this conversation seems to be going nowhere fast, but, i can't resist making myself heard ^_~ i agree with acert93, and think that Nintendo seems to be under the assumption that just because they beat Sega despite never leading the game technologically, that that approach is still working for them. I must say they have done brilliant things with controller innovation, enclosure design, and keeping piracy at bay, which have probably kept them in the game, but they are missing the installed userbase boat and fast.
they're aiming for a lower price point, and it might work for a bit. i know parents that will only buy their kids a system that will cost them say, $150 or less. if Rev could stay about $100 less than the competition, then I think they could get a lot of sales this way. There are IMO two flaws here, however. These same parents are only going to buy one system, and they are looking like the last system to market in this round -- and trailing by far. The other problem is while alienating their older, geekier fanbase, they are relying on kids to support them -- and kids are easily swayed by graphics. Kids are also easily swayed by marketing, so, maybe, maybe Pokemon will save them (again).
If these kids don't bail them out, I see the days of Nintendo as a hardware manufacturer coming to a close. As a fervent supporter of their games, I have mixed feelings about it. It's sort of a shame, since I agree with them, graphics are overrated (i know, blasphemy at B3D, but... i still play more SNES roms than anything else on my fancypants PC). I think it quite admirable that Nintendo has released quality hardware design after quality hardware design, with none of the flaky dvd rom drives, overheating boxes, fragile or poorly shaped controllers (OK N64's controller was pretty lame) -- and always cheap, the way a stupid game console should be. if they could only get the third party support, i'd love to keep buying their products, but... i'm worried they've misjudged the market.
