Funny thing is this is exactly why I want the Wii U to cost a little more at launch. It's really important to me this upcoming gen that Nintendo works to maintain long-term viability.
Despite my pessimism, I have been a Nintendo gamer since playing with my dad's NES while in diapers. I have entered every gen through Nintendo's gate. I've always gotten Nintendo consoles
first and waited for mid-gen price slashes before picking up other hardware.
I was a Wii-only gamer for the first three years of this gen. Things started getting a bit scarce for me as far as AAA titles that interested me by year two so, when the 360 finally came down in price, I picked one up.
And I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of great games that the 360 already had in its catalog (with a flood of great games still to come), and this was
before I checked out Live.
In short, as a gamer I felt like a fool for sticking with the Wii for so long. An absolute fool.
If there is one thing I'm taking away from this gen, it's that
no one developer's games is enough for me to go in on a console at launch price. My money is precious, and value is important. And for me, there was more value in a more expensive 360 than in a budget-priced Wii. And the 360 maintains its value with the sheer amount of support the platform is still receiving, while the Wii is pretty much dead.
If Nintendo can't convince me this E3 that they have a definite plan to sustain long-term viability and value for my dollar, this will probably be the first gen I don't buy a Nintendo console at launch. And that thought makes me sad.
Luckily, though, contemporary hardware will at least insure that 3rd party support is
better. So that's something.