I think that Nintendo may reveal a Wii successor at next year's E3 for one main reason:  The 3DS is going to make the Wii look dated.  I mean more than it does already.  The portable system should never out-perform the home console, and the 3DS is going to do just that--especially with the rumored tech inside out-performing the Wii.

I think the next Wii is coming sooner than the next Xbox or Playstation.  Nintendo is forcing themselves to upgrade.

I don't think the 3DS makes the Wii look any more dated than the PS3 and the 360 already do.

1.  If Nintendo had a console more suitable for playing third party games than the Wii, then they would get a lot of the third party games.  Look at the Gamecube.  It had ports of almost all last gen games.

2.  It will be when Kinnect and Move come out.  And the actual gamepad that does exist for Wii is supposed to be pretty good.

3.  Nintendo isn't the only company that makes quality software.  There's another 50% of the market that prefers the games make by other guys on the other consoles.

4.  I would expect the Wii.  It would still be around as the bargain console with Nintendo having that part of the market locked up.  Wii hd with superior graphical abilities would let Nintendo tap into the other half of the market that isn't interested in the Wii.

This is much different.  Nintendo doesn't make the PS3 or X360--nor are they portable systems which are typically a generation behind home consoles.  This is a second machine from Nintendo--and a portable one--that will outshine the Wii.  "If Nintendo can pull off 'HD--style graphics' in portable form, why couldn't they do this with the Wii?" 

Furthermore, the Wii will still likely cost more than the 3DS.  So what sense does it make to have a weaker home console priced more--or even comparitively--to a clearly much more powerful handheld system. 

Nintendo has the next Wii coming, and probably fairly soon (maybe even announced by E3 2011), otherwise they're going to look pretty damn ridiculous with a powerful handheld and a wimpy home console.

Graphics are not the Wii's big selling point, and Nintendo is not treating graphics like they're the be-all-end-all of video games with the 3DS. 

The big difference between the Wii and the 3DS is the motion controller, games made for the Wiimote and Nunchuk, won't work on the 3DS, so the 3DS doesn't infringe on the Wii's market.  Also, unless Nintendo offers an option to play 3DS games on a TV, which I doubt, then the Wii has the advantage that you play it on a large TV screen, instead of the small screens of the 3DS.

You completely don't understand what I'm saying.  I didn't say the 3DS would cut into the Wii's market, I didn't say that Nintendo is treating graphics like a be-all-end-all, and I made no comment about 3-D or TV play.

This is about tech, and face it, video game systems have always had their tech initially measured by the graphics of the games they have.  It's an easy, generally logical on-the-spot judgement.  Advanced tech in these things always has graphics to match--except maybe in the old TurboGrafx-16 which had a 16-bit graphics processor, and an 8-bit CPU.  And even then, it gave the impression that the system was technically superior to the NES (which, as I recall, it actually was).  Nintendo has always, except for the Wii and DS, been big on graphics and advanced hardware.  The SNES, N64, and GameCube were all very powerful machines in their time--and they all had graphics-heavy games showcasing the systems. 

This whole "graphics don't matter" crap is the mantra of, dare I say (and I mean no offense to you or anyone else), people who would generally be considered "Wii ___boys."  Nobody ever talked like this until there was this need to defend the Wii for being two GameCube's "duck-taped together" as was once famously uttered.    If graphics didn't matter, Super Mario Galaxy wouldn't be gorgeous.  What's the first thing anyone says about the Virtual Boy?  The hideous red & black graphics.  What was the purpose of Luigi's Mansion?  To show off the incredible depth of abilities--graphically--on the GameCube.  High poly counts, detailed textures, excellent lighting--hallmarks of Luigi's Mansion.  I'm not going to argue gameplay--we all know that's important.

But so are graphics.

What's the focus of the 3DS?  Fucking 3-D graphics.  Visual 3-D has been stated by editors at places like IGN that it really adds nothing to the gameplay--it's all just cosmetic.  Ironically, the Virtual Boy's 3-D was intended to be a major part of the gameplay.  On the 3DS?  You can shut it off.

By pretty much everyone in the world, we judge things visually.  We judge hardware tech visually.  When the 3DS comes out, the Wii will look horribly inferior.  The new Wii is coming sooner than some of us may think. 

That's good analysis man.

I just don't see the sense in releasing a Wii with HD capabilities. Is HD going to convince your 360 or PS3 player to get a Wii? I don't think so. Will HD without Blu Ray broaden the Blue Ocean? I don't think so.

Whatever it may be called, Wii 1.5, Wii 2, WiiWin, Nintendo's next console may, more than likely, start the next generation.

I think Nintendo should invest it's cash now, as their quarterly financial statements report with a loss, in starting the next generation ASAP. If Sony follows their business model with the PS3, then they may release another $600 console further placing them on a path similar to Sega's demise. The path where technology and graphics mean everything, consumer price means nothing, therefore you have a portfolio of powerful systemss, but no one playing them in comparison to your competitors.

Lets face it, in this economy if developed nations are all averaging 10% unemployment and falling incomes, video game consoles cannot be priced more than $300. If the PS4 was released in 2012 with a $400-600 price tag, it would do worse than the PS3 did in it's first year. This I would bet on.

Do I think Sony will have the PS3 technology down to an affordable $200-300 level come holidays 2012 and holidays 2013? Without a doubt they will and they will start better by looking backward and learning from their past mistakes rather than getting fixated on the newest graphics technology, which would price a PS4 above $300.

Same goes for Microsoft except Microsoft needs to learn how to make a console without it having such a high failure rate.

I don't think Nintendo releasing an upgrade to the Wii, the fabled "Wii HD," would necessarily be an attempt to snag up owners of PS3 and Xbox360.  A lot of us with those things already have them.  The new Wii will likely be necessary to naturally move forward.  While the Wii is gradually losing sales, but still doing pretty damn well all things considered, the Xbox360 and PS3 have had increasing sales.  Neither Microsoft nor Sony will be doing anything like introducing next-gen machines for at least a year or two.  Their sales are still going strong, 3rd party support is still strong as hell, and Kinect and Move will no doubt add at least another year or two of life to the machines--which is the goal.

But, Move and Kinect will both force Nintendo to move forward.  Move is the Wiimote with Wii Motion Plus already built in, after all.  Nintendo is going to want to differentiate and move forward.  They'll want to maintain the momentum of the Wii, and they'll want to keep competitive. 

This, by the way, is in addition to my theory that the new Wii is coming because Nintendo will have to naturally move forward to maintain technically competitive with their own 3DS.

A new Wii wouldn't just be HD for the sake of HD.  It'll no doubt be technically powerful--probably even a step up from the Xbox360 and Playstation 3, jusgt not massive leaps forward--more like an incremental move like the GameCube to the Wii.  But the new Wii would give Nintendo the chance to right all the wrongs of the Wii--better online, no more friend codes, curry the favor of 3rd party companies, truly appeal to both gamers and casuals, incorporate some kind of achievement/trophy system (which I sincerely hope and think might make it's first appearance in the 3DS, and I can elaborate on why I believe this to be true if you like), among other things.  Let's not forget, the next Wii will not simply be a "Wii HD."  Something big is going to change.  I'm willing to bet, the next Nintendo console will not control like the Wii--it'll be different, but likely backwards-compatible (and with the popularity of the Wii, not being backwards-compatible will be a huge mistake).