The Future of Gaming: Nintendo Wii

The Wii’s success is self-evident in its sales — and the fact that it took nearly a year after release before one could manage to find a Wii in stock at a retailer (I imagine it’s not nearly as difficult now). Anyway, the Wii has had much to offer — most outstanding would be its motion-detection and incorporation of movement into its controller. The pioneer of mainstream motion-sensing, the Wii is now feeling pressure from both Sony with the unofficially-named “PS3 Wand” as well as Microsoft’s “Project Natal”. With both powerhouses trying to rob the Wii of its competitive advantage, what is Nintendo’s next move?

photo credit: hirotomo

Surprisingly, nothing drastic — after all, the Wii already had the advantage to begin with. Instead, the Wii is upping its arsenal of games — with new Zelda, Metroid, and Mario games on their way to bolster the current line-up. Interestingly enough, Nintendo is also starting to experiment more with MotionPlus sensitivity on the WiiMote, starting with Red Steel 2 (another game to keep an eye on).

photo credit: yoppy

But to be truthful, although the Wii has maintained a good lead in the console wars, I can foresee it losing its current advantage very quickly — the PS3′s wand will incorporate motion control, levelling the playing field in that aspect, and the Xbox 360 is taking it a step further with full-body motion sensing. With both competitors possessing far superior hardware and catching up to the Wii’s only advantage, what will Nintendo do? I once doubted Nintendo and scoffed at its lack of power — but the people have proved me wrong. For Nintendo’s sakes, let’s hope that they come up with something interesting — and that the people love it.