Fourth Storm said:
From the sound of the article (and from the few murmers we heard in the past), Nintendo doesn't plan on drastically changing the input this time around. At the same time, if Natal and Move are out next year are cheaper, and have a higher userbase than Nintendo's new system, where does that leave Nintendo?
And doesn't Nintendo run the risk of catching Dreamcast syndrome if it comes out with a comparable, but weaker system a year ahead of the pack?
As for power, I'm hoping for it to be AT LEAST the Wii to 360's Gamecube if that analogy makes any sense.
No. Launching a new console wouldn't be a response to MS and Sony launching Natal and Move.
Nintendo is really good at predicting downward trends. If you go back and look at when the DS Lite and DSi were announced, it was always after a slow downward trend of hardware and software sales.
Now, the Wii is seeing an always decreasing number of announcements from third parties. In Japan, this has been especially noticeable for a while. Third parties are bailing the fuck out en masse and those who stay have very few titles of large appeal that are guaranteed to get blockbuster levels of sales, with some possible breakouts and many probable failures.
Yes, Nintendo software does always sell incredible amounts, but third party software sales bring home a significant amount of royalty money that I really doubt Nintendo wants to give up so easily.
Considering how the Wii seems to be in a downward trend in both hardware and software sales everywhere, I wouldn't really be surprised if they decided to launch another platform soon.
Their goal might not be replacing the Wii, even though "fastest-selling console ever" doesn't really mean much if revenue is going down, but at least placing something else on its side and let the market decide.
With this I'm not saying OMG THEY'RE GOING TO ANNOUNCE WII HD NAO!!!!111! I'm just saying that, if they did, it wouldn't be so puzzling and random. It would make a lot of sense.