In a marketplace where titans Sony and Microsoft have yet to announce plans for next generation consoles, Nintendo has once again snapped up all the attention with the news that the Nintendo Wii 2 is in development.
This summer at E3, presumably by Reggie, Nintendo apparently will announce its next generation console. It likely won't make as much of an impact as the Wii/Revolution announcement did years ago at E3 but it will be the first new console to be announced since those days unless you count the handheld systems, which I don't.
It presumably will be an HD version of the Wii of some sort as it's unlikely that Nintendo would mess up the formula that's landed them as the highest selling console, though the Xbox 360 is about to overtake them in that regard. The Kinect has been quite the problem as it's given the 360 a new lease on life and blown up sales. Nintendo is cutting the price of the Wii soon, but it's likely too little, too late.
The Wii's going to have to pack more than just HD if it wants to succeed again. Microsoft and Sony already have that in the Xbox 360 and PS3 and would presumably add more enhanced motion sensibility to their next generation consoles to negate Nintendo's advantage. It's not out of the realm of possibility that the Wii could go the way of the Gamecube into irrelevance.
But as Sony showed with the PS2 and Microsoft did with the Xbox 360, it never hurts to be the first on the market and if this console is as capable as the competition's, there's no telling what kind of market share Nintendo could open up with this console.
Stay turned to E3 when the Wii 2 will be announced and pnosker.com will be there covering the events!
