Umm, right...and 360 is also a very reliable console, just not as reliable as the other 2.

They probably are, though they might have more competition next gen than this gen.

I see them garnering 40-60% of the market next round. Microsoft should be able to glean more Sony followers and earn second, with Sony at a fairly strong 3rd. After that I predict a Microsoft takeover and Sony getting their act together, so may be a 50/25/25 split. I don't think Apple will be able to penetrate the market, but I could very easily be wrong.

I think the biggest problem with "pandering to the core" is that certain members of the "core" audience refuse to be satisfied. They will find anything to complain about, especially about not having "enough" games. How does that make any sense? If a game is good, you shouldn't feel the need to have a huge number of clones of that game; that one game should suffice for all your needs related to it.

Of course, I know why it doesn't work that way. Because there are members of the core who get bored with the game they love so much. But instead of looking for something new, they look for a variation of the same thing that bored them to make it fresh again. Why would you do that? There's no better way to burn yourself out on something than to saturate your collection with me-too versions of whatever it was that used to entertain you but bores you now.

In short, it's pointless to "pander to the core". They cannot be satisfied, because they keep trying to fulfill wants they've already fulfilled too far to get any further utility out of. So Nintendo not giving an overly large amount of attention to bored people who don't realize they're making themselves even more bored is probably a good thing, ultimately.

As usual, your reply is quite philosofical...but in real life doesn't really work.

The whole core vs casual is very thin line so pandering to the core isn't really a concept that any company does intentionally. Its pandering to gamers period that Wii is not competing with the other 2...

The bottom line is...nintendo lacks most of the features that ps360 offer to appeal to people that have been gaming for a while and do it often. A game like geometry wars 2 for example. What drives me to play that game is looking at my friends scores on xbox live and trying to beat them. As far as leaderboards and online play is concerned...nintendo couldn't be bothered. Wii has a huge marketshare now, they could easily get people to make demos, release videos of games etc... again, they probably can't be bothered to do this as that would mean releasing a hard drive and providing an online service...something nintendo doesn't make internally hence they can't profit off 100%.

While Wii has expanded the market to people that would never even consider gaming, it has alienated the Nintendo brand even further away from people that do gaming every day. While these "casual" fans may be now, who knows where they may be next gen...some other fun activity probably... Its the "core" gamers that will still be around...and other for the Nintendo fanatics, very few are left in the Wii camp.

I can see you don't want to believe that the core market is sick. That's fine, though. It's rare for those who are part of a market's core demographic to realize that the core is failing. But here's a suggestion to you, free of charge: take a step back and look at society at large, and ask yourself why most of them don't want to play video games that appeal to the core demographics. Then ask yourself if this wariness was any different 5, 10, 15, or 20 years ago. You may be surprised at what you see.

So if you're trying to draw a comparison, are you saying that in the beginning, 66% of wii games were core and 33% were casual? And now there's even more core compared to casual games? I doubt that's what you were implying, but I won't give you a hard time on your....analogy.

Because of intimidation. I was there...I know. I remember when I started gaming and began playing mortal kombat...my friends were pleying Street Fighter 2 and I found it very intimidating as the combos and moves were much harder. I refused to play SF2 series until Street Figther Alpha 4 years later...and then I realised the SF series is way better than Mortal Kombat series.

Same happened when 3D and FPS games started to become popular. I could not really understand how to play them yet therefore I refused to...and was praising "2D was better".

In any case, I know you were trying to show me that core games aren't fun anymore for everyone with that suggestion. You can argue that when the gaming revolution began (NES), those games were much harder and less user friendly than games like GTA4. Yet they are sold to kids and people that never played games before at the time. Therefore gaming has not become this complicated sandbox world which only the hardcore have a chance in winning.

I dislike mario games sure.

Nintendo I don't dislike however...its a company which provides services for my money. So if I dislike Mario, you are saying that Nintendo really has nothing to offer to me? Sure seems that way...

And Mario Kart is 1 game...having online and leaderboards in less than 10% of games doesn't really give Nintendo the right to brag "We have online and leaderbaords". I personally like House of the Dead 2/3 on the wii...however it sucks big time that I can't see how my scores do against the best.

.......street fighter alpha 4?