii did make things even worser and to me it just feels as subpar product. The old tracks add some nostalgia, which is always good, but that's about the best thing I can say about it.

"Better" has absolutely no link to market sales, that is where you are going completely wrong. Sales are sales and mean nothing about a game being good or not. If that is the case, then you think that the Micra is a better car than a Bently because of sales. That is ludicrous.

"Traditional" i.e. least innovative. Yes the Wii has been wildly successful because it is accessible, but to an entirely different market than the other two consoles, and for different reasons to the same audience that may buy a wii or an iphone. The wii is an easy christmas present for the kids, whereas the iphone and Mac products are fashionable accesories for anyone, not just the kids, a bored wife or nostalgic gamers.

Nintendo seeing Apple as the enemy is like Microsoft seeing AMD as the enemy. Same basic market, but two completely different products aimed at the same people but for totally different reasons.

I'll give you that. But still, Wii was never really given a proper shot any way. And the thirds shitting on the Wii and calling it steak hurts them, not Nintendo. The thing of it all is that Nintendo is solely responsible for all of the Wii's success. So it seems this guy writing this thing is under the impression that thirds actually leaving Wii is going to have some sort of major impact. The major impact of thirds would be felt if they were to leave the 360 or PS3 as their success is directly tied to them.

I'm not sure I'd concede traditional gamers went to the HD market as manyof the Wii's audience is made up of lasped gamers. I guess it depends on what we are using as the term traditional gamers (I dont use the word hardcore lol) Is it those from the PS1/PS2 era? or those from the NES/SNES era?

We'll see what Wii party does...but I'm not sold on it..maybe because I've seen nothing but two screens of it haha.