Intesrting thing is, the PS2 had a much bigger drop during its 5th year than the Wii. At the end everything is resumed in one word: Games
We'll come back to that. The immediate response from Nintendo is a global price cut for the Wii, and a line of budget software – in the UK it's now £129 for the console with a choice of game, while in the US it's $149. Reggie Fils-Aime reckons this puts the console at a crucial level of affordability, citing the PS2's ongoing indian summer as Nintendo's target. "For us this is a very important move," he says. "And in the last home console cycle, the leading system at the time sold almost 50 per cent of its volume at a price point of $149 or below."
What this shows more than anything else is the draw of multiplatform development for third parties. Making a separate Wii version of any titles, even ones like Black Ops, simply isn't worth the investment. The Wii's the leading console of this generation but not for a moment has it ever been the standard, and the current appeal of its software is reflected in declining sales.
The simple brilliance of that led to some kind of revolution. And here we are: the Wii will toddle onwards, selling many more millions over many more years. It's a classic console with some unforgettable games. But it's also one where the majority of upcoming software is either simplistic or blandly mainstream, a console that retains its core appeal but has never grown beyond it.
In the heady days of its launch, Wii promised a new way to play, a new experience. Four years down the line, it's run out of steam badly, and Nintendo's attention is clearly elsewhere. The success story of this console generation has turned out to have the most boring ongoing narrative. It was a gimmick, in the end, as surely as the Ultra Hand. But wasn't it a magnificent one?
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-23-where-wiis-at-article
