Warning: The following series of statements are not meant to offend people, cause flame wars, be the target of hate or cause general discomfort to the mind, body and soul.  I have to been forewarned.

I honestly see Nintendo in a pinch for developing games next generation.  The problem is, Nintendo has little/no experience with developing HD software.  Sony and Microsoft, along with most third parties, do.  This may lead several games to take well over 2 or 3 years to finish or possibly cancellings.  The hopeful side of me believes that they will transition fairly fast but the slightly more realistic side of me says otherwise.  Also with the lack of third party support, this might lead to something very risky.  I hope they don't "Leave luck to heaven." <-- Yes that was very corny.

Thoughts?

While your argument does make since, if (and when) Nintendo makes an HD console, they will know how to develop for THEIR console. No doubt that given enough horsepower and a vision, Nintendo will continue to make magic.

Good point.  I honestly didn't think of it that way.

I wouldn't worry about it. Thanks to high HD costs, there are plenty of studios with HD experience shutting down, which means there are plenty of folks with HD experience on the job market. All Nintendo has to do is hire a few to train their own employees in HD development, and voila! They've caught up already.

having problems with an HD game?

hardly.

nintendo's game engines will be essentially the same- just a bit beefed up.

only the graphical resolution will be better.- ie artists.

I fail to see any situation where Nintendo could ever possibly be at a disadvantage when it comes to development on their own console whether it is underpowered or overpowered Nintendo will always produce quality (and Wii Music).

Even if Nintendo moves forward with hardware that is far more powerful than the current HD consoles (which I think is likely) I don't see Nintendo ever focusing as heavily on producing "HD visuals" as companies have been with the HD consoles ...

A lot of Nintendo's games (including most of the Mario spin-offs like Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and Mario Party) are based on an artistic style which doesn't really benefit all that much from advanced shaders, and so many of the games share artistic assets that they should be able to reuse content from one game to the next.

Certainly, Nintendo's biggest franchises (Mario, Zelda and Metroid) will probably get a full upgrade to the latest and greatest visuals but (unlike current generation games) there will be a lot of experienced people to help them navigate the potential downfalls and a lot of mature toolchains to reduce (unnecessary) work.

Making something HD from standard def isn't difficult.  It just requires additional time.  However, you could technically put any Wii game in an HD resolution and call it HD -- a game like Super Mario Galaxy would still be one of the best looking HD games this generation if all you did was increase the resolution.  In fact, it's one of the best looking games this generation in lowly 720x480.

Frankly, it will be easier for Nintendo to develop in HD because they tend to go so high quality already.

Well if they developed the hardware, why wouldn't they know how to make games on it? They'll have no problem next gen.

Once again, I make a half-baked idea and people readily correct and finish this idea. Interesting statements overall.