well, i think that the successor to the wii won't be released for a few years at least yet, simply because they can't keep the original on the shelfs.

you have to think bout this way. nintendo neglected the wii in the 2nd half of the year (not saying thats a bad thing. theres probably a lot of stuff that was delayed till next year for some reason or another. when the smorgasboard of stuff is released for it next year demand will stay up. in 2010, they probably release some bundles or new colors of wii's to keep demand up, and the next couple of years after they'll probably finally lower the price of it after it doesn't sell out every week.

by the time the wii 2 comes out, technology better than the 360 or ps3 technology will be dirt cheap, and they'll be able to easely make a large graphics jump., while still keeping the console price reasonable at 200-300 bucks.

wii hd might flop because all it means is longer production times, expensive to produce. the ps3 might even slip by then and win this gen

Huh? We already have a $200 HD console on the market. So you are saying in 2-4 years it will just be too hard to produce an HD console?

Nintendo can innovate with motion controls and such all they like, as long as they have limited 3rd party support, and the same old first party titles; I won't be buying from Nintendo.

Im not even sure they will even match the performance of the Xbox 360 with the Wii HD.

Actually scratch that, I don't think they will.

Chips are getting hotter and hotter, if they are targeting a specific thermal profile of say ~20-30W, they may not be able to release something as powerful. They've also aquired a penchant for simple so I doubt it'd have more ram than the 360 as they'd probably target having fewer ram chips and simplify their design.

@arsenicazure: It didn't. But that's pretty irrelevant. Nintendo have been publishing on IP:s they own, for the last decade.

M$ has lost huge amount of money even with 360 (even without the RRoD costs). It's hard to say are they profiting at the moment, since their electronics and entertainment division includes other functions too, than just 360. Also their PC games are under the division.

Sony is bleeding due to BD and other stuff included in the PS3. But, you're right, with better design choices, Sony might be able to make money out of it.

I wouldn't call Nintendo "lucky" for not having to deal with faulty hardware and/or entertainment center functionality. Both of the issues were due to bad design choice. Nintendo doesn't have the incentive to push other functions than games into peoples livingrooms and Nintendo have been designing hardware for more than 3 decades, so i think they have somekind of idea how to make hardware (although, the slotloading drive is a possibility for hardware failures).

You mentioned the other improvements than resolution and that's my point. The biggest improvement would be to get all the things you mentioned to run with todays visual quality in 1080p. The reason why 360 wasn't originally designed for 1080p output is, that the thing freezes when you try to output the game in 1080p with the same visual quality it is capable in 720p (and the same thing with PS3). This also requires increases in RAM and its bandwidth.

You do realise the XBox 360 and PS3 are being outperformed by low end GPUs that are manufactured using a 55nm process ... By the end of 2010 a $500 laptop will be more powerful than these systems. Do you really think anyone would have difficulty surpassing the processing power of the PS3 or XBox 360 from this point forward if they wanted to?

Lucky my A#$ It’s called being smart! They know they don’t need to take over your living room to sell.  

And for the underlined:

You think the same way they are thinking which is why they are not on top right now.

They already have better grafix and better online yet they are far below in hardware sales and you still say that to beat Nintendo they have to have that?

You know I would have said that you should work for M$ or Sony but they already have people that think the way you do and therefore they are failing this gen and will next gen if they think the same way as they do now.

@Roma

If you do read the reviews of the wii.. the launch ones atleast you will realise that most people complained about poor graphics and everyone liked the motion control but no one thought wii would be the generation leader. again the wii is not more capable than the xbox.. they both are geared for different things.

My gripe with the wii is nintendo wants you to be happy with their console just because they have given you motion control- it doesnt have good online, graphics or sound.

Im sure it makes a lot of casual gamers, senior citizens and nintendo fans happy but as a former GC lover im disappointed.

The wii sells lesser software per console as opposed to the xbox and this despite the fact that xbox users ultimately shell out more money- wireless/live fees/console costs

Wii's also have a slight reputation for not being played much after their novelty wears off.. again im not flaming the wii but these are facts.

M$ is not failing this gen. Its doing alright for itself. m$ hopes to sell 75 million units of the 360 and although i dont know if they will reach that level of success, anything above 50 million would be good.

SONY is desperate to get consumers to spend on blu ray and that is their strategy. The ps3 doesnt work for me at the current price so im not going to bother getting one. if it were similiarly priced to the 360 it would be a no brainer,though

For me the measure of success would be the amount of time people spend playing/using their consoles. A console in the cupboard is pretty much just wasted tech.

And right now the 360 is doing everything that nintendo isnt. Lots of games, great online, continually improving GUI.

back to the original question is the wii HD nintendos biggest chance of success..

No. not just HD wii.. i wanna see a good online backbone and a more involving experience, including wii motion plus.