No, it could not happen. Nintendo never had a monopoly and never will.

Lol.

That's not happening.

Wait, so you're saying the NES wasn't a Monopoly?

I disagree, Ninty performs best under pressure.

Anyway, there is very little chance of this happening.

MS is making decent profits from the EDD division, which includes substantial Zune losses. MS has no reason to leave the console business when everything is going so well.

Apple has a viable competitor to the DS, so Nintendo cannot have a portable monopoly. To suggest that the Iphone/Ipod touch might be discontinued is laughable

Video game hardware sales have been increasing since the NES days, back in the 3rd generation there was only enough of a userbase for one successful console. 4th gen saw 2 main competitors, 5th saw 3, but the market could not support it. 6th saw 3 and could support all of them, but only just. The 7th sees 3, and all 3 could have been profitable if not for certain decisions made. The 8th is more likely to see 4 competitors than it is 2. Even if Sony leaves, they would be replaced in the home console race by Acti-Blizzard, Apple or someone else, and in portables by MS or a successful Phone company

I would argue that the bold would not happen. Nintendo succedded partly because the price was low. Many people equate monopolies with the Industrail Revolution of the United States. This happened for Oil, Steel and Railroads becuase these were necessities. Entertainment isn't. Nintendo's fight is not against Sony and Microsoft, but disinterest. If there console becomes too costly, then consumers may become disinterested and find another form of intertainment. Expensive entertainment is very prone to extiction. Pinball surivied and florished during the depression, but Oprea didn't. The former was cheap, but the latter was expensive. A console that is too expensive would suffer.

Also, I assume Nintendo will have a strong dominance over the market soon. Sony has been hurting more then expected due to the economic downturn (as many disrupted companies are) which means they may be quicker to pull out. Microsoft will throw in the towel once Sony is gone.

Now, I beleive in this day and age it is impossible to have a monopoly (at least not for very long). Due to disruption and technology, I think, eventually, someone will come in. However, it won't be anyone. Apple, for instance, would be whipped by Nintendo. They are not a content oriented company. They could not be able to form internal develope and obtaining developers would not be strong enough against Nintendo with it's unique DNA and experience in making games. It would have to be an existing game company. I would look more to the Japanese companies as the western developers are ingrained to much in hardcore*. I don't think it will be Sega sadly.

*The western developers were strong during two periods. The first was the gameing crash of 1983 and now. During the former, consoles died and gaming moved to the computer. Western developers made games for the hardcore of the time. The western developers have excelled at making games for gamers. The Japanese developers would beat them out when Nintendo revived the console market with the NES. Now, the developers are doing the same thing, but now on the consoles. Despite the "rise" of western developers, none of them have broken into the best sellers; however, Nintendo has beaten most of their own records. As the PC and hardcore consoles begin to shrink, so will western developers. I don't think many of them will embrace the expanded market.

This.

No...wait...that's a stupid thought.  Nintendo's amazing first party and third party games all on one wondrous and durable console? Count me in. 

Nintendo = the most innovative of the 3 console makers.  

A few years back, you could have said the same thing for SONY.... Things change.

Obama won the 08 election and he went to Canada. I saw him drive by.

I kinda agree with you on the fact that HD and high graphics development is getting more and more expensive cause these developers go all out and spend millions and millions just to make eye candy. Then when the game does sell it only sells enough to cover the development costs leaving very little profit.

But on the bright side dev costs can easily lower down ever 2 years due to moores law (correct me if im wrong). so as long as no developer makes an expensive game like Shenmue or GTAIV  then they can make some nice proft.

The only one in the possible position of folding right now is Sony. For at least the next generation, Microsoft is here to stay, and Sony is in all likelihood here to stay too.

Now, that doesn't preclude somebody else breaking into the market, but the market has traditionally been a 3-console environment. Any generation where you had 4 or more, the consoles that came in 4th place or lower have all been fairly abject failures from a business standpoint (like the 3DO, Fairchild Channel F, Dreamcast)