its funny how in every other industry in the world when you are competing with other companies any new features are just normal business practice and expected.  How do you beat your competitor, you either sell cheaper or add something that seperates you from your competitor. 

only in our industry is difference somehow thought of as BAD, or a gimmick. you guys are apparanlty content with absolutely no change ever.  all products should be identical and have no distinguishing features to seperate it from the competition.  oh wait, that only works when talking abotu nintendo right?  i mean ngp has all these amazing features, and nintendo has all these gimmicks. 

what makes one features and another gimmick?  is it just fanboyism labeling?

Well first of all, it's not always the same people complaining about the same thing, or for the same reasons.

Second of all, other industries DO have people complaining about change, so acting like this is gamers just doing it shows you haven't studied business mindsets throughout history.

The term "gimmick" can mean ingenious or an imortant feature that's not immediatly apparent.  But I believe you mean it as it's other more commonly used meaning, a marketing trick (given the @bolded in your post).  In this sense, HD is clearly NOT a gimmick.  HD hasn't worn off at all.  Maybe for you personally, but every satellite and cable provider thirves on providing HD programming and blu-ray is increasingly popular (even within digital distribution it's popular).  Just because standard definition remains the choice for many, HD is far from being just a quirky novelty; not when every single TV sold today is HD.

1. Yes, that is the context I meant, as others were using it in that context as well.

2. Releasing is not sales. And sales of blu-ray as well as standard DVD has been down.

The point for HD is that it's not a sales booster anymore, and wasn't that much to begin with. So I maintain that even 3D won't go away, it won't be a boon much longer.

But thats all Nintendo needs it to do. 

To gain support.

After that the system can sell on its library. The 3D is just its kick starter.

The thing is that, assuming you mean 3rd party support, then it shows that the third parties are still deciding they get to chose the winning system, not the public. That also affects their game output, which puts cut scenes and visual tricks over good design.

Well, 3D I'll grant you is another matter.  In its present form, the glasses needed for TVs/movies provide too much of a barrier for a lot of people.  The technology needs to advance past glasses and to where you have a perfect view from any angle, although I believe it will pretty soon (that's why I believe a handheld is the perfect place for glasses-free 3D currently).

But on HD we'll have to agree to disagree.  While you could be right about blu-ray sales, the HD adoption rate in general keeps increasing through cable and satellite providers, over-the-air HD broadcasts and the fact that any new TV sold today is at least 720p.  Even Nintendo has stated that their next home console will be HD, based on the fact that they've waited for the adoption rate to be high enough to justify it.

What I mean is that those are HD support by companies, not that people are buying things for HD. I mean reported Netflix use is higher on the Wii than on the other systems, for one thing. So while HD isn't a sales killer, it's not a killer app. It's more lika  cool extra for most people. That's all I meant.

^^^ Netflix is used mostly on Wii than any other?? I wanna see a link, because of the 3 the online for Wii is used the least, so im not sure im buying that, unless there using Netflix cause their are no games to buy ;) i kid. But really i use it on my PS3 Wii and PC, PS3>Wii>PC from most to least

3rd Party dont pick the Winning consule they have to decide who they think will be market leader in a few years, ya there taking a gess of who they think will lead the market, so they can start investing money for devlopment software tools.  They have to spend houres learning them.  refine them for the specifice machine they want it to be for.

You make it sound like they can decide out of no where. Ok the last 2 years we spent learning all this shit. Flush it down the tube. all that money we spent on the Unreal 3 engine, Waiste of money cause Wii cant even run  it.

a good game, That it be on the Wi or on the PS3 takes a hole lot of time to devlope. and thats not including all the preperation it takes to even get to the pointe when you can start making any games at all.

Your angry at them for picking the bad consule to support. You  in there situation would have done the same. No one even thought the Wii would have any success, even Nintendo.

The good news is. If company's support the 3DS it means they will have Engines and people that are trained to produce software for the Wii.    

The 3DS still Can't run Unreal engine 3,  so dont worry to much cause the companys that are really all about Visuals and nothing more. still wont be producing anything on the Wii or 3DS.