Looking back, they kind of were. I remember The Legend of Zelda, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Robocop, and the easiest ones being Duck Hunt, and Super Mario Bros 1 and 3.

Iwata already said that their next Nintendo console will do HD, and it's a given that it will happen, however, Nintendo being Nintendo and wanting to make profit on day 1, and selling for their usual price point of around 200 bucks...one can already guess that their next console won't be super powered HD, instead will see a cheap but high performance set up capable of doing 720p standard, something near to what the current HD machines can do...they will however be behind Sony and Microsoft in terms of tech and raw power come next generation.

Now I'm not saying that Sony or Microsoft will go all out as they've done this generation, but they have established technology that they will use such as CELL in PS3, but it will simply have more cores and such, along with more RAM and a better more console centric graphics chip, most likely it will be priced at $400 day one...no one will ever be touching that $600 price tag ever again.

take that as you like, since it's just my own opinion.

I think when theARTIST0017 means "break from HD", he means the limited genres that such consoles cover, primarily being Shooting/Sports titles.

I agree with you on Nintendo's progression for the next-gen. I doubt they would release anything that passes the $299.99 barrier and it must be cost effective. The difference in power will not be as wide next generation as it was in this one. It will be like the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube, with the Wii 2 being the PS2 in this case, and the other consoles being interchangeable.

oh i get it, everyone should make casual games on the wii, because making an HD game closes your studio.

Highest profiting companies include:

Nintendo, who solely develop on the Wii and DS.

Ubisoft, the majority of whose development is on the Wii and DS.

Activision, which gives large support to the Wii and DS, but mainly has several cash cows.

If you make a game with an HD budget and it sells just like Call of Duty or Halo, then you're doing great. If it ends up selling like Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Golden Axe, or a bajillion other HD flops, then you're not so lucky. Cheaper development on the Wii and DS is a safety net in case you mess up and your game isn't so successful. No company has ever lost half a billion dollars developing games before this generation.

I'm not sure how much ground this argument holds.

Two things.

1) Hardcore gamers on the Wii do not sell as well as they would on the 360 and PS3. Case in point = The conduit, madworld, punchout, etc etc. It is not like any old development studio can make a game for the Wii and be rest assured it is going to be a success. The only games that really thrive on the system are casual games, party games, RPGS, and Nintendo exclusives. It forces developers to have to make games that, quite honestly, aren't desired on the other two systems. I am aware that Natal was made to appeal to the same audience that the Wii appeals to, but honestly that leads me to my second point..

2) Wii didn't take any bullet. If anything it saw the bullet coming and built a hole through its wall to let it pass through painlessly. What the system did, is rejuvenate a company into the powerhouse it once was. It is VERY hard to hate Nintendo as much as people hate Sony and Microsoft, and even now people talk about MS being the arrogant one even though the Wii has a 20 million lead on the 360. Unfortunately though, the Wii changed the gaming landscape , and some of it is great, and some of it not so much. The first evidence of these changes can be found in the new Madden 10. Where both the 360 and PS3 versions are gritty, amazing looking, complex, and authentic, the Wii version has stretched out cartoon characters, 5 on 5 football, and an "I win" button. Why? Because EA, for all of their shortcomings, has figured out that the key to the Wii is to "lighten it up". Unfortunately I sense a trend here that is bound to continue.

I'm not bashing the Wii at all, but when I play games like Halo and Bioshock, I have to wonder, 5-10 years down the road , when the next round of systems have come out, just how much the business model is going to revolve around the groundwork the Wii placed. And whether or not "Serious gamers" are going to have a place to rejoice, or mourn

HD consoles taxing financially? Even if the average big budget HD game costs 40 million to make (which is an exaggeration) that is still FAR less than it costs to make an average summer blockbuster movie. GTA IV with it's record breaking 100 million dollar budget doesn't even come close to some of the medium/large movie budgets we have seen this past year which can run into the several hundred millions.

Video games are now the largest entertainment industry in the world, so we should treat it as such. I think our budgets are still far too small when compared to that of film. Put things in perspective.

Not to mention that just like small art films exist, so can developers choose to create small budget, art games on HD systems such as Braid or others and still make a decent profit. Not everything needs to be Gears of War. Unfortunately this industry is still too caught up in creating products and packaged fun rather than exploring the possibilities of artistic communication as many films have done in the past.

Wow hold your horses buddy, that's arrogant talk, and it's what got Sony 3rd place...and in any case we could see the next Microsoft console be top dog, one just never knows  ;)

I mean graphically. The Ps2 was the 'weakest' console last gen, but not weak enough that it couldn't run a GC game (minor downgrade, like Resident Evil 4). Those consoles could've had a multiplatform game, and they would all look about the same. I'm assuming the same thing will happen next generation.

@montana, i understand where you are trying to go with this, but do you really think the message to devs here is that they should be more like nintendo, ubisoft, and activision?

Because frankly, that's easier said than done.

On top of that, once you finally get to a point where your products can actually compete with one of those companies, how much room is actually there for anyone else, or even yourself? These are massive massive companies whose sole purpose is to squeeze every last drop of flavor out. On top of that those 3 all have big name games, and giant franchises. What's the message to another dev? Get a huge franchise?

This argument that "instead of developing on HD you should develop on wii" is ridiculous, because there is just as much potential to fail. It's just in smaller amounts. It's like playing at a 10$ minimum table compared to a 250$ minimum table, either way it's a gamble. You'll just have the chance to play a little bit longer on the 10$ table.