The hd consoles can be considered one console because other than a handul of exclusives they share many of the same characteristics and many games between them that the Wii doesn't have or receive.  360 and PS3 parasite off of each other in a way that is harmful to the total sales of either console and it is a competition that doesn't include the Wii.

     But what they show together is that at least 50% of the console market prefers their model of doing things -- better tech, better graphics, the majority of games as deep experiences rather than just casual or party type software.

     Nintendo's Wii currently has little appeal to the 50% of gaming that prefers the 360 / PS3 model.

     As for Mario Wii, it has started off receiving bad reviews (A 7.0 from Edge and other Western publications will probably follow suit).  I don't think it will have the appeal of Mario Kart Wii.

Edge, lol. The vast majority of people who buy Wii games don't read 'official' reviews by gaming journalists. No-one's gonna care if NSMBW gets 3's, 7's or 10's. It's gonna sell millions regardless.

Edge are utter c*nts anyway.

I'm not trying to put down the Wii.  I am discussing what I would like to see for Nintendo in the future and some of the actual shortcomings of the Wii. 

The PS3's rise in Japan this year to where at a much higher price than Wii it has almost sold as many consoles combined the the fact that at the end of the year even though the Wii will be getting NSMBWii it's still going to be an amazingly tight finish in Japan between PS3 and Wii even with the PS3 and its biggest game costing significantly more than Wii and NSMBWii is just one indication that not everybody in the world thinks the Wii model of doing things is the greatest thing ever.

I think you're very wrong on this one. I think it will be just like mario kart wii. It'll probably get average to good reviews but the sales will be just like mario kart wiis. Start high and have huge legs. And people will love it no doubt.

As for the edge review, from what I've heard a 7 from edge is not bad.

Well, I would prefer to have a console that had a version of Modern Warfare 2 or Final Fantasy XIII that was just as good as the 360 / PS3 version and New Super Mario Brothers Wii or Mario Galaxy 2, and I am not too big on the idea of having to buy multiple consoles to do so.

1/ Sony makes money off every BluRay drive sold (licensing fees) and every movie sold. Nintendo makes nothing. BluRay functionality does not sell more units - Nintendo can't even be bothered to turn the Wii into a DVD player, even though its easily done. The only movies you'll see on the Wii II are digital download movies - something that Ninty can actually make $$$ out of.

2/ Since when does Nintendo care about the *size* of the disc? If they want more protection, there are lots of roads they can go down. BluRay is not the reason the PS3 has less piracy (there are lots of reasons). Pirated BluRay movies are readily available for those that want them. Personally, I *really* want them to go back to cartridge. There are massive benefits, and it would mean a much, much cheaper unit (although no Wii 1 disc support).

3/ The OP basically said "true simulatanous" release. Not only was the Wii staggered over a few months, we all remember the massive shortages they had.

...

As always, everyone is fixated on *hardware specs*. Nintendo couldn't give a rats $#%@ about this. The real mystery is what new features will the Wii II have re: gameplay - if its just a HD Wii, its not a Wii II.

While it is far from certain, it is entirely possible that memory based formats could make a massive comeback ...

When you consider that 8GB of ROM memory at wholesale prices is almost inexpensive enough for distribution, it is possible that in 2011 you could release a system based on 8/16GB memory cards (and the hardware could have support for 128GB+ memory cards for when they become inexpensive enough) and by including an (inexpensive) tray-loading laptop DVD drive Nintendo could maintain backwards compatibility while changing formats.

The question really is whether consumers and publishers would support the move or not, and I can't really answer that. Personally, I think the advantages of compact size (about the same as a 3.5 inch floppy) and rapid load times are a selling feature but I may be alone.

Actually Nintendo was planning on having DVD playback on the Wii accessible by a DVD dongle accessorie (which presumably takes care of the issue of licensing fees, since it's off loaded onto an accessorie).

They scrapped this likely because by 2006/2007 most everyone who needed a DVD player already had one -- or two or three in their house.

But they could theoretically do this for Blu-Ray again. It would free the main system of having to pay Blu-Ray royalties and off-load the cost only to people who want that functionality.

Microsoft did the same thing with the original XBox.

The thing about Blu-Ray is over 4 or 5 years it's probably going to be the cheapest format for Nintendo because it'll be heavily mass produced by several vendors and Nintendo isn't tied to one vendor. 

You go with a completely propietary format (like say holographic discs) and that company is really the only one you can go to, whereas with Blu-Ray lets say Samsung is giving Nintendo a better price than Panasonic ... they can go that route.

DVD was a system selling feature. Blu-ray hasn't really been.