They should call it Wii Too. just to get the double letters in.

I think they should just refine the Wii.
Make it smaller, refine the controllers to be more accurate, and not use the sensor bar (this is possible if I remember right, something with soundwaves).
And then if course, up all the hardware. Not necessarily to HD console level, but turn it up a notch.

What you write is perfectly sensible, GlingGling. Speculating on something that is still quite a few years away has no practical purpose whatsoever.

But it's still a fun diversion for some of us!

I suppose Shameless' purpose with this thread is to engage our minds a bit, not attempt to make 100% accurate predictions of the future.

Call it Wii something and improve motion controls and they will be very close to guaranteed success.

I think people are forgetting that casual gamers have made up a large chunk of sales so far. Are they going to shell out for a new console which is essentially more of the same?

Well. Well. We won't know until Nintendo decides to inform us. It's Nintendo we're talking about after all. So.
They won't do any intricate, complicated virtual reality-stuff where you'd have to don goggles or attach sophisticated peripherals to your body or stuff like that. One, that'd be too expensive, and two, it'd be too much of a hassle, Nintendo like to keep things simple, accessible and affordable.

I won't even try to speculate on what wondrous things Nintendo might conjure up in the future. No use. We'll just have to be patient.

I don't know. What's your source of information on the spending habits of casual gamers? It worked for Halo, SSB, MGS and GTA. I guess it could work for Wii Sports ii.

 Like PS and PS2?

Ding ding! We have a winner.

Most people don't expect innovation in every generation. They simply look at what's on the market and decide whether it's worth it for them (among all the competing products they know of).

As many people pointed out already, games which have been very popular among the less dedicated gamer audience (like Halo and Grand Theft Auto) as well as platforms which dominated in this market segment (like the Playstation and PS2) are very popular even though their updates are fairly incremental ... Beyond that Nintendo is in an excellent position for creating a more substantial update on the Wii in a large part because of what the Wii currently is.

From a technical perspective, you should be able to provide 4 to 8 times the performance of the PS3 or XBox 360 while keeping a fairly modest price tag if you're releasing the hardware in 2011 (or later), and you should be able to add flashy features like Blu-Ray without adding to the cost. The Wiimote controlls are excellent for a first attempt, but it is obvious that this is the first generation of this interface and they will (probably) be able to make substatial improvements on it from the feedback of consumers and developers. The services that the Wii 2 could offer can also be far more mature because they can take what people enjoy from the PS3, XBox 360 and Wii while dropping the things people do not enjoy from these systems.