Frankly, nearly every console Nintendo has produced, aside from the Wii, has used 'upgrades' to make it stronger.  If you think about it, in theory, it should work.  heck, people are paying hundreds of dollars to buy a whole new PS3 or XBOX360, why not spend $100 dollars to double the Ram and graphical power of a current console.  If I remember correctly, the N64 Expansion Pack did pretty well.

And I think we all remember the Playstation, which was originally going ot be an upgrade to the SNES.  I doubt the PSX would have been a flop just as an add on to the SNES.

This.

Although I do you think everyone here is being too closed minded about the prospect of upgradeable hardware.

Just because something didn't work in the past doesn't mean it can't work in the future. Off the top of my head I would say that hardware prices are a lot lower than they used to be. Say for example Nintendo wanted to add a gig of RAM as an add-on to their next system. It's quite possible they could bundle it with any game that requires it for a very slight increase in price, no more than $10. This generation has already shown us that there is no problem selling large amounts of hardware accessories if they are bundled with the right software.

Regarding the technical side of doing the actual upgrading, this is strictly a user interface problem and Nintendo could easily engineer a simple, user-friendly solution. In theory, anybody who knows how to plug a system into the wall should be able to plug an expansion into a port.

Epic. Someone must have just come out of a coma or a freezer or something. This isn't 01/04

Seriously, Nintendo would NEVER do something like this, if I know Nintendo. They aren't fighting Apple. They want to make a solid videogames console, end of. Sure they may leave room for attachments, but it won't be one console for life. No way...

I would also like to add that the "console for life" thing is obviously an exaggeration. The point is, of course, that Nintendo would have more control over the length of their hardware life cycles and wouldn't be as limited by current hardware restrictions as they are this gen. This would also give third parties one less reason not to support the platform.

If you think about comments made as far back as 2004 by Yamauchi himself, Nintendo are more interested in exploring different gameplay possibilities than adding more processing power. If it were up to them they wouldn't have produced a new console after the GC as it was "good enough" in the rendering department.

The problem with this approach is that they are being shunned for not offering more capabilities to developers this gen, even though they are clearly in the lead.

This kind of approach could appease third parties while still allowing Nintendo to concentrate more efforts and man-power on developing software and games and less on constantly reinventing the wheel when it comes to hardware. This doesn't mean the console will last forever, but it could mean the end of incremental hardware generations, which I think is a good thing for the software market because there is no need to refresh the install base, and developers would have many more years to familiarize themselves with the platform, leading to much higher quality output across the board.

When a new hardware does launch, it will be in order to do something significantly different and innovative that transforms the medium. Think: gameboy-->DS or NES-->N64 and so forth.

At the end of the day each gamer has to ask themselves the following question: Are you more interested in short refresh cycles for hardware, which means better technology powering shallower games, or less powerful tech driving deeper, more mature gameplay concepts?

I hope it is clear to many on this forum that the two approaches, while not completely contradictory, are many times at odds with each other.

Cammie is gone, credibility is gone, and I would rather not have fake news cluttering up the forums!

~locking~

If this is true, I'm going to short Nintendo stock so hard the Nikkei will crash.

1. How will they get people who can't put batteries in a Wiimote to switch out a graphics card?
2. The Wii's audience doesn't care about hardware upgrades, they only care about new and fun games.
3. Marketing against Apple is probably the worst strategy ever concieved. No one except us will even understand the point.
4. Wii sales are tanking because of the lack of good software with mass appeal. New hardware would have the same problem but without the consumer base to go on anyway. Tens of obvious WM games were never made, do those before new hardware. Even do NSMB Wii 2; if SMG deserved a clone sequel so does that.