[Wii] Can the Wii change the future of gaming?

I think it's clear at this point that simply having a powerhouse of a console won't win you marketshare (considering the last 2 console generations were won by the weakest consoles for their time). Regardless of whether the Wii or PS3 do well, I don't think it will have a major impact on future consoles. The different console manufacturers pretty much do their own thing: they might be competing with eachother, but they aren't going to totally change their direction just because another one did.

Sony went from making pretty much the weakest console each generation to the most powerful: what prompted their change in direction? I doubt Nintendo or Microsoft were the reason, since they clearly could see that they could dominate the marketplace even with less than spectacular hardware.

However, I'd certainly hope that not all of the companies decide to go for the "cheaper and underpowered" route. This is one of the first generations where the power gap between consoles and high-end PCs isn't so major, and it's doing so without a substantially higher cost. Sure, the PS3 is $200 more than the PS1 and PS2 were when they were released, but given the technology in them that's quite understandable. Whether or not it still does well is another issue, but I doubt Sony would let a little thing like failure change their mind *cough*Betamax*cough*.

Personally, I'd rather see the consoles $100-$200 more expensive when they're released and have technology in them that isn't already outdated so that at the very least, it will still have a lot of potential left in it half way through it's lifecycle when the price has dropped to lower levels. Especially since in the current generation, all it would take is a $100 price drop for the Xbox 360 and it would be almost the same price as the Wii (which is very feasable since it now only costs them $330 or so to manufacture the console).

Jam it back in, in the dark.