As a long-time Nintendo fan, it has been a genuine pleasure to witness their astonishing turnaround in fortunes, writes reader Kelestar.

The slightly tired-looking, out of touch maker of the GameCube and GBA has become a bold and confident industry leader, and it's all down to two innovations: the DS touchscreen and the Wii remote.

Both have shook the gaming scene up, and have helped to push games into the mainstream consciousness. And you can certainly tell, from the speeches and interviews that company executives have been giving recently, that Nintendo are certainly enjoying their newfound success.

But all the time, there must be a lingering thought at the back of the company's collective mind: what next?

The company mantra of ‘Doing the same thing gets boring' prevents continuations of the successful DS and Wii lines, otherwise the firm would sound hypocritical - and of course, there is the genuine possibility that people would once again become bored with the same product rehashed.

So, could the pressure of constantly having to think of new hardware ideas lead Nintendo to give DS and Wii an extended lifecycle? Probably not. The consoles' sheer lack of grunt means that, despite the firm's ‘high-end graphics are not important' policy, they could end up looking extremely dated up against newer versions of competitor products.

Saying that, however, the reaction of Nintendo's newfound casual market to new hardware may be unfavourable; as they do not commit such a large budget to games purchases as the traditional gamer, perhaps they would be happy to stick with hardware longer. Or maybe they'll get bored quicker? Nobody really seems to know.

So, all this in mind, just what is going on right now in Nintendo's product development labs? Far be it from me to know, but I would say it was a dead cert that the company's next handheld will include a tilt sensor; not a new idea, but a new one when built-in to a handheld.

The console side is even more of a mystery. I don't think, as some have suggested, VR helmets will surface; but I don't think that some kind of whole-body movement sensor is out of the question. But the Wii remote was so unique that nobody guessed that, so perhaps the company will conceive another completely new idea, aside from motion sensing.

The firm's ‘innovation' policy also brings up questions as regards to the company's extensive use of its franchises, which I think is already a problem on Wii. The firm's much-lauded Christmas line-up, Pokemon Battle Revolution, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Super Mario Galaxy, are not all-new ideas. Much as I love Mario games, the casual market will surely tire of the same reused ideas, and these games do not appeal to a wide enough audience anyway.

Where is the big Christmas game for the casual market? And by that, I mean one with a new idea. Soon, Nintendo will have published four Brain games in the UK. Casual players want new ideas, as stated by the company itself. So, in contrast to most detractors of the Wii, I find myself thinking that there are too-few big name casual games coming soon for the Wii.

There is also the question of Sony and Microsoft. Witnessing their sluggish sales (the Xbox 360 is not flying off shelves) may spur them to innovate with new hardware for the next generation, which could lead to three completely unique consoles next time around.

So if you think this generation is exciting, just wait for the next one.'

I disagree. Next gen they will perfect the DS/Wii. it will be boring. hopefully next-next gen nintendo will take another stab at Virtual reality, and hopefully it won't flop again. (virtual boy)

Everyone wants to patronize Nintendo on what they should do, and why they don't do obvious other things.
All these people forget that Nintendo understands the market far better than they do, and know far better than all of them what they have to do to succeed.
Most people (except a few insightful people whose articles are on the Web) were against Nintendo when they unveiled each part of their strategy, slowly. Doom and gloom was announced at every one of their moves.
And look at what happened!
That's why I can't take seriously people that question any of Nintendo's moves or non-moves, until they make a real mistake.

nice read.

i think personally that it's not that the gaming industry needs to keep having new ideas each generation, but that it occasionaly needs a kick up the backside, which is to say that the road Nintendo is currently going down is fine, they don't need to switch lanes (read: think of new hardware innovations) unless the industry as a whole becomes stagnant.
Next generation they can build on and improve their current ideas without seeming to be hypocritical or rehashing ideas, and the industry will stay fresh by having both Nintendos blue ocean, as well as all three companies 'core gamer' solutions, and possibly whatever Sony/MS have in the way of 'New Gen' ideas.

In referance to your point about the casuals not being willing to pay for new hardware all the time, price point is the main issue with that, as a lot of Nintendos blue-ocean will not have considered a Wii yet, and won't do until it is say.... £100/$150, they may possibly be willing 6 years later (4 years into next gen) to purcahse the Wii successor for a similar price, and any that are still happy having just a Wii, could be replaced by newcomers who maybe didn't pick up a Wii.

Also you wrote this a few months ago, already the WiiFit board is on it's way...i'm hoping for snowboard games and if possible, the ability to use it as foot pedals for racing games (alongside any minigame affairs)

good read...

Good read.

Personally I think you have part of it backwards in the sense that you talk about the hardware and then segue into the software side. Nintendo, at it's best, comes up with games that they would like to play and then creates hardware that makes it possible. That's the real innovation. Nintendo will always leverage their popular franchises, that's just business sense. When Nintendo gets it right they make games (often using their franchise characters) that can only have the definitive version on their hardware.

i thought this was interesting, why are there so few posts?

Thanks for all of your responses, and I'm grateful for your nice comments.

You've all raised some interesting points.

it's kool...and welcome =)