You know what amazes me? The people who believe Nintendo is being greedy by selling for a profit. It's as if gamers believe they deserve to have giant, multi-media coporations bleed billions of dollars just to please them. 

Or put less sarcastically, "losing billions of dollars" has become the fiscal status quo in the games industry. Any attempt to actually stop such hemorrhaging -- be it selling your console for a profit, or something like micro-transcactions -- is instantly loathed and scorned. 

The Wii is what it is. If HD, a hard-dive, or extensive online are what the consumer wants, there are two other options. Appreciate what the thing has anc don't dwell on what's missing.

Yeah. Nintendo really can't start out with a "Loss leading" strategy.

The Wii is like a single guy with no relatives. Sure he could by the HD TV. But should he find himself broke and needing medical treatment he's got noone to turn to.

Sony's Video game division has a number of other divisions that can work as "rich uncles" and bail them out when the worst happens. (like at present) and the 360 just has an insanely rich father who's willing to bankroll everything.

I mean the closest thing the Wii has to that is it's BFF Nintendo DS. Sure he could lend him some money if Wii really needed to but if things got bad enough it'd drag them both down.

I own both the Wii and the PS3. I strictly use the Wii for gaming, not media capable of course. I use my PS3 for videos, music and my family pictures. I own 13 PS3 games and 2 Wii games. In terms of how often I play either one. My PS3 gets nearly 90% of my time where as 10% is dedicated to the Wii.

I really dont need HD capabilites and a HDD for my Wii, as I have a other system that does that for me. It would be nice to have a 2.5" USB Sata HDD attachment, and some type of media capabilites. I would rather carry that over to a friends house rather than my PS3. Im sure some people would agree, 11 lbs. vs what? 2lbs.

And the fact is, Entroper, is that lossleading is a poor strategy to run ANY business. At best it can be used to shoehorn your way into a field where you were once an outsider but it should soon be changed to a profit-making strategy once you're on the inside.

If not for Sony & Microsoft's millions & billions they could never compete in the gaming business. Nintendo IS the gaming business at the end of the day and these guys HAD to spend like that just to overcome that company. But long term as we're seeing that kind of strategy does not work.

It's basically playing Atlantic City & Las Vegas with your rent money/mortgage. I'm glad Nintendo doesn't play 'Keep up with the Joneses'. Keep it in the black, man.

John Lucas 

well said john lucas... btw how do u embed pics into your posts...

"The Wii would be great if it wasn't the Wii".

The Wii is it's own machine. You can't make comparisons to the other systems. It is on a completely different playing field. While the other two systems had their pissing contest, Nintendo perfected their business model. They made their system profitable from the start. They made it cheap. They made it easy to program. They also made it simple. That is Wiis greatest advantage. It is also it's greatest liability. I think that the Wii needs a killer app that doesn't have Marios face on it. They need someone to go out and push the Wii the way it deserves to be pushed, and create something as revolutionary as it is. The only way this will happen, is if they begin to really outsell the other two, say two to one. If the Wii gets upwards of 30 million sold, it will force companies to develop specificly for the Wii on a large scale. Then, I think we will really see something special.

All this "What if" talk has me thinking. What IF Sony and Microsoft used a remote that was a Wii remote clone?

Just saying... what if? Why does no one get on them about their outdated control scheme? At least one company decided to branch out and that takes serious balls when there is that kind of money on the line.

I think he'd prefer the Wii to have a hard drive, HD, a standard controller with maybe token motion detection. Perhaps he'd like to include some form of next-gen optical media as well. Hell, maybe it would be better still if the Wii had a powerpc based core with multiple vector units and cost $600.

I think he wants his Wii to be a PS3