First off....Microsoft really could care less about HD-DVD or BluRay. Sony is the one living in the past here, hoping for the second coming of the DVD. Microsoft supports HD-DVD, but knows the future is digital and has no big stake in either format.
When will you see HD-DVD'ed 360's? When Microsoft can release it without scaring more than 1% of their target market for the low end models. Why?
The strength of Microsoft's position w/ the 360 is that they can compete on all ends of the market. They have the 'Arcade' 360, with the price of the Wii, the power of the PS3 and the best game lineup on the market. They also have their top line product, as powerful as the PS3 and priced less than its low end model (after the price drop coming in a few weeks). Would they sacrifice this to let some developer publish on a HD-DVD disk? Not going to happen.
Note something about why the PS3 is damned to failure....Sony sold over 100 million PS2 systems. The problem is that 90% of those were sold at under $200. When will the PS3 reach $200 at a break even point? Never.
Now, some reality on the Wii....its attach rate sucks. The fact is that the system is selling to fans of Nintendo, just like their previous consoles. This isn't a revolution, it's a fad. 3rd party support isn't based on the potential, but rather the ease of porting an old game or game engine to a 'new' (old) machine.
So what does this mean? The Wii is a underpowered niche-fad with an attach rate that proves its market is the Nintendo fanbase alone, just like the Gamecube. Sony has squandered dominance to shill launch day obsolescence, in search of past glories, with a new disk format that nobody wants. Microsoft is gifted another market to lead, by giving what the market wants.
People will disagree with me. Tell me I'm wrong in 3 months, and again in 6 months. You'll see, and trust me I'm no happier than you are.
I agree to a point. Bad box art might be indicative of bad marketing in general - and might be a good sign of a game financially underperforming. We live in a sea of information though. It takes more than a cool picture to sell things. Most decisions are made from other factors....a kid buys a game cause they play it at their friends, read about it on a gaming site or they hear about it through ads. The store clerk's recommendation probably has more sway than the box cover in prompting someone to pick it up. When it comes to closing the sale, the back of the box has more sway than the front.
Less prone to breaking....wtf. Yes, reduced complexity means it's less likely to break, but why don't they just give out rocks and call it the PS3? Think of the sales line.....no heat, quiet and it's almost impossible to break. You buy a game console cause it PLAYS GAMES.
Buy this new car, it's just like the old one, but it makes less noise, generates alot less heat and is less likely to break.....we took out the A/C-Heating system.
Nintendo has a rabid fanbase, but it gets very shallow beyond that. The Wii is selling on hype & PS3 sticker shock. A price drop on the XBOX 360, bringing it to parity with the Wii, and things are going to change fast.
It'll never have the types of games that sell systems, and even $250 is too expensive for the people they are going after (try $99...which the Wii should probably sell for given the internals).
The big problem for the Wii is getting REAL developer support. It's being looked at as a place to dump ports, a few new levels on a (XBOX/PS2) franchise and quickie games. That's not system selling support.
We also know (based on the Gamecube) that Nintendo dev studios can't make a hit console on their own (the rabid fanbase speaks to their quality....don't get me wrong....they just can't make PS2 style success from scratch). Nintendo's games have niched themselves - if you are buying a Wii to play Zelda, there is a 95% chance you already own a Wii.
Marketing of news networks, whether it be propagandist preaching to the converted masses or middle of the road schlock....either way they all make a buck by reporting on pandering, dead models and oddity. Corporate News is a product that occasionally reports facts, and even more & more rarely offers reason. They don't offer controversy, they offer product.
Controversy, by definition, is a dispute...different reasoning...differing opinions....debate. Controversy is NOT questions - it's different answers - debate.
Democracy's & republic's function poorly with debate. Without debate they don't function at all (why we are in Iraq).
You'll never find the truth if you only ask questions. At some point you have to propose an answer. Unfortunately, answers hurt peoples faith & weakens even the most potent demagogue. Your typical Bill O'Reilly fan's head would asplode if they read Chomsky or Zinn. A multitude of answers could lead people astray from what the corporate media wants them to think. We've always been at war with Eurasia.
Talking about politics without expressing any actual viewpoint is pointless. The purpose of debate is controversy. Rational arguments can & SHOULD offend people.
It was fear of polemics that let a nation ignore debate on an issue as grand as war. It was our (corporate friendly) 'creative' people - hollywood & music industries - that were scared into avoiding any discussion/debate of the war in Iraq. The right wing martyr'ed the one country act that spoke their minds, and everyone else fell in line. Only now, when the war is well past being a lost cause, quite obviously, to even casual observers, can people stand up and question it. All that death, destruction and instability.....in an abuse of fear, wrapped in the flag, to sell the fear of polemics....of debate....of controversy.
The Core was a joke, but it's the joke that will probably help MS top Sony this generation. It brought the 'foot in door' cost of the 360 to $300, which is alot easier for the mind to rest on than the $500/600 PS3.
This joke is only half up though. The real punchline will be the 'new' XBOX 360's released this year with Many-GB HD's (and a cheap/cool chip inside). You know that's what this is about.
Why don't he push the graphical limits on cell phones then? Cause he's not about obsolete or underpowered hardware. This is the problem with the Wii. While Publishers might find it appealling cause lots are selling, game developers aren't going to creatively make new games for antiquated hardware. The console lends itself to ports and 'gimmicky' games (rhythm, wacky use of the control setup, etc), but no one is going teach the old dog new tricks.
I kind of look at the Wii as the dollar theatre of gaming (if they still have those). It's definitely a publsher's dream though, especially one that has a back catalog of on the PS2/XBOX, cause they are just a port/new control scheme/new levels away from having a brand new $50 box in retail.
That's what I was thinking. Gatorade used at Marathons & the like has double the normal Sodium, not to mention the high quantity found in Gel Packs, etc. Still, even if they were balancing electrolytes, it's just not right to mess with the body chemistry like that. Nothing in that quantity can be a good thing. It can be risky with a seasoned runner, and a runner will have better feel for where their body is at than your average radio show contestant.
It's amazing how fast Sony became irrelevant. WTF were they thinking....they made a console that no developer will make money on. The PS3 is going to go down as possibly the biggest console crash (from dominant first place PS2 to Dreamcast-style disaster PS3). To anyone that doesn't know this....ever developer is bailing on the console. I mean everyone too...developers can't even make money on the PS3 in Japan.
On the other hand, while I think Nintendo has some major weak points....like how long they can carry the Wii-stick gimmick out and the increasingly obsolete hardware of the Wii (starting at launch day).....they still have an iron grip on the handheld market and have a real shot at making everyone forget their last two home console outings. We'll see how long they can ride that.
And Microsoft, as usual, gets by just by being steady. They never have the most amazing product, but always have enough cash and competence (not brilliance) to stay in the game. The reality is the XBOX 360 is the best product this generation. It might not have the whiz-bang gimmick (Wii) or technology doodads (ps3), but (because of Sony's screw ups) it will have all the games, cause it is the most viable platform for developers.
Zelda was a Gamecube port. It was held back on the Gamecube solely to be a Wii launch title. Besides that, what do you have on the Wii? The games fall into two categories based on what I've seen: Tech demos (Wii Sports) or 3rd party XBOX ports (usually bad ones). Still, it's a pretty strong launch, solely based on Zelda.
The problem is that the Wii launch, constitutes almost the entire production from Nintendo game studios over the last couple years, cause they sure weren't making Gamecube games. I'm sure they have a Mario and Metroid game in 2007, but what has Nintendo done to prevent a drought after that? The real problem is that Nintendo consoles still rely on Nintendo providing all the games worth playing and they just don't make them fast enough, for a broad enough market, or even at the same level as in the past. The reason the PS1 or PS2 was consistent was not cause of Sony's games, but cause of 3rd parties.
3rd party Developers are not looking at the Wii as a place to make new creative games - why do it on old technology? The Wii is going to be looked at as a dumping ground or a place to make a cheap buck. PS2/XBOX ports, new levels on an old engine, rework the control scheme and push it out the door. Look at the Wii version of Far Cry or the fact that the 'new' Wii Prince of Persia is actually the OLD Prince of Persia (with NEW control scheme!) that came out last year for examples of this.
I've played most of what's out there and nothing compares to Halo. Simply put, Halo is strategy mixed with visceral combat in the most balanced online gaming experience avaiable. The only reason millions still play Halo 2 online is cause the experience is that good.
Thanks for some common sense. It's just like money won on the stock market - you aren't taxed on day to day winnings. You pay tax (capital gains) on PROFITS, and ONLY when the stocks turn into cash. There is no way the IRS can track every transaction of every market, nor would they want to. All they need to catch is the point things are converted into real world money.
I wouldn't say they did something right, but rather, right something that was going very wrong. They planned on taking a flagship game and tainting it with micro-payment stank. Even ignoring the fact that it was floating a sketchy pay-model on a last generation game, it would not have been real popular. So, they bit the cost for developing it in exchange for some PR. Good move by Sony and that hasn't been said enough in 2006.
Is this shocking to anyone? Why would you devote a team of developers to a game that is already finished? While a leisure activity, gaming is STILL a business.
There are two things that will drive downloadable content:
1) DIY, homebrew. Huge fans of a game or people with way too much time on their hands (depending on your perspective). The problem is there is a danger letting people write code for you machine. This would open systems to hacks or malicious content, so everything would have to be checked out.
2) A viable market for add-ons or episodic content. They will build it if enough people pay for it.
What would really be cool is a mix of the two. They should let people make percentage of sales for submitting add ons. Since the days of making a game in the garage are fading with the Cecille B DeMille budgets we are seeing....this would give kids today a chance to break in and also insure that mods are 'safe' to use. The sad reality here is the cost to make sure they are safe is probably not worth the pennies to be made from the mod-market.
Microsoft is really the only console maker that has ventured online in any substantial way. They locked down their hardware and sealed off the wild wild internet (no IE on the 360) for good reason.
I really think the Wii and/or the PS3 are going to be hacked to death. They have browsers, neither are experienced here and with Sony in particular, the whole thing seems kinda....rushed(?). I mean, with the media they are fine - people won't be burning blu-ray cheap enough soon enough. One click pirated downloads would be even worse though...it would be much easier. Given the cost & market for the PS3, a hack like this would be instant death for developer support.
True. The guide these people need is 'how to get a life'. Get some real interests and hobbies. Get a girlfriend .
And for what? You get a game console during what's guaranteed to be its worst 6 months, when its games are the fewest, most limited and even the crap ones cost full price.
I'm waiting for either/both the PS3 and the Wii to be hacked. Microsoft seems to have put alot of thought into putting the XBOX & its predecessor online. They don't offer a browser or any means to navigate the internet and offer no user created content that I know of, etc. If they DID offer way to move around, they would own the code - not let Opera build it. if Sony & Nintendo leave even one door open and you'd have a console that could browse to a hackers site, download a (pirated) game, and play it.
My 'comfort' VG's are Tetris (played manically), only while on an airplane, and the Civ series. The manic games of Tetris calm me down. It's basically escapism @ 30k feet, since I'm a nervous flyer. I usually play a Civ 4 game (or before that it's predecessors) when I'm sick at home, or in a hotel for work. There is no better mind numbing escapism than Civ 4.
I worded that bad. I meant the people who buy & use portable gaming systems tend to be younger than the average console gamer, not that the markets maturity factors in.
And, yes, Nintendo has dominated the portable gaming industry since the launch of original gameboy - for good reason. In every clash they have had the better product and that includes the DS vs PSP match up.
I do think this market will expand greatly and get far more competitive in the next cycle. The stigma of gaming will fade (adults will play in public) and dual use devices (phone/ipod/gaming) will make it more prevalent & easier to carry for an adult than a Purple Gameboy of the past would be. The Zune will go against the Gameboy, eventually.
IT is easy to compare cause they are sticking with ATI/PowerPC. The Gamecube had a 485Mhz PowerPC processor and the Wii will supposedly have one about 800Mhz or less. How is that tripling the power?
It's funny that Nintendo has declared a monopoly on innovation. Why? Cause you can download games and play online? Cause they have a controller that responds to motion? These things have been done before and they aren't going to change things. It will be fun for a game for most and won't have longevity. It's a gimmick.
Yes, we don't know the exact specs yet, Nintendo hasn't released them for good reason. As I understand it the processor on the Wii is made by IBM and is 800Mhz or less, single core. That is 2002 technology. That's not even in the same ballpark as the competition, each of which use 3.2Ghz multi-core processors.
The handheld market is a different game. The market is younger and Nintendo launched the DS in the position they still have - the dominant player in handhelds. The only competition is Sony and the jack-of-all-master-of-none, that is the PSP, doesn't have the games to wedge into the GBA/DS space.
The Wii is launching from a company that was once dominant has, on two successive cycles, lost market share - has sold less consoles. The technology is not just unimpressive, it's backwards and it doesn't have the price advantage to make it look any better than the 'big boys'. The only real selling point the Wii has over the competition is Nintendo's stable of games, and look where that has got them since the N64.
This is a console with about the same horsepower as the original XBOX (technology circa 2002) with a new age powerglove for a controller, all selling at a premium price. This thing will be a museum piece long before it reaches the traditional console end-of-life cycle. It's just not worth it.
It looks like they are trying to nab the Ipod branding playbook (look at name, website, color, presumption of a monopoly on 'fun' (Ipod uses 'cool'), etc), and that's what they hope to justify the price with. I think any gain of market share this generation for Nintendo will have more to do with gross incompetence on Sony's part, rather then the Wii product.
Slashdot Mirror
First off....Microsoft really could care less about HD-DVD or BluRay. Sony is the one living in the past here, hoping for the second coming of the DVD. Microsoft supports HD-DVD, but knows the future is digital and has no big stake in either format.
When will you see HD-DVD'ed 360's? When Microsoft can release it without scaring more than 1% of their target market for the low end models. Why?
The strength of Microsoft's position w/ the 360 is that they can compete on all ends of the market. They have the 'Arcade' 360, with the price of the Wii, the power of the PS3 and the best game lineup on the market. They also have their top line product, as powerful as the PS3 and priced less than its low end model (after the price drop coming in a few weeks). Would they sacrifice this to let some developer publish on a HD-DVD disk? Not going to happen.
Note something about why the PS3 is damned to failure....Sony sold over 100 million PS2 systems. The problem is that 90% of those were sold at under $200. When will the PS3 reach $200 at a break even point? Never.
Now, some reality on the Wii....its attach rate sucks. The fact is that the system is selling to fans of Nintendo, just like their previous consoles. This isn't a revolution, it's a fad. 3rd party support isn't based on the potential, but rather the ease of porting an old game or game engine to a 'new' (old) machine.
So what does this mean? The Wii is a underpowered niche-fad with an attach rate that proves its market is the Nintendo fanbase alone, just like the Gamecube. Sony has squandered dominance to shill launch day obsolescence, in search of past glories, with a new disk format that nobody wants. Microsoft is gifted another market to lead, by giving what the market wants.
People will disagree with me. Tell me I'm wrong in 3 months, and again in 6 months. You'll see, and trust me I'm no happier than you are.
I agree to a point. Bad box art might be indicative of bad marketing in general - and might be a good sign of a game financially underperforming. We live in a sea of information though. It takes more than a cool picture to sell things. Most decisions are made from other factors....a kid buys a game cause they play it at their friends, read about it on a gaming site or they hear about it through ads. The store clerk's recommendation probably has more sway than the box cover in prompting someone to pick it up. When it comes to closing the sale, the back of the box has more sway than the front.
LOAD "*",8 ,1
Less prone to breaking....wtf. Yes, reduced complexity means it's less likely to break, but why don't they just give out rocks and call it the PS3? Think of the sales line.....no heat, quiet and it's almost impossible to break. You buy a game console cause it PLAYS GAMES.
Buy this new car, it's just like the old one, but it makes less noise, generates alot less heat and is less likely to break.....we took out the A/C-Heating system.
Nintendo has a rabid fanbase, but it gets very shallow beyond that. The Wii is selling on hype & PS3 sticker shock. A price drop on the XBOX 360, bringing it to parity with the Wii, and things are going to change fast.
It'll never have the types of games that sell systems, and even $250 is too expensive for the people they are going after (try $99...which the Wii should probably sell for given the internals).
The big problem for the Wii is getting REAL developer support. It's being looked at as a place to dump ports, a few new levels on a (XBOX/PS2) franchise and quickie games. That's not system selling support.
We also know (based on the Gamecube) that Nintendo dev studios can't make a hit console on their own (the rabid fanbase speaks to their quality....don't get me wrong....they just can't make PS2 style success from scratch). Nintendo's games have niched themselves - if you are buying a Wii to play Zelda, there is a 95% chance you already own a Wii.
Marketing of news networks, whether it be propagandist preaching to the converted masses or middle of the road schlock....either way they all make a buck by reporting on pandering, dead models and oddity. Corporate News is a product that occasionally reports facts, and even more & more rarely offers reason. They don't offer controversy, they offer product.
Controversy, by definition, is a dispute...different reasoning...differing opinions....debate. Controversy is NOT questions - it's different answers - debate.
Democracy's & republic's function poorly with debate. Without debate they don't function at all (why we are in Iraq).
You'll never find the truth if you only ask questions. At some point you have to propose an answer. Unfortunately, answers hurt peoples faith & weakens even the most potent demagogue. Your typical Bill O'Reilly fan's head would asplode if they read Chomsky or Zinn. A multitude of answers could lead people astray from what the corporate media wants them to think. We've always been at war with Eurasia.
Talking about politics without expressing any actual viewpoint is pointless. The purpose of debate is controversy. Rational arguments can & SHOULD offend people.
It was fear of polemics that let a nation ignore debate on an issue as grand as war. It was our (corporate friendly) 'creative' people - hollywood & music industries - that were scared into avoiding any discussion/debate of the war in Iraq. The right wing martyr'ed the one country act that spoke their minds, and everyone else fell in line. Only now, when the war is well past being a lost cause, quite obviously, to even casual observers, can people stand up and question it. All that death, destruction and instability.....in an abuse of fear, wrapped in the flag, to sell the fear of polemics....of debate....of controversy.
The Core was a joke, but it's the joke that will probably help MS top Sony this generation. It brought the 'foot in door' cost of the 360 to $300, which is alot easier for the mind to rest on than the $500/600 PS3.
This joke is only half up though. The real punchline will be the 'new' XBOX 360's released this year with Many-GB HD's (and a cheap/cool chip inside). You know that's what this is about.
Why don't he push the graphical limits on cell phones then? Cause he's not about obsolete or underpowered hardware. This is the problem with the Wii. While Publishers might find it appealling cause lots are selling, game developers aren't going to creatively make new games for antiquated hardware. The console lends itself to ports and 'gimmicky' games (rhythm, wacky use of the control setup, etc), but no one is going teach the old dog new tricks.
I kind of look at the Wii as the dollar theatre of gaming (if they still have those). It's definitely a publsher's dream though, especially one that has a back catalog of on the PS2/XBOX, cause they are just a port/new control scheme/new levels away from having a brand new $50 box in retail.
That's what I was thinking. Gatorade used at Marathons & the like has double the normal Sodium, not to mention the high quantity found in Gel Packs, etc. Still, even if they were balancing electrolytes, it's just not right to mess with the body chemistry like that. Nothing in that quantity can be a good thing. It can be risky with a seasoned runner, and a runner will have better feel for where their body is at than your average radio show contestant.
It's amazing how fast Sony became irrelevant. WTF were they thinking....they made a console that no developer will make money on. The PS3 is going to go down as possibly the biggest console crash (from dominant first place PS2 to Dreamcast-style disaster PS3). To anyone that doesn't know this....ever developer is bailing on the console. I mean everyone too...developers can't even make money on the PS3 in Japan. On the other hand, while I think Nintendo has some major weak points....like how long they can carry the Wii-stick gimmick out and the increasingly obsolete hardware of the Wii (starting at launch day).....they still have an iron grip on the handheld market and have a real shot at making everyone forget their last two home console outings. We'll see how long they can ride that. And Microsoft, as usual, gets by just by being steady. They never have the most amazing product, but always have enough cash and competence (not brilliance) to stay in the game. The reality is the XBOX 360 is the best product this generation. It might not have the whiz-bang gimmick (Wii) or technology doodads (ps3), but (because of Sony's screw ups) it will have all the games, cause it is the most viable platform for developers.
The problem is that the Wii launch, constitutes almost the entire production from Nintendo game studios over the last couple years, cause they sure weren't making Gamecube games. I'm sure they have a Mario and Metroid game in 2007, but what has Nintendo done to prevent a drought after that? The real problem is that Nintendo consoles still rely on Nintendo providing all the games worth playing and they just don't make them fast enough, for a broad enough market, or even at the same level as in the past. The reason the PS1 or PS2 was consistent was not cause of Sony's games, but cause of 3rd parties.
3rd party Developers are not looking at the Wii as a place to make new creative games - why do it on old technology? The Wii is going to be looked at as a dumping ground or a place to make a cheap buck. PS2/XBOX ports, new levels on an old engine, rework the control scheme and push it out the door. Look at the Wii version of Far Cry or the fact that the 'new' Wii Prince of Persia is actually the OLD Prince of Persia (with NEW control scheme!) that came out last year for examples of this.
I've played most of what's out there and nothing compares to Halo. Simply put, Halo is strategy mixed with visceral combat in the most balanced online gaming experience avaiable. The only reason millions still play Halo 2 online is cause the experience is that good.
Thanks for some common sense. It's just like money won on the stock market - you aren't taxed on day to day winnings. You pay tax (capital gains) on PROFITS, and ONLY when the stocks turn into cash. There is no way the IRS can track every transaction of every market, nor would they want to. All they need to catch is the point things are converted into real world money.
I wouldn't say they did something right, but rather, right something that was going very wrong. They planned on taking a flagship game and tainting it with micro-payment stank. Even ignoring the fact that it was floating a sketchy pay-model on a last generation game, it would not have been real popular. So, they bit the cost for developing it in exchange for some PR. Good move by Sony and that hasn't been said enough in 2006.
1) DIY, homebrew. Huge fans of a game or people with way too much time on their hands (depending on your perspective). The problem is there is a danger letting people write code for you machine. This would open systems to hacks or malicious content, so everything would have to be checked out.
2) A viable market for add-ons or episodic content. They will build it if enough people pay for it.
What would really be cool is a mix of the two. They should let people make percentage of sales for submitting add ons. Since the days of making a game in the garage are fading with the Cecille B DeMille budgets we are seeing....this would give kids today a chance to break in and also insure that mods are 'safe' to use. The sad reality here is the cost to make sure they are safe is probably not worth the pennies to be made from the mod-market.
I really think the Wii and/or the PS3 are going to be hacked to death. They have browsers, neither are experienced here and with Sony in particular, the whole thing seems kinda....rushed(?). I mean, with the media they are fine - people won't be burning blu-ray cheap enough soon enough. One click pirated downloads would be even worse though...it would be much easier. Given the cost & market for the PS3, a hack like this would be instant death for developer support.
True. The guide these people need is 'how to get a life'. Get some real interests and hobbies. Get a girlfriend . And for what? You get a game console during what's guaranteed to be its worst 6 months, when its games are the fewest, most limited and even the crap ones cost full price.
I'm waiting for either/both the PS3 and the Wii to be hacked. Microsoft seems to have put alot of thought into putting the XBOX & its predecessor online. They don't offer a browser or any means to navigate the internet and offer no user created content that I know of, etc. If they DID offer way to move around, they would own the code - not let Opera build it. if Sony & Nintendo leave even one door open and you'd have a console that could browse to a hackers site, download a (pirated) game, and play it.
My 'comfort' VG's are Tetris (played manically), only while on an airplane, and the Civ series. The manic games of Tetris calm me down. It's basically escapism @ 30k feet, since I'm a nervous flyer. I usually play a Civ 4 game (or before that it's predecessors) when I'm sick at home, or in a hotel for work. There is no better mind numbing escapism than Civ 4.
And, yes, Nintendo has dominated the portable gaming industry since the launch of original gameboy - for good reason. In every clash they have had the better product and that includes the DS vs PSP match up.
I do think this market will expand greatly and get far more competitive in the next cycle. The stigma of gaming will fade (adults will play in public) and dual use devices (phone/ipod/gaming) will make it more prevalent & easier to carry for an adult than a Purple Gameboy of the past would be. The Zune will go against the Gameboy, eventually.
It's funny that Nintendo has declared a monopoly on innovation. Why? Cause you can download games and play online? Cause they have a controller that responds to motion? These things have been done before and they aren't going to change things. It will be fun for a game for most and won't have longevity. It's a gimmick.
Yes, we don't know the exact specs yet, Nintendo hasn't released them for good reason. As I understand it the processor on the Wii is made by IBM and is 800Mhz or less, single core. That is 2002 technology. That's not even in the same ballpark as the competition, each of which use 3.2Ghz multi-core processors.
The Wii is launching from a company that was once dominant has, on two successive cycles, lost market share - has sold less consoles. The technology is not just unimpressive, it's backwards and it doesn't have the price advantage to make it look any better than the 'big boys'. The only real selling point the Wii has over the competition is Nintendo's stable of games, and look where that has got them since the N64.
It looks like they are trying to nab the Ipod branding playbook (look at name, website, color, presumption of a monopoly on 'fun' (Ipod uses 'cool'), etc), and that's what they hope to justify the price with. I think any gain of market share this generation for Nintendo will have more to do with gross incompetence on Sony's part, rather then the Wii product.