Of course it's expensive, that's why it won't have as much capacity as they would have with HDD. And why they added the expansion possibilities through SD/USB.

A base min. storage for all consoles and the integrated flash memory may have faster transfer rates than SD for all we know.

Very good price! This console will sell millions in the first few month!

What hype? I've been saying this since probably 2009 or so... maybe earlier.

2012/13 has always been my peg for next gen start.

Sony is not going to let Nintendo have a 2 year head start and if they can help it, no head start for MS. They know MS will be putting something out by 2013 at the latest so that is also their target.

E3 will confirm this.

Seriously? I said:

• You're focusing on the wrong point. It was 3rd party that turned the tides in gen 4, not 1st party.
• Nintendo's 1st party sold more than Sony's gen 4, sequel or not.   The sales are close, but the tie ratio for individual titles is much much higher for the N64.

In other words, had the blue ocean never existed, Nintendo was in a very bad position. Yes they were making lots of money, but their platforms were not attaracting 3rd party support.

If Nintendo were any smart, they would go after both the blue and the red. And they're precisely doing just that.

You're saying Nintendo was not victim to circumstance and failed on its own merits, I'm here to show you that PS proves you very very wrong. Yes the blue ocean would have expanded Nintendo's market, OF COURSE. But the red ocean Nintendo lost due to circumstance.

See, the PS1 followed the NES tradition pretty much spot on. New IPs, decent 1party sales, decent 3party sales, games that appeal to all ages and genders (without necessarily aggressively marketing said segments).

What Nintendo did is that it failed to attract the 3rd parties, and didn't have the leverage to even attract the extended segments. That's why the Wii needed such an aggressive marketing strategy, one that was not needed for the NES.

It really depends on the stuff Nintendo puts into the console. We had rumors the console would equal the HD twins in power and other sources who said it will be a lot more powerful than those.

A console with graphical parity to PS3 / 360 could be sold at $299 while maintaining a profit (of course the tablet will add around $50 to the retail price) but if Nintendo decides to take a more sophisticated approach (Quad core CPU and 1.5+GB of Ram) I would expect a retail price of $349. I'd rather have them take a more conservative approach and focus on market expansion. Going for 3rd party support is nice but it could end in a console that can do anything but does nothing well.

Very good price point if true!

Especially for a NEXT GEN (i.e. 8th gen) console. Which is what it is. Despite what you may think. It's designed to compete with NextBox and PS4, but steal some of the market from PS3 and 360 currently.

I think your biggest blind-spot here is that you confuse Wii's strategy with a return to tradition. On the contrary, it was a major contingency plan in face of an identity crisis, after seeing the Red Ocean helplessly stolen from under their feet.

To further your point, you demonstrate that the NES catered to the mainstream, but what you don't realize is that the Wii's strategy was to Primarily target the mainstream at the expense of mostly all else. That was not the NES strategy.

The Wii U strategy is closer to a return to the NES strategy, with a slight bend towards the hobbyist. Not considerably though. Both the mainstream and the hobbyist will be targetted, as was the case with the NES.

@Italics. Good question. Wii sales collapsed because Nintendo did not solidify its fortification, by ensuring a solid general hobbyist userbase, as well they decided to sacrifice catering to the Wii's mainstream in order to focus on the next gen. This is where 3rd parties are a fundamental piece of the puzzle. For backup.

@bold. The failure of these 2 platforms comes from the departure of 3rd parties at the time of the N64, even if the GC had a measure of support, it was far too late.

What I'm trying to say, Rol, is that when it comes to the red ocean, Nintendo lost due to lack of 3rd party support. Otherwise they destroyed the PS. It's like as if I'm takling to a total noob here, no offense.

Ah, Europe with a 25% price markup, ridiculous as usual.