@ shams

Porting identically would most certainly be easier  to the PS3 (the Wii is much more powerful than the DS), but without improvements I doubt such games sell.

Sqrl said: fkusumot said:  To be clear, I think that the handheld/console dichotomy is at an end. I agree with this, but with one distinction, I think it has evolved rather then dissappeared. The differences still exist but they are less than ever before and will likely continue to diminish.

I enjoy it when you pick nits with me.

The handhelds are quite different still, with much weaker hardware and a much lower price. Allthough; the games cost the same, at least they do here.

MrPickles said: MikeB said: MrPickles said: Also, don't forget about the newfound VR functionality in Wii What do you mean by that? http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=12594

Not really something new (apart from using the Wii-mote for this) and only scratching the surface of technical possibilies, but watching the video may help people understand my statements from the distant past here at VGChartz:

MikeB wrote:

"there was the an Amiga based arcade games system called "The 1000CS Virtuality System" developed by Virtuality. The players would stand inside a "pod" and wear a helmet (headtracking) and gloves which sensed the players movements and translated them into actions in the virtual world."

"Motion sensing usage in virtual reality 3D games is almost 2 decades old, initially there was mainly headtracking, but soon this was followed up with tennis games where you could hold a tennis racket or boxing games using gloves.

Back in the good old days I could hardly imagine we wouldn't have this yet implemented for mass market products in people's homes today. Sadly consumer technologies advanced a lot slower than I had imagined in the 80s and early 90s."

"In terms of current sales and market hype they do and the Wii-mote is a pretty innovative idea (although I would prefer a virtual reality solution at some point)."

"What I really would like to see however is a proper home virtual reality set with good head and hand tracking. The first virtual reality games released were done by Virtuality based on Amiga 3000 systems. One of the innovative games which predates both Wolfenstein 3D and Doom on the PC was Dactyl Nightmare from 1991. Unlike Wolfenstein 3D the game offered a true multiplayer 3D FPS environment (Deathmatch / Capture the Flag) with multiple height levels and a headset and joystick supporting proper head and hand tracking."

"Some people would just use VR like some are using the Wii-mote, sitting in a lazy chair playing Wii sports. If you would play a racing game that would even be a natural position, IMO being able to move your head quickly to see who's driving next to you from an inside car perspective would be awesome. IMO future Gran Turismo and Motorstorm games support could boost such peripheral usage.

With regard to eye strain, there must be better alternative options. In the end it's just an impression intepreted
based on tje light caught by your eyes.
I imagine a good VR solution would trick your brain into believing there's far more depth to the artificial vision than there really is"

Imagine watching a movie in a virtual cinema (like in PS3's Home) and being able to look at the person sitting next to you discussing the movie. 8-)

First my predictions:

USA:
A fight to the death (:D) between Wii and Xbox360 during 2008. I think both will end up somewhere in the same amount of hardware sold LTD at the end of 2008 with a slight lead for Wii.

I personally thing PS3 will end up playing 3rd in that market.

DS will continue to sell well.

EU:
Depends on country but I belive that Wii will sell most with 360 and PS3 fight of. PS3 with a slight lead in main land europe meanwhile 360 will hold UK.

Japan:
DS and Wii fot the whole thing. I predict a small deciline for the DS. I think a price drop is needed to beat 2006 and 2007.

@MikeB
I think you are right and wrong in you discussion to not include handhelds with consols in the domination fight.

Right: It might be the case in USA and Europe. Even if I personally is a proof that you are wrong, the main reason for me not buying a Wii or a 360 is that I just bought a DS which have tons of good games.

Wrong: Looking at the software charts and the announcments in Japan I personally think you are very wrong. The DS is in Japan the main gaming plattform and thus is limiting the appeal for the Wii, PS3 and Xbox360. Therefore moves smaller japanese developers to handheld development, which means more games for the DS, which in turn means that a gamer doesn't need to buy another plattform, thus competing with the consols because it take away gaming time and money from the consols. Not including Handhelds when looking at Japan is too not looking at the whole picture.

Looking WW I would say Nintendodomination because as a publisher and a hardware manufacture they probarbly sells more than everybody else even the mighty EA. (or activision blizzard).

@ robjoh

Many Japanese have relatively small homes, the Japanese are playing mobile phone games en masse compared to the rest of the world as well. I doubt if there was no DS this would much affect PS3 sales.

To sum up the OP post:

Wii/DS will rock

PS3 will suck

360 barely mentioned.

@ Shams

 Troll much?

yeah things will be differnt--you will see thing like "09 will be the year of teh ps3"

MikeB said: @ robjoh The DS is in Japan the main gaming plattform and thus is limiting the appeal for the Wii, PS3 and Xbox360 Many Japanese have relatively small homes, the Japanese are playing mobile phone games en masse compared to the rest of the world as well. I doubt if there was no DS this would much affect PS3 sales.

 So you are actualy saying that if DS didn't exist there wouldn't be more japanese centric software (JRPG etc) on either Wii or PS3that could pull sales. What would all the devs that make DS games today do? I personally must say that I think excluding DS and claiming that the low sales for the PS3 is only affected by the size of the PS3 is odd.

 Even if that is the case, PS3 and Wii is loosing development time to the DS/ mobile games/ PSP which means less japanese games which in turns leads to the question why should japanes buy a PS3 or a Wii? The DS is dominating Japan, if that is because of the size of the homes or not doesn't matter it affects the overall consol base.

@ mesoteto

Like I said before the PS3 launched I think the Wii will outsell other home consoles for 2008 as a whole, but I think the PS3 will win christmas 2008 (with regard to the PS3 outselling the 360 this christmas 2007, so far it looks like a good possibility, nomatter how much I have been slammed for this prediction combined with Halo 3 will crush PS3 claims, I also predicted the PS2 would win christmas 2006 not because of being the best console, I am taking into account many different factors).