So Nintendo have announced the latest in their quick turnaround machine upgrades, next year the Wii will be replaced by the Wii 2 (I'm assuming a more creative working title will follow). The Wii itself always disappointed me, the concept was good but the follow through? It's had a few good games, the usual Nintendo staples such as Mario, Mario Kart were good. The Wii Silent Hill is supposed to be excellent (never played it) and some games such as Resi 4, Eledees, Mad World, got through, even games like Conduit tried, but for the most part the software support has been poor.
Firstly, Nintendo share an ethos with Apple, they like upgrading their machines so people have to pay full price to have the latest. Hand-held wise since the EU launch of the DS in 2006 there has been DS, DS Lite, DSi, DSi XL, 3DS, each more expensive than the last while just offering enough to make it a viable new product. Console wise 5 years between Gamecube and Wii is quite short for this kind of thing and it'll be 6 between Wii and Wii 2. For comparison the 360 is a year older than the Wii and has no plans to be replaced any time soon (although to be fair xbox to 360 was a REALLY short turnaround).
But what does this announcement mean for the Wii? Who's going to develop software for it now when it's days are already numbered? It was a great opportunity that never got the chance to get going, suffocated by casual gaming and shovelware to put it nicely. Apparently the Wii 2 (I like Wii Wii... Nintendo can you hear me?) will be easy to write for and port, but the Wii has a reputation for being a 'casual' console and that rep could be hard to shift.
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