@ixaarii, Hardcore gamers do not all want GTA, Final Fantasy, and Assassin's Creed specifically. It is more about having games that have certain experiences. Thus far Nintendo (and somewhat some of the third parties) have managed to get out games geared specifically to the hardcore - e.g. Metroid, the Resident Evils, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, Galaxy, Guitar Hero 3, and even Manhunt 2. All of these games managed to look pretty good or great and all had a good amount of world detail (especially Metroid and Galaxy). The hardcore gamer is still being fed games that they want, but the hardcore is starting to feel a cold wind from Nintendo and next year is going to be the real proving year as whether Nintendo is going to be able to get third parties and their internal studios to get out good and great hardcore games out on the Wii.
It's not really that Nintendo will have "to catch up" in a couple of years, but rather that they will need to update. They have already managed to surpass their competitors in a couple of important areas (mass appeal, proving new control schemes that feel better than traditional controls, and in first party quality). The largest reason for Nintendo to release a Wii 2 in about 2010 is to maintain hardcore audiences that they have at that time, bring more appeal to the console (if at that time HD is finally widespread - like at least 70% of populations), and continue to maintain momentum or increase the momentum of sales of the Wii.
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Hardcore gamers do not all want GTA, Final Fantasy, and Assassin's Creed specifically. It is more about having games that have certain experiences. Thus far Nintendo (and somewhat some of the third parties) have managed to get out games geared specifically to the hardcore - e.g. Metroid, the Resident Evils, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, Galaxy, Guitar Hero 3, and even Manhunt 2. All of these games managed to look pretty good or great and all had a good amount of world detail (especially Metroid and Galaxy). The hardcore gamer is still being fed games that they want, but the hardcore is starting to feel a cold wind from Nintendo and next year is going to be the real proving year as whether Nintendo is going to be able to get third parties and their internal studios to get out good and great hardcore games out on the Wii.
It's not really that Nintendo will have "to catch up" in a couple of years, but rather that they will need to update. They have already managed to surpass their competitors in a couple of important areas (mass appeal, proving new control schemes that feel better than traditional controls, and in first party quality). The largest reason for Nintendo to release a Wii 2 in about 2010 is to maintain hardcore audiences that they have at that time, bring more appeal to the console (if at that time HD is finally widespread - like at least 70% of populations), and continue to maintain momentum or increase the momentum of sales of the Wii.