the cheapest one it's the 360. unless you add the forced HDD and xbox live yearly subcription.

That's the issue : the fact they are different may mean they are undesirable customers , we don't fully understand the habbits of the Wii's demographic because we have no histroical data to look back on.

Traditional gamers are likely to be satisfied with cutting their living expensives or consuming less in order to fulfil their game playing needs , I doubt this would be true of every traditional gamer but probably more so than the Wii's userbase . The Wii does have it's fair share of dedicated gamers which will support it regardless but then there's a section of their demographic which are compleltey unpredictable, will Family X be satisfied with a lower standard of living whilst sustaining their gaming needs or will they....

A. Sell their Wii for some short term cash flow.

B.keep playing the games they bought before the recession hit hard.

Options A & B will make Nintendo $0 

What could happen is that the audience that cause the Wii to experience such tremendous growth turn their backs on it in favour of other things . I've always said the casual gamer is the least predictable and possibly the least loyal of any type of gamer , we'll see if the recession prooves me right.

But on the other hand we all recognise the value of cheap entertainment in recession times , a $25 Wii game is likely to offer an individual or family weeks or even months of fun so the Wii could be even seen as a neccasery investment . Props to anyone who guesses the outcome accuratley because it's beyond  me.

We have historical data. We can look at the NES, a console that expanded the market and sold to people who were non-enthusiasts at the time. We can also look at the Japanese market during the 90's recession, the "lost decade".

Wii users (families not a lot into games) only need Wii Sports to have some fun after meals, so there is no need to buy extra games. With only some of them they're probably satisfied.

I guess that's why they didn't go out and buy Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, Guitar Hero etc. They are able to enjoy the same game forever and never want anything more.

I don't know ...

Typically, when I see someone cutting back on their finances one area that tends to remain intact or that is expanded is inexpensive social entertainment. While people associate a lot of entertainment expenses to being luxuries, people need entertainment and social engagement almost as much as they need food and water. Basically, while people would have gotten together with their buddies to go to a football/hockey game (or to watch it at the pub) they are far more likely to each spend $10 on beer and $5 on snacks and watch it at a friends house.

Now, if there is a big increase in people spending more time at other people's houses having house parties or watching movies/sporting events there is likely going to be a massive increase in spending in home based social entertainment. What this could mean is that people who are not dedicated gamers could actually be spending more time and money playing videogames because it is dramatically cheaper than alternative forms of social entertainment ... Being that the Wii is a system which is far more focused on social gaming than the other consoles I doubt it would be the first hit.

I agree with TheSource. The faltering economy hit Sony two fold. It made a $400 PS3 a more difficult product to sell. In addition, it caused the weakening of the Euro and the Dollar which made reducing the price on the PS3 financial suicide. Basically the economy made it hard for Sony to sell the PS3 at its current price and made reducing the price in response a financial impossibility. I think that qualifies as the recession hitting the PS3 first.

I'd say the lousy economy already hit the PS3 this winter when sales went down verse last year.

However for a while now I've thought that the economy would hit the Wii heavily for the same reasons as this article, when people start cutting back they tend to cut newer luxuries first, combine this with the Wii's poor attachment ratio and the lack of quality casual titles in the last 6 months and foreseeable future and the Wii could have a very rough time ahead.

Quick, someone put up the Wii is doom gif

Yow. Those people over at Gameplayer are pretty much the definition of elitist snobs. Geeze. No idea what they're talking about, they just throw out every argument that has been made against Wii. Fickle fanbases, bitching about abandoning the hardcore, and generally disacknowledging the Wii's success