What I'm saying is price didn't matter because Nintendo was trying to compete head on for the same audience as PS2/Xbox and was seen as inferior, it had no DVD/CD playback for movies/music, it didn't embrace online like the others did, it had inferior 3rd party support with many games skipping it or coming late, it was labeled a kiddy device. A mere $50 more for what were perceived to be superior devices wasn't an issue for that audience.

Wii U is a similar situation, Nintendo wanted to recapture the "hardcore" gamer and win over the PS/XB audience while retaining the casual audience they had on Wii but ended up making a device that was unappealing to both sides. It doesn't matter that Wii U is cheaper than PS4/XB1 because it is seen as vastly inferior to the PS/XB audience. Nobody who is interested in mainstream Shooter, Sports, Racing, Action games and an all-in-one multimedia device would ever choose Wii U over PS4/XB1 despite the lower price tag.

So I agree that NX having a $100 price advantage won't help at all if it's a device designed to appeal to PS4/XB1 owners, but if it's a device like Wii where Nintendo basically says "we don't give a shit what the competitors are doing, we're doing our own thing" than it has a chance of success depending on their execution.

What I'm saying is price didn't matter because Nintendo was trying to compete head on for the same audience as PS2/Xbox and was seen as inferior, it had no DVD/CD playback for movies/music, it didn't embrace online like the others did, it had inferior 3rd party support with many games skipping it or coming late, it was labeled a kiddy device. A mere $50 more for what were perceived to be superior devices wasn't an issue for that audience.

Wii U is a similar situation, Nintendo wanted to recapture the "hardcore" gamer and win over the PS/XB audience while retaining the casual audience they had on Wii but ended up making a device that was unappealing to both sides. It doesn't matter that Wii U is cheaper than PS4/XB1 because it is seen as vastly inferior to the PS/XB audience. Nobody who is interested in mainstream Shooter, Sports, Racing, Action games and an all-in-one multimedia device would ever choose Wii U over PS4/XB1 despite the lower price tag.

So I agree that NX having a $100 price advantage won't help at all if it's a device designed to appeal to PS4/XB1 owners, but if it's a device like Wii where Nintendo basically says "we don't give a shit what the competitors are doing, we're doing our own thing" than it has a chance of success depending on their execution.

"I'll start by saying I don't believe the industry is big enough for 3 similar consoles. Last gen saw a near 50-50 split of the core gamer crowd between the PS3 and 360."

Congratulations for writing one of the biggest piles of crap ever. I can't believe someone can actually something so absurd and be serious about it.

I don't know what's worst, calling any ps360 buyer a part of the "core crowd" or leaving every wii buyer out of it.

To be honest I'm not even sure the industry can really support two very healthy platforms at once. 

If the market leader isn't making a lot of mistakes, it seems to me like the market leader tends to completely run away with things. 

Nintendo not taking Sega seriously with the Genesis and Sony pricing the PS3 at $600 created huge leeway for competetion to arise, but generally speaking if the market leader isn't stupid, it seems like they have a tendancy to run away with the market (see NES, PS, PS2, again with the PS4). 

Wii Sports just demonstrated the controller in a context normal people could understand (ie: everyone knows vaguely how tennis works, how boxing works, how bowling works, etc.). 

The controller was the key though, if Wii Sports was a game played with a normal controller it would have flopped. 

Can Nintendo come up with something *new* that is equally or even half as compelling and fresh to the *modern* market? That's the big question.

i am not following you.... what is this all digital platform you keep speaking of? or this "unified platform" thing? I can't help but feel that you are getting carried away by the idea of something and totally overlooking its practicality or real world application. 

If by all digital you mean that the only way to get games is via download and that you think that could somehow be a "game changer" then I have nothing to say to you on that. 

And as for the unified platform thing? I don't even know where to begin. Tell you what though, if all the rumors pan out, by next year or so we mayvery well have this NX. let's see what happens then. 

...The practicality of an all digital platform? How is that getting carried away? That already exists. It exists with smart phones. It exists with steam. A unified platform exists with smart phones. The difference is that it doesn't exist on consoles. That doesn't mean it can't exist; it means no one has done it yet. Right now, we're still playing on the video game equivilant of flip phones. Powerful flip phones, sure, but definitely not modern design philosophies.

By all digital, I mean that the primary way to get games is via download. I think the NXDS will be digital only, but I think that the NX may unfortunately do both, though recent comments make me feel that they may just ditch discs altogether, which would be the right way to go. If you think that that isn't a game changer, then I have nothing to say to you on that.

The unified platform ties in directly with the digital platform. They are one and the same. It doesn't work without being all digital. A unified platform means that you can take your gaming library where ever you want on whatever certified hardware you want. That won't be seamless without being all digital, unless you think that the NXDS will have a disc drive or that the NX will go back to 1990 and run on cartridges. Nintendo directly confirmed that their membership program will reward players who buy a lot of games with discounts on more games. How is that going to happen physically? Printed out coupons for Gamestop? No. Sales on their digital software.

With a unified, digital, platform, you just buy a game and own it everywhere. Buy the game on the NXDS. Maybe a year later you decide you want an NX console. You just log in and are able to download your entire library to the new system, no problem. Because of cloud saves, all of your save files are transfered over as well, so you can literally pick up from where you left off. Have a friend in, I dunno, London with an NX while you have an NXDS? Wanna play a round of Smash? No problem. Unified platform has cross play. Playing Monster Hunter NX on the console, but have to go to work? No problem. Bring your NXDS and play on your lunch break. Cross save automatically syncs your saves so that you can pick up from where you left off without a hitch and cross buy means you're only purchasing the game once. There may even be a "download for both" option that has the game automatically download itself on both consoles without needing to boot both up separately.

A unified platform only works when its digital, and it's only revolutionary when its digital. Somebody has to force the future on us. That someone will be Nintendo with the NX. Not hardware innovation. Not Software innovation. Firmware innovation.