Topic: Wii had a good time, but...

At times during the N64 & GameCube years it appeared to myself & others that Nintendo was in danger of losing the home console market & would become solely a handheld games company. Clearly these fears were premature, but Nintendo did seem to rely on their handheld market to get through; at times Pokemon looked like a life support machine when the PS2 was in full stride.

Most games that I want to play these days are on the DS & most games I'd want to be made could be on the DS also. Mario Galaxy & Brawl might be exceptions, but as others have loudly noted, there aren't many killer titles on the Wii. I don't really mind this myself, I'm happy with the few on Wii, & have the VC & DS to keep me content.

This did raise a question to me though:

With the current capabilities of handheld consoles, Nintendo's apparent focus in this area & with Microsoft doing well in the home console market with no handheld to speak of:

Would Nintendo pulling out of the home console market & focusing solely on handheld gaming represent the blow to their fans as it would have done a decade ago?

I can't see where Nintendo go from here in the home market (albeit, not for the first time), libraries of old games can be downloaded onto a handheld system, & the successor to the DS would surely be extremely capable of handling 3D games.

No doubt others have asked this question & can guess my answer.

But what do you think?

Would it be so terrible if the Wii was Nintendo's last home console?

The above question is hypothetical, I realise the Wii is selling very well & that Nintendo are working on a successor in the home console market.

I don't think that Ninty is going to lose in the home market any time soon, but as far as "how bad would it be if they went handheld only?" Well, frankly, I would hate it. Handheld games are basically smaller, more bite-sized versions of their more fun and impressive brethren (IMO). I enjoy my DS and my iTouch but I couldn't game without my Wii and my other consoles. You need both worlds really. I think Ninty knows this.

Honestly I dont think that scenario would happen, but funny thing is. Im perfectly happy with Nintendo just being on handhelds. As that is about the only way I still play Nintendo games. I have a really hard time sitting down in front of my Flat Screen TV in my Game Room and playing anything that isn't HD Gaming. Call me graphics whore or whatever I dont care but I enjoy my Nintendo Gaming the most in portable games. As the handhelds are getting more powerful, the better the games could get. I enjoyed Galaxy and Twilight Princess, etc. but I still enjoy the old school Nintendo titles more. I know a LOT of people dont agree with me, but its just my opinion. I really REALLY love my DS, to me its where the True Nintendo titles are today.

If the Nintendo Wii was there last console, I would quit gaming forever.

Oh for the love of God.

They are having success with the wii like not any other home console from them in decades. It beated the almighty NES and Hardcore-favorite SNES....what makes you think they will leave the market? If they didn't when the SNES, N64 and GC started to lose people...it doesn't make any sense they will drop the market at all. They are an integrated hardware and software company. They know that their products need a platform that they design and make for it. They won't give such chance to another company, not in the position they are at the moment.

In any case, if there's a company that may leave the console market is Sony. They have been making many mistakes, losing ,arket share and losing lots of money. And yet I doubt that will happen.

How about Sony and Microsoft consdier no more consoles considering they can't sell nearly as many of theirs as Nintendo can?

Where do you think of these things? If Nintendo wasn't around, innovation in video games would be all but gone.

Nintendo will NEVER leave the market of course not, I stated I like the handhelds better with Nintendo as a personal preferance, but Sony isn't going anywhere and they are the company that is putting a LOT of competition on Nintendo, not to mention the PS2 is the most successful console in the world, don't think they are going anywhere either.

Sony arguably had the best lineup gamewise in 2009 (and possibly 2010 depending on what hasn't been announced yet) so I wouldn't worry about them too much. The PS3 price drop was a nice gift from them as well. The DS owns the handheld market but the PSP provides good competition. Before the PSP, no handheld even survived against the GameBoy lines. The PSP hasn't faded into obscurity like the Game Gear and the Lynx. The DS is probably the best gaming system of this generation but it still wasn't enough to crush and kill off the competition like Nintendo did in the past.

There are a lot of really good games out for the Wii. It bothers me when people think that there isn't.

I wouldn't mind seeing a handheld only Nintendo. Especially since I'm expecting the next portable from them to be at least powerful as a GameCube (hope those aren't too high of hopes). Right now about 90% of my nintendo gaming is on the handheld. If they were going to be only handheld though, there would need to be a hookup to play on a big screen TV when I wanted to not see a small(er) screen (expecting the next handheld to have quite a bigger screen. I think the DSi XL is testing the waters for that). Maybe the "Wii2" will be a handheld DS2 as well that looks like the "Wii1" only when your on the go the side panel flips up and there are two screens hidden .

Kind of like this only more streamlined.

I hate handheld gaming. So if they did that, I would hate Nintendo. Sony would be my new gaming choice.

I completely agree with the opening statements presented in the first two paragraphs.

Thinking about Nintendo dropping out of the home console market makes me sad for some reason, even though I rarely play the Wii.
From a business standpoint I'd suppose it to be a foul move, to dominate a hardware generation then pull back. Also their top line of games would suffer, in the presentation department, they wouldn't really be able to make games that wowed players with only good looks (although there's a potential silver lining, since they couldn't rely on presentation, the games might end up being better in every other area). I don't really think there's much room for conversation in this topic though since everyone who were to comment would just be speculating.

Double post, because thar' be no multiquote!

If you're getting bite-sized versions of console games on your handheld, you're buying the wrong games. (The DS/Wii ratio of real games to minigames collections/short-lived gimmicks, is probably leaning in the DSs favour too).

In my 41 (I believe that's how many) DS games, none of them are bite-sized portions, they're all full games, with large amounts of content and playability to be had.

Great read Cowlaunch! This is something I've never thought about before. The Wii has had a good run and I've been playing a bunch of everyone-says-they're-bad-but-they're-not games like Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings and Cursed Mountain.

The thing is while the Wii has had a good run, much better than some people say quality wise, I just don't see where Nintendo will go from here. As much fun as I had with Wii the DS still had the biggest impact on me IMHO. Similar to the PS2 last gen, the DS has a treasure trove of games anyone can enjoy. Heck, Nintendo could stop making games for it and leave it on auto-pilot for third parties and it would still be a heck of a system.

I always see Nintendo as being different as both their blessing and curse. That went all out in making a unique control scheme but nothing and I mean NOTHING else. They don't follow their competition to meet with something better. No answer to achievements, no coherent online play, no HD, etc. etc. If Nintendo doesn't ever follow suit in any of those areas, then what exactly is their plan to move the industry forward with their next platform?

For "serious" gaming, I go for the XBox every time.
For portable gaming, I go for the PSP every time.
For entire-family gaming, I go for the Wii.

I'm not quite the Nintendo nut that some of you are, but they have made a great console that brings people together for decent gaming in a group setting.

I'd rather Nintendo focus on console games instead of consoles, anyway. They're better at software than hardware. I certainly appreciate the cheaper price point, but when everyone is talking about 6+ year life cycles, I'd rather spend the big bucks and have something that isn't already outdated. By the end of this generation, it'll be terribly outdated. Without hardware to rely on, they'd be forced to put out more games more often to get by, which would only be for the best, as far as gamers are concerned. They'd be crazy not to make a new console eventually, but I really can't say I'm rooting for it to succeed, and unless it's something mind blowing, I can't see myself getting another one.

I agree. Nintendo only comes out with a few major games a year, and they've always struggled with third party support. They'd still make a ton of money, and they'd still get to keep all their franchises. The thing is, Nintendo's hardware is always based around their software--they'd be at the mercy of other companies consoles, with may or may not cater to what they want or need to make their games.

Every console will have motion control soon, and most Nintendo games barely use it to begin with. NSMBW, Galaxy, Brawl, these would play well on any traditional controller. Wii Fit relies on a peripheral, which they surely could still make for other consoles if they wanted, not that most gamers would cry if it were gone. I've heard this said a lot, but I don't see it. The controller was the only major unique feature of the console, and it's not going to be unique much longer. All the console will have going for it is its completely inferior hardware, ignoring games for this discussion.

The reason we love Nintendo is the games. So as long as Nintendo is making great games, I don't care what console they do it on. I think they should keep doing handhelds, though, as there's are always superior.