Ozymandias

"Imagine (as I think is unfortunately likely) that third party support falls off the map by next year"

Care to expand on that? In my opinion, third party support hasn't even been on the map yet as pretty much every 3rd party banked on the PS3 being a runaway success and by the time they saw anything of the Wii, only had time to throw shovelware and ports at it. Unsurprisingly, 3rd party Wii software hasn't done terribly well up till now but I would suggest that it's more because 3rd parties haven't really tried yet, rather than they tried and failed.

Even this week there have been some stories of Japanese publishers shifting serious development resources away from PS3 to the Wii (and if you keep up to date with Media Create, this is only logical!) Given that most were caught out, I doubt very much we'll see the fruits of their labours until this fall and next year.

So certainly 2008 might be a make or break year for 3rd parties and the Wii, but falling off the map? That's a bit of a stretch in my opinion.

The 3rd parties and Nintendo theories are nothing new and of course not without some merit given recent (& not so recent) history. But to write it off by 2008 is not only to ignore the above, but also a rapidly growing install base, a change of attitude at Nintendo with regard to 3rd parties and a far less intimidating development budget required for a Wii title.

Though Nintendo did much of the heavy listing for the DS in the early years, 3rd parties can find success on it. Square Enix in particular are having a fair bit of joy there of late.

Besides, there is always Geometry Wars: Galaxies. That's a 3rd party Wii game I'm definitely buying!

Well, I have a Wii and not to be pesimistic but... *IF* the 3rd party sofware was really dropping, the WiiWare channel would also be condemned, *UNLESS* a self-development kit was released (freely, not on anual subscription)

no matter how good 360 games, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace is, Ring of Death and DVD attack when console is not moving will let the system down.

i am going to write this until m$ fix this. i am on my 14th 360, there aren't as unreliable thing on the universe as m$ PR people and 360. m$ trolls no thanks.

DVD attack?

Has the 360 caused DVDs to come alive and eat you?

Has it devoured your mom? Is that why you're so angry?

This totally happened to me, I was just chillaxing in the EZ chair, drinking my Mountain Dew, stroking my neckbeard and watching some anime, when my Xbox360 grabbed a dvd off the shelf (Akira) and thru it at my head.  Boy was I surprised, in fact it was a surprise DVD attack, then the console totally started moving, and I ran from the room as fast as my fat little legs could carry me.  Ozy, you totally need to do something about the DVD attack.

Hmmm... I hope the Wii survives by the time I buy one. I bought the Gamecube at a super-cheap price but it became an expensive paperweight fairly quickly. To be fair, at least it hasn't glitched or died since I bought it. My original xbox got sick and I am about to send away my 2nd 360 - which, of course, will screw me over once again after buying more arcade games my wife can't play online (great licensing feature, btw).

Great points Oz.  While Nintendo has its wiihead into building 1st party games and Wiiware platform..their cash cow is still portable gaming.  I would like Microsoft to launch a portable gaming platform because I think it will add tremendous value to existing gaming/entertainment platform(s).  Not to mention it will attract a new type of gaming customer for Microsoft.  So where does this leave us...we'll have to see what Microsoft brings to E3!  Timing of the announcement would be perfect.

Also, please increase HD DVD format promotion until after the holiday.  There is no incentive for you guys to capitulate.

Hmmm.

The Wii is marketed to people who are apparently too scared of joypads with more than two buttons.

Yet those people are apparently knowledgeable enough about computing to figure out how to hook up their Wii to the Internet?

And they aren't the kind of people who would never want to do that, because "hooking up to the Internets steals your credit cards!" or other such barely-cogent nonsense?

This doesn't add up. I wouldn't be surprised if the number of Wiis online is actually a small fraction of the 360s, and if ultimately all of this online ends up completely pointless.

Xwar, I know that Nintendo's target market does exist because I just bought my Wii last week and the first thing I did was get WiFi working and download the Opera browser (while it is still a free download). I am a very casual gamer who grew up with Donkey Kong, PacMan, Centipede, yadayada so more than 1 joystick and 2 buttons is way too much for me :-). I love that I can play a quick game of Wii Sports, Wii Play, or Big Brain Academy. I also play the retro classics for GameCube from Namco, Williams, atc. I don't like 1st person shooters or adventure games that take hours to play. I will be downloading some of the classic games from the Wii Shop.

I think you're right about the Wii being a nice system that isn't living up to its own standards.  I can't tell if the control scheme is the problem or just a lack of innovation, but the pack-in demos are still the best things on the system.

I am finding the games I pick up feel more like incomplete demos than complete games.

This includes Wii Play, which I may never pop in again, and Big Brain Academy.  Fun, great party game, nice to build on scores every now and then, but not a fixture.  Resident Evil 4 I have to reserve judgment on.  It's fun but the controls are harder to use than a controller would be.  And when you consider upcoming games like Super Smash Bros are allowing players to use Gamecube remotes or Classic Controllers, I think what you have is a clear indication the Wiimote is failing, not just in third-party software but in FIRST-PARTY software.

Do I think it's doomed?  No, actually I don't.  Families are still very price sensitive.  You can point to the game console sales every month and line them up by price (that includes the PS2, which is about to be a closed library... but they still sell consoles <shrug>).

We're all apparently not early adopters.

Virtual Console and WiiWare are nice, but ironically one of the coolest things I discovered on the system was pointing the Opera browser to WiiCade.com and using the Wiimote to play games there.

The Wii is a bitter sweet subject for me. I have never bought or played a game on it besides Wii Sports. That being said I really want the new Harry Potter game, but I don't know what system I want it for....Xbox360 for Achievments and better graphics or the Wii for the use of the wiimote any suggestions?