Agree - the media have moved onto other things to create panic, more panic more cash for them. Swine flu is latest panic stations, we all going to die, havent heard much about the panic of the economy lately surprise surprise

Bah, people that didn't like Mario had plenty of other games to enjoy on the SNES and NES. In the "worst-case" scenario where Sony and M$ drops out, all that will happen is that we will once again have a console with both good 3rd party games, and that also has Nintendo games. And hopefully decent hardware because if Nintendo would be the only one left and then put out another Wii, I would stick to PC gaming.

 Yeah but the thing is now theres a 2+ million userbase for LittleBigPlanet and when the sequel comes out they won't need to spend quite as much on advertising, and (assuming its a high quality game) it should sell really well.

I doubt the industry will crash like back in the 80s. Instead, what's happening is the industry is shifting severely, evolving.

Soon you will no longer need a publisher to release a game, already its happening (XBLA, PSN, WiiWare). This will in fact, make the market larger for developers to directly bring the games to the gamers. Optical storage will be a thing of the past, and even BluRay will be obsolete before it can take the throne from DVD.

If it is not the next gen, then the one following will have no more use for separate storage beyond a built in hard drive.

All systems will become small boxes with wireless connectivity and a hard drive, transmit in HD quality, and as said before, will have fully downloadable games, directly from the developers' servers.

In the end, the publishers may fade away, much like how they are in the music industry, but the studios will live on and even thrive, at least those who can find the resources for development.

Just my thoughts on how I see the industry shaping up around us.

Lies! Next stop if MSFT goes under is my PC.

OT: I just don't see this happening on a mass scale.

So you're telling me that if developers went to Nintendo's next console, you wouldn't follow them. Because it's Nintendo.

Hell, you wouldn't even get a Playstation?

Why?

I am not really into Ninty consoles anymore.  I had the PS.  Besides if I am a 360/PC person so the PS brand is OK but not my cup of tea.  I don't need Blu-ray.

This isn't about brand! This isn't about consoles! This is about games. If the games you wanted were on a Nintendo system or the next Playstation, why would you not buy those systems?

Xbox Live and PSN might have something to do with it for many gamers.  Each networks will likely have upwards up 25 - 30 million members by the end of this generation.  Both consoles also have strong first-party hardcore games like Halo, Gears of War, Killzone 2, etc, and are where many CoD players are.  It would seem to me it would be far easier for Microsoft and Sony to keep those gamers than it would be for Nintendo to take them away.  Especially since they really don't have anything that rivals those networks and it's likely they'll be facing such games already established on the competition's hardware.

Nintendo is only doing exceptionally well because of their success with the new audience they're bringing into gaming.  When it comes to fighting over the hardcore crowd that both Microsoft and Sony are currently battling for they don't have any real advantage.  In fact based on the Gamecube I'd say for that audience they're at a disadvantage.

His stated problem is with the brand, not the game experience!