New Wii a While Away

[lost]

Speaking to Reuters Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime filled us in on Nintendo's plan for the future. He suggests, among other things, that the Wii will not be replaced for some time. A quick summary of his points.


Replacement Wii/DS not for some time.
No planned price cuts for any of Nintendo's consoles.
Nintendo, unsurprisingly, optimistic about future sales.
Nintendo believes there will be absolutely no shortage of consoles this Christmas.
Believes "evergreen" titles like Super Mario Bros. signal that digital distribution has a long way to go before it kills packaged products.

You can read the full interview right here. (http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2008/11/14/nintendos-reggie-fils-aime-very-optimistic/)

Not sure how consistently selling products suggest that digital distribution won't kill packaged products.

[Flatpicker]

Speaking to Reuters Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime filled us in on Nintendo's plan for the future. He suggests, among other things, that the Wii will not be replaced for some time. A quick summary of his points.

Replacement Wii/DS not for some time.
No planned price cuts for any of Nintendo's consoles.
Nintendo, unsurprisingly, optimistic about future sales.
Nintendo believes there will be absolutely no shortage of consoles this Christmas.
Believes "evergreen" titles like Super Mario Bros. signal that digital distribution has a long way to go before it kills packaged products.You can read the full interview right here. (http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2008/11/14/nintendos-reggie-fils-aime-very-optimistic/)

Not sure how consistently selling products suggest that digital distribution won't kill packaged products.

Esp when they are talking about select product with huge name recognition.
There will always be some packaged games, just like there is a market for Vinyl. Dosen't make it more than a niche in the future though.

[sixtyfps]

Regarding their position on DLC: maybe if my Wii's account was tied to my identity instead of to my console until it gets reformatted, I'd feel more inclinded to buy more of their points.

When I bought [a license to play] Super Mario Bros. 3 for the third time, I justified the transaction with a little well-it's-digital-so-this'll-be-the-last-time-I-have-to-pay-for-it shrug. You know what? not if your console goes missing or if you plan on selling it (http://techforums.nintendo.com/nins/board/message?board.id=gamehelp_vc&thread.id=2846).

Are either of the other consoles more reminiscent of PC digital delivery?

[teksama]

I can not sell digital games to gamestop/gamecrazy/whoever

[Roc Ingersol]

Are either of the other consoles more reminiscent of PC digital delivery?The 360 ties everything to your gamertag. If it didn't, Marketplace would probably have choked to death due RRoD issues.

To be fair: it also half-ties games to the console you downloaded them on. So you don't have to be online to play, say, Castle Crashers on the 360 you originally bought it on. But you can download Castle Crashers and play it on as many additional consoles as you like, so long as you're connected to Live. Also, once a year you can now reset all your DLC to be authenticated to a new/single console. Handy if you're on your third console due hardware problems and just sprung for a 60GB so it doesn't sound like a damned Harrier.

Taken together, it's equivalent to Steam; maybe even a touch better, since XBL's 'offline' mode works most of the time.

[JazGalaxy]

My future life goals:

Make/Win/Steal a bunch of money.

Buy Kings Quest License from Sierra.

Wait until new Wii comes out.

Reboot KQ franchise as a launch game for new Wii.

[Johan]

Unlike many gamers, I see absolutely no reason why a gaming company like Nintendo should replace successful hardware with new hardware. In my opinion, the DS and Wii are both phenomenally successful and neither requires replacing. Yet.

I think the DSi is a waste, as well. I see no need for it, except perhaps to prevent piracy by crippling R4 cards...

[sixtyfps]

Taken together, it's equivalent to Steam; maybe even a touch better, since XBL's 'offline' mode works most of the time.

That's good news, but will XBL games transfer to a new generation of hardware the way PC games [theoretically] will? I mean, that's another knock against consoles that has me overwhelmingly preferring PC versions of DD content where they exist; will I always have to keep old hardware around to enjoy the new classics?

I mean, it's 2008!