I can't resist posting this about Halo's target audience:

 So who's the target audience for Mario?

In all fairness, though, the Halo community isn't as bad as the Starcraft community.  I'm really worried about Starcraft 2. 

Add up (on the IMF side) USA+Mexico+Canada and see if it is greater than or less than the EU+Russia. Add up World Bank's USA+Mexico+Canada v. England+France+Germany+Russia+Spain+Portugal+....GDP of NORTH AMERICA is greater than Europe or Asia. North America is more than just US.

The buying power of the people of the US is greater than the buying power of any other nation. Median Income-Cost of living= discretionary income. discretionary income * population = national buying power for nonessential products (including, video games).

When it comes to US arrogance some times I feel like we (I am a US citizen) can overestimate our own political influence and international power. However, it is an accepted fact that the US market is the most powerful market in the world. That is why international bodies and foreign governments put up with all of our crap.

Yippie for lower taxes. Some people think it is sad that in the US we have seniors and parents having to decide between perscription medicines or rent and food. I am glad I get to pick video games or saving for my own families well-being instead of paying for the medicines for people more irresponsible than me. (For the record I am 25, not rich, make US$8/hour from my job, goto a college that I have to pay for, save 20%+ of my income, and choose not to have kids until after I can provide for them)

Because of lower GDP and higher taxes you don't get to keep the money you make for the things you want to buy.

Edit: By the way I am not really a republican, I was shootiing down health care to explain why US has so much buying power. I do not think it is fair for Children (who can't do for themselves) or Seniors (who were made promises) to have to make those choices.

Yeah that is crazy prediction.  I'm curious what do you consider the top 5 upcoming Wii games (for sales)?

I know Dragon Quest 9 was announced for the DS but have they announced Dragon Quest 10 for the Wii and I missed it?

*Edit: oops my mistake, I just checked wikipedia and I guess there is a future Dragon Quest spinoff game for the Wii, Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors. 

Funny you should say that, because from what I've seen so far, games on the 360 and PS3, while looking far better than last generation, play too similar to last generation, while the Wii, while looking too similar to last generation, have games that play very differently from last generation!

I think you may be partially right:

There are many existing developers who have hedged their bets on ever-improving graphics (Epic, id, Crytek, Bioware and Factor 5) to name a few so for them to have spent millions on research and development into advanced graphics and physics to suddenly change direction and develop for an underpowered platform sounds pretty far out on left field.  But these are existing developers who already have their entire business revolving around creating the most sophisticated engines to create the most sophisticated games (and frequently, licensing the engine as well).  In order to do that these "big guns" are doing you need a lot of money. Loads of it.

The Wii is the indie developer's dream come true: you don't need bleeding-edge technology that costs a fortune, huge development, design, animation and art teams to get the game going, and you don't need nearly as much startup capital to get the proverbial ball rolling. Even the Wii's dev kits are offered for what, less than 3k?

That gives developers new to the field the possibility to actually jump in with their own company, doing games that they have envisioned or they want to work on, and frees them from marketing and corporate shackles. It gives them the freedom to do what they want at an unbeatable price.

So if you just graduated you can think about starting a game company without having bazillions of dollars of startup capital. If you have been working for a developer and want to break free and do your own "thing", you can start with the console that allows you to do so for far less money.

Not all games have to be graphics and physics extensive nor do they have to be mega-productions on the level of, say, Final Fantasy XIII, and for this purpose "last-gen" technology is not only more economically feasible, the growing number of developers jumping on the Nintendo bandwagon shows that this is also the preferred route.

America is not going to be where this is won at yet. America has been very able in the years to support more than one console with a lot of sales. Europe and Japan on the other hand have only been able to support one. I personally think it'll be won in Japan. Just because I think that 360 and Wii will be pretty close in America and all 3 will be close in Europe. I think it's really going to come down to Japan. But still Europe as well I guess. But America is the last place I say this war will be won in.

I think that Zucas is right, gaming growth in America will actually continue more than one console.

That was true in the past, but things have changed. Today Canada has a GDP of 908 million EUR, Mexico has a GDP of only 618 million EUR, the US has a GDP of 10.4 trillion EUR -- total: 11.9 trillion EUR. The EU-27 plus Switzerland and Norway have a GDP of 11.7 trillion EUR. Add in Russia and Turkey, which trade mostly with Europe and are as closely tied to its markets as MExico is to the US, and European GDP easily tops 13 trillion EUR. East Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, SE Asia etc.) has a GDP of around 8 trillion EUR, which isn't too shabby. This is all data from Eurostat, at 1 EUR = 1.2 US$. 

More importantly, the less wealthy regions of Europe and Asia are growing like mad. So short term (5 years), Europe is likely to become the largest game market of the world; longer term (10 years), Asia will probably become the largest. 

This might be true, they are conflicting sources. IMF, World Bank, and Eurostat. But that part of my comment lead to the next part, Total discretionary income time population in North America is higher than total discretionary income times population in Europe.

Not to mention that population and income aside, gaming is still bigger in the US and Canada. We should probably take out the developing countries. Europe is a very important market, and shows alot of room for growth. Asia will probably pass North America before Europe does.