Bye, Bye Nintendo

[Darkmoon]

And those developers that just wanna straight port from one system to the next.

[Bloodreign]

I'm not gonna write off the Big N just yet, they've been around for many years, they know what they are doing to survive. Sega on the other hand, just didn't even if they had a killer system in the Dreamcast.

[Achirio]

Dreamcast was a very underated console, way too ahead of its time.

[Nimrods Son]

That's right. And Konami kinda... sold it to the devil (or, at least, to Sony). It wasn't even their own soul!
Clever.

[Cvstos]

Personally, I won't be able to afford a PS3.  It's simply too expensive.  However, I enjoyed the previous Xbox and I really like what Microsoft is doing with the 360.  Most games available on the 360 and PS3 will be multi-platform, further reducing the reason to get a PS3.  BUT...

A lot of games on the Wii won't be available elsewhere. And it'll be affordable.  Provided Nintendo has perfected the controller technology, I'll be picking one up to stand beside my 360.  I think the two will compliment each other well, especially given that combined they're the cost of one PS3.

I don't think Nintendo is dead just yet.  The market has expanded greatly since the days of the Dreamcast (may it rest in peace), and it is now possible for three console makers to survive.  I work in a video game store.  I'm in on the front lines, so I've a decently clear perspective on these things.

Despite the assured success of the PS3, Sony is in the deepest trouble.  Other than their Playstation divisions, all parts of the company are losing money badly.  Nintendo is still profitable and Microsoft has $40B of cold, hard US Dollars in the bank.  That does NOT count investments, just cash.

Nintendo's secret weapons will be innovation and a low price.

Microsoft's secret weapon is going to be Xbox Live and its newfound integration with Windows Vista (known as the Live Anywhere platform), along with Windows Vista games themselves.  PC Gaming isn't dead yet - far from it.  (Full disclosure: I'm a Command & Conquer addict.)

Sony's secret weapon is Blu-Ray Disc.  This high-capacity disc format is a nice (but extremely expensive) bit of technology.  This could wind up backfiring, however.  If Sony mandates all their games run in 1080p, it's going to hold back the framerates in the games, forcing the developers to cut back on effects.  720p is a reasonable balance that Microsoft is mandating.  That resolution isn't that hard, and PC games have been doing it for years.

Everything's still up in the air, but as it stands right now, I don't think Sony will do as well this time around.  The PS3 will sell quite well, but it won't have the dominating market share of the previous generation.  I also think the 360 will do much better than it's predecessor.  The Wii's future is far more uncertain, but I think it may surprise everyone and do quite well.

[Darkmoon]

As well thought out as your post was, this topic was dead for over 2 months. Technically, that's thrad necromancy. I'm gonna lock this. Just... don't revive anything older than a month. It's in the rules.