Well since the SNES days Nintendo fans have been dreaming about Nintendo's triumphant return to the throne as king. It would appear that within weeks Nintendo will once again be the king, now of course many will say that the small lead on 360 doesn't make Nintendo king but I must beg to differ.

 Fact is Nintendo will be king again because not only will they be the number one game publisher as they have been for ages. But they will also have a solid lead in the games hardware industry as well with complete domination of the handheld front and a slight dominance in the home industry. 

 So will Nintendo carry the throne or will they mess up and watch a competitor get crowned once again. I personally feel that in Nintendo's efforts to return to the thrown that they have left their software line-ups week. In the past Nintendo has always been the company with a non-stop killer first party line-up with multiple AAA+ titles a year spread throughout the year. But this year is the perfect example not a single killer App untill August. More then half a year blown and then their September and October where again their is only one A+ title (BattalionWarsII) and a couple flops. Now thats not saying as usual Nintendo's first party line-up is amazing its just the few major hits this year (The big three) and of course the likes of BattalionWarsII may have been better spread out rather then clumped together right before Christmas.

 Nintendo appears to be laxing with such a major lead in monthly sales Nintendo didn't give us the usual AAA+ E3 presentation we have all come to expect. Now I'm sure Nintendo will reveal tons at the upcomming game conferances but so far they are showing weakness. I mean at E3 MarioKart was the only thing to really come out from the conferance in any way targeting Nintendo's established user base. WiiFit yet another game and hardware targeting the casual gamer.

 Also is targeting casual gamers over hardcore smart, I mean sure your bringing in tons of casual gamers but we must remember what a casual gamer is exactly. A casual gamer is a casual gamer not one who spends much time on games not one who plays games steadily but one who picks up a controller maybe once every few months. I know a couple "Casual Gamers" They own N64's and invite me over to play MarioKart64 the odd time, they talk about how they recently got a copy of Banjo-Kazooie from the flee market for only 20$. Those are the people who are currently being targeted and yes they all have bought DS's which sit on their shelves and yes most are considering Wii's "As soon as they drop in price".

Fact is can Nintendo rely on the casual gamers to provide the same amount of supportthe existing loyal user base does. I mean where I buy a good 10-12 games a year a casual gamer may only buy two or three over the whole 5-year lifespan.

 So with fewer and fewer established user base games being announced is Nintendo going to loose touch and return to its place in the rear of the home charts (But still on top of the software and handheld charts). Or will Nintendo as I expect and hope announce a crap load of killer apps targeting the existing fanbase for next year?

Nintendo keeps saying over and over again that their main concern is casual gamers. Games that sell well, Wario Ware, Mario Party, Mario Strikers, Super Paper Mario, Pokemon Battle Revolution... The fast selling first 10 months of any console, ever... They don't really need our advice.

The JPN attach rate is 2.6:1, the american attach rate is really good (4.5:1) with the software far outselling the hardware in the NA, selling 2+ million units of software in the last 5 weeks(only in the NA, not including the MP8 release in JPN). This is with out any of the "Big Three" or any really major 3rd party releases (except DQ:S).

You are looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

EDIT: I am sorry that you don't like the Wii line-up.  Many people seem to be happy buying games that others think are crap.  Same was true every gen.

Well looking at what Nintendo did with the DS the first full year Nintendo had publish something like 17 games I think and then for the second year they published like 38 games. Now for the Wii they will publish like 15 games this year and much less games for DS then last year so I think they have probably move resources to the Wii so i'm expecting a lot of games from Nintendo for Wii for next year.

For next year I think that we'll see Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Wii Fit, a mario sport game, a kirby game and new ips. Pretty sure that will see some new puzzle and rpgs games for Wii. I really hope for a new Pikmin and a new Kid Icarus game. I also think that they might pull something like a Nintendogs for Wii.

I dont think there ever was a nintendo that gave us regular E3 presentations of AAA+ titles, all their games have been pretty sparce in there release dates and often very delayed. If you look a the Cube, it had nothing i would class as AAA+ untill pikmin, and then thats a stretch. Luigi's mansion was flawed, mario sunshine was flawed, waverace didnt live up to its predecessor, nor did MK.

In the case of the N64 before that, Nintendo were a little more focussed i think, but Rare had a massive part in its reletivly small amount of success with Goldeneye and the other games they produced (all of which were pretty much AAA+)

The wii is geting a slighly different focus this time, and its working, they are targetting the casual first and then the 'core' and this will work i think. Mario party, soccer and the few other first/second party games that are out now have somewhat mixed reviews, but the same games in the respective series on the cube also got the same mixed reviews, its nothing new here. The only thing is i think theyre bringing them to the market much quicker than before. I mean no other console had metroid, a mario platformer, mario kart, smash bros and others withink its first 12 months.

Wiifit, wii sports, the 'big 3', mariokart and some exciting third party games all due within the first 18 months is an incredibly strong start for a machine.

Trust me nintenddo know what they are doing... this xmas is a hardcore gamers dream what more do u want...

 You mention only GameCube and Nintendo64, now the N64 did have a very steady pace of solid AAA+ games comming every year down to the bitter end. You are right alot of that was RareWare but Nintendo is more then capable of replacing Rare infact they have aquired so many studios since their is no excuse.

My prime example would be the SuperNintendo, their wasn't a single year where their wasn't a few AAA+ titles availible. The titles were amazing and then N64 came and right from launch you had a solid Mario game and a line-up that maintained Nintendo's AAA+ catalog up untill the GameCube's launch.

Your argument that so many key Nintendo titles were flawed is substantial tons of people loved those games and they were all considered heavy weights. That being said the Wii is doing just as good as GameCube in my opinion you have a gimmicky new Mario game impressive looking just as Sunshine was (I liked sunshine by the way) you've got Smashbros:Brawl just as GameCube did and you've got MetroidPrime.

This year is pretty good but with WiiFit being Nintendo's big showcase for the next year and future of Nintendo I'm beginning to get a little paranoid. For the last few months I've had nothing to play on my Wii I had hoped Pokemon:BattleRevolution would change that but it turned out to be a total pile of crap.  I'm really worried that after Nintendo's used its Mario, SmashBros and Metroid cards its going to forget about its fans and maintain its stricktly casual approach.

 As for the sales stats and attach rate. Its true but at the moment the main sales are going to the hardcore loyal fanbase. Now I'm sure casual gamers are contributing a bit but the existing fanbase remains the driving force. I just hope Nintendo's new casual approach doesn't neglect us existing fans!

Nintendo will lose its crown and if it stays around long enough, will regain it again. It all runs in cycles. The only question is, how long can Microsoft take a loss on it's systems before it calls it quits.

 Did you not even read the part you put in bold? The comment was clearly about those games announced at E3, not when those games were released.

Microsoft will be in the console business for a long time... They just did an interview with Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer and they're committed to the Xbox platform.  In fact here is what they said:

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20070817/tc_zd/213589;_ylt=AtAor.m2TkEk_5rg2K4CPFUjtBAF

"Asked about his reaction to the $1 billion in costs Microsoft is picking up to service customer Xboxes, Turner said he was proud that the company was stepping up and taking care of its customers. "We are not a perfect company. We strive for perfection, but we are not perfect, and when we are not perfect we are going to work hard to make it right. So, I'm proud to work for a company that will do the right thing, even when nobody is looking," he said.

But, he said, Microsoft also needed to learn from the experience to ensure that it wouldn't repeat it.

"The financial thing is a bad thing, but affecting customers is a worse thing. That's the foremost thing that I think about from a COO perspective," he said. "This is an area where we are in the hardware business, and we are a software company, so we don't have decades of experience in the hardware business. We are learning as we go in that space, and we still have a lot to learn, so we don't have it completely figured out."

In spite of all these issues, Microsoft remained as committed as ever to the platform, which is a vibrant one for it and an area where the company has worked hard at growing share, he said.

"Now we are going to have to work hard figuring out how to make money in that area. [CEO] Steve [Ballmer] tells me that Windows took eight or nine years to make any money, which no one talks about today. But he reminds me of that all the time. Today everybody just believes it made money from the start, but that was not the case," Turner said."

Nintendo will be King for sure now, but the question is, what's going to happen to Nintendo in the years to come (2008 and more).

Now i will always be a Nintendo fanboy, no matter what they do, but it's time to realize that Nintendo isn't doing what i hoped. They aren't trying to simply expand the market, they are changing the market. They aren't going half and half with casual and hardcore/traditional games. They are focusing on the casual market. I don't care much for third parties on Nintendo systems, save a few. The best games on Nintendo systems are Nintendo games. And so now i am worried about the future of Wii and for the first time, Nintendo.

This year, this 2007 will be perhaps the greatest year for the Nintendo fans/hardcore/traditionals. Metroid, Galaxy, and Brawl are the games we are waiting for, the games we would accept as hardcore. But what after that? Mario Kart? I'm starting to fear now, that Mario Kart Wii will be targeted to more of the casuals than previous Kart games. And if online is the way it is on DS then it will simply not be appealing and it won't prove to me that Nintendo even cares anymore. Sorry Reggie, but you haven't proven that Nintendo is serious about online. So i fear for Brawl, not that it won't be a good game, but for Online. it is the game that will "make or break online games for the Wii and Nintendo". If Brawl is casualized in that aspect i can't put complete trust in Nintendo.

The biggest concern i have now is the future, Nintendo's new IP's and its remade classics. Will they too be casualized? What do i have to look forward to? Will Nintendo focus on both the hardcore and casuals? I hope so. I hope that not all new IP's will be casual titles. I hope that Retro and NST and Monolith won't be put to casual games. I hope that if/when they redo Kid Icarus it won't be casualized (it's a story about an angel going into an underworld of demons to fight and save a goddess it better not be casualized). I hope that Nintendo doesn't just focus on the casuals or just the hardcore. I hope they focus on both.

I hope i'll see the day when the "perfect" video game system is Nintendo's and that it truly caters to the hardcore as well as the casuals. But that's all i can do, hope. I can't have faith in Nintendo, at least not anymore. I mean i can't blame them. They're a company looking out for what's best for them. And as huiman beings we shoudn't have faith in risk taking industries. They aren't some kind of Messiah.

meh...