It's possible but unlikely and Nintendo wouldn't have a Monopoly for long, someone would want a share of that great big pile of money they're printing.

And PC would always offer an alternative anyway and cater to the corest of the core that simply couldn't go back to SD gaming.

I don't get your point.  It's 2009.  Final year of analog TV in the USA.  Are you suggesting it's not going to happen?  A third of US stations shut off their analog signals last month, passing on the FCC's request to extend into summer.  34% of US households had flat panel TV's before this holiday season with sales expected to increase this year despite the recession.

I don't think people quite get my position.  I am fine with Nintendo having half the market share.  But the suggestion that they could/should have a monopoly is a nightmare scenario for gamers.  Of course you'd have 3rd party developers making games for them if they were the only console but a large part of the gaming audience would not be properly served.  Bethesda would make games for Nintendo but that game wouldn't be the Fallout 3 we know.   Ubisoft makes games for all 3 consoles already and look at the difference in the results.  And just a few minutes ago, I saw X-PLay's review of Dead Rising:CTYD.  Don't assume that just because your console gets full 3rd-party support that you're going to be happy with the results.

What you say Nintenod are the worst and yet they are such a beast with gaming, they rock out loud.

My point: It's gotten delayed plenty of times.  Will happen eventually, but not overnight as you think.  Furthermore, even when they do stop all analog signals, many will still have SD televisions.  Ever hear about a converter box?  Even the federal government was giving out 2 per household.  Just because a household has a flat screen, does not mean it's HD.  And we're only talking about the USA.  Plus, I'm going under the assumption that the topic starter meant the 8th generation.  That means an HD Nintendo console. 

Again, Nintendo had amazing 3rd party support in previous consoles and people were happy with the games.   If there were only one HD console, guess where the Fallouts and Prince of Persias would go?  Funny thing, the latter franchise was on Nintendo consoles up until this generation.   

In a completly unrelated circumstance, I was scrolling down when I saw what I thought said BengaBenga: Banned

I loled. Then I scrolled back up and stopped.

That's just so perfectly stated that I would never be able to disagree. Just look at the 15-year-old design of the PS3 controller and the 3RL. Nintendo makes the best and more durable hardware.

The analog shut off date has been delayed once.  While it's true that there was some dragging of feet in actually naming the date, the only date ever specified was February 17, 2009.  There has now been a reprieve to June 12 but over 400 stations have shut off already.

But this is largely irrelevant.  Would any of us excuse one of the major networks from broadcasting television in SD at this point just because the number of HD households is not quite at 50%?

Don't get me wrong here... I think Nintendo made the right move by putting out a console that wasn't at a price point that would limit it to early adopters at launch.  But I think they could have taken a little less profit (or even a slight hardware loss) at the beginning in order to make the Wii just a tiny bit future-proof (actually, "present-proof") with HD and 5.1.  It's disappointing when HD is hitting critical mass that a gaming console (which we'd expect to last until at least until 2012) has video resolution only suitable for TV's that have been off the market for some time.  The 360 is only $200 now so I think it must have been feasible to do WiiHD at an affordable price. 

Anyway, like I said, the scenario presented by the original poster (and he said the Wii could go on forever and ever) is a nightmare for a lot of us because we don't want to see games like Fallout having to be watered down because they're forced onto a lesser system.

By the way, Prince of Persia actually is on the Wii.  But it's a port of last generation's Tides of Time.  Don't you think Ubisoft would give the Wii a version of the current generation POP if it were at all feasible?  Dead Rising is a pretty good indicator of how well that would go.

The official shut off date, yes.  But I do agree that it's unlikely they'd want to go through Congress and delay it further.  That still doesn't mean most or even half of the households have HDTV's.  And again, we're only limiting this to the US.  

You seem to forget that 360 started off selling at a loss.  Nintendo doesn't have other divisions to back them up if their console doesn't sell well.  That is not their strategy.  You also seem to forget that Nintendo didn't just focus on visual upgrades; see the Wiimote.  Please tell me you didn't buy into the whole "PS3 is future-proof" slogan.  

Perhaps he needs to clear this up then.  He said that the other 2 companies may exit in the future.  This to me means the next generation.  I think it's silly they would exit now especially with Microsoft making a profit.  The Wii selling "forever and ever" will likely happen even with the release of its successor.  Kind of like the PS2.  

Don't know what game you're talking about.  I know of a Sands of Time and that was a multiplat release.  So again, I don't see a problem with any of those games you mentioned being on an HD Wii in the future.  DR:CtyD's sales are a good indicator of how watered down ports on the Wii would sell if third parties put no effort.  

That was so clever!  I can be sarcastic too!  Look:

You're right, they're controller design is perfect.  In fact, it's been around even longer than 15 years!  See: SNES controller.  

I don't even know what to say about the durable hardware comment.  Nintendo's hardware is durable.  

Lastly, wtf does this have to do with what I said?  

You silly you!

@BoleroOfFire: POP:Rival Swords is Sands of Time.  Consensus on Metacritic is that it looks no better than the GC version.

Really, this whole discussion is very silly.  A Nintendo monopoly isn't going to happen so that's not the answer to getting 3rd party support on a Nintendo console.  If Wii-owners want decent 3rd party support they're going to have to start buying those games.  No More Heroes got great reviews but couldn't sell to even 1% of the base.  Who's going to pour money into developing a great game if those are the results you can expect?