Definitely.  After all, there was no reason to come out with DVD, right?  And no reason for Blu-Ray?

Nah thats not true, technology gets better and Nintendo would have made better hardware to keep the fanbase. They wouldn't have stuck with the same ol' NES cuz people would have got tired of it and would want something new. Thats why they made the SNES.

Yes, Thank you

Squilliam, the Wii says "Hi!" to you comment. What you see is that, as more money flows into the industry, the industry does more research and attempts to capitalize on trends out there. They then overdo it. Things like controllers do get standardized and the beat goes on. A greater offender is game genres. At this point and time, we have an epidemic of Tower Defense games. There are money types ordering developers to make the a "Tower Defense" game. I went to a local game developer Meetup recently and mentioned the "Tower Defense" epidemic, and one guy said a suit had told him to get him a Tower Defense game.

Good point, and well made. :p

I think you mean "oligopoly".

Rip Squilliam a new one if you like guys but although he never specifically said it in his OP there is some sense in a common console theme. Assuming his idealistic vision would be a unified console design that any company could manufacture then there would be some huge benefits. One immediate improvement is the saving to the environment through less waste as people would only need to buy one device and ultimately dispose of when finished.

This unified console would also encourage more gamers with a interface that is completely familiar to everyone. A lot of older potential gamers are put off because they refuse to learn to use new controllers everytime a console is released. The Wii changed all this with its seemingly simpler and more natural input method (of course its anything but simple in real world terms).

This idealistic vision in my opinion could be better for gamers but the biggest obstacle is overcoming the gaming community. The simple fact is there will always be competition and bickering with some companies undercutting prices, etc even if you could get them to agree to a standardised system.

Your post does suggest thinking outside of the box Squilliam, it's just not likely to happen in the current very capitalist world we live in (or at least some of us live in ).

Stealth ftw!

To say that this would cause more consumer confusion is mind boggling. That is like saying that seeing 100 differant TV's, 60 differant DVD players, and 30 differant stereos is confusing. Everyone knows a CD player plays CD's no matter what company makes it, people know TV's play most anything that they want to display on them, and they know that if they buy a DVD player it will play DVD's. <br /><br />

The problem with the PC is it is not one unifide closed system. It is a completly open and evolving platform. That is why PC's have not had as much success with gaming as consoles. It is way to confusing to most consumers. People see Crysis and they pick it up because it looks cool. Just to find out that their system is not compatable with it. Even some people that look into spending big money on PC's turn away quickly because within a few months a update becomes required, and it is not as simple as click here to update.<br /><br />

@Rhonin<br /><br />

Perhapps it will not be up to Nintendo. If third parties are smart they will say this is what is going to happen, and if you want our support then this is the way it will be. If MS and Sony decide that they will do it because they have to, then Nintendo will be either forced out, or have to join in.

Sony obviously worked on the sixaxis for more than a day. Stop spreading lies.

Also they perfected the controller design with the original dualshock :p that's why it's so much better than all other controllers.