Slashdot Mirror
No More GameCube, Wii 2.0 On the Far Horizon
The little purple machine that could is no longer being manufactured. Hardware revisions are in store for the Nintendo Wii eventually. These announcements aren't terribly shocking, but they're still interesting admissions from Perin Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America. GameDaily has the interview, which also discusses Wii sales, the lull in games, new IPs, and some details on plans online. Don't worry, you won't have to buy a new Wii anytime soon. Kaplan is immediately talking about the planned Japanese version with DVD Playback capability, but does say 'Sure, absolutely' to the question of whether we'll eventually see hardware changes on the order of the DS/DS Lite.
The recent stories, including right here on Slashdot, make it pretty clear that a good deal of the initial hype about the Wii is going away. Too many Wii owners are talking about being bored with the console or talking about how they are playing other consoles after they finished Zelda and grew bored with Wii Sports.
Looking at the Wii list of games for 2007 to early 2008 it is looking all too similar to the GameCube lineup. Maybe there are some major third party games that have yet to be announced, but right now I can't think of any major non-Nintendo game to really look forward to in 2007.
With 1080p TV prices in freefall, most likely with sub 1000 dollar sets by the middle of this year, Nintendo really needs to have something ready in the next couple of years because the Wii and HD TVs do not go well together.
Nintendo needs to walk a fine line of not Osbourning the current Wii while getting developers ready to start making games for a new system. Which usually starts to happen over a year in advance of the hardware hitting the shelves.
The Wii Zapper is almost enough to make me want to pick it up when it's on sale a few years from now for $69.
Till then, I'll stick with having no consoles whatsoever.
Gentoo Sucks