The Wii had a very good run, even without HD support.



IMHO: Even if the current 3D technology gets adopted at the same rate HD technology did, it will be several years before it becomes a standard feature in home entertainment. More likely, a different 3D technology will come out in the next few years that is more appealing to consumers (who don't like wearing glasses for some reason).



In either case, it is to Nintendo's advantage not to waste time/money on chasing a market that doesn't exist yet.

Ignoring 3D for now is not a big deal. If the PS3 can do it, it is very likely that an HD nintendo console will be able to with a firmware update should they so choose. I think it's pretty wise to not make 3D a focus for a home console when that's such a niche market at the moment.

I have a couple counter opinions with what you had to say, but I will start with this: I'm sorry UP was such a bad experience for you and it's particularly troubling since I (and several friends of mine) found UP to be the mildest and least obtrusive film in this 3D era.



First I would say that cinema is a visual medium. Not enhancing the story, but enhancing the visual function is definitely worth it, else we may as well be reading the script. And yes, I agree, in plenty of movies 3D adds nothing. The next Sean Penn drama won't benefit one jot. Having said that, such talking head movies barely benefit from cinema in any case. Truth be told, they may as well be radio plays. 3D adds one more visual tool the artistic medium, much as colour does. And of course there are people who are colourblind for whom such visual embellishments are useless. But to write the entire tech off as some of the vocal fanbois have been calling for has been frustrating. It can and does add something visual that certainly gives me and many of my ilk a kick, and video games are a similarly visual medium. In fact without such strong distractions from narrative and acting, and with such highly repetitive scenarios in videogames, games often have to be an even more visual medium. Anything which can heighten the experience (affordably) is a benefit to the medium.



Moreover, videogames are more than cinema. I can see how 3D can be actively used in the interactive mediums to add an extra challenge, or an extra help that brings a literal extra layer to the available gameplay mechanisms. Imagine being able to genuinely visualise a 3D volumetric Tetris (I suppose with translucent blocks much as you might observe layers or bubbles in coloured glass) in a way that is simply unobtainable in 2D. The first games have hardly touched the potential of stereoscopy, but even now I'm shocked at how Pilotwings has affected my maneuvering in 3D vs 2D.



It's cruel that such technologies must leave potential consumers behind. And yet this is how it's been for a long time. Gaming threw away 10% of humanity when they made controllers right handed. Now with the (fairly) omnidirectional motion controls they're starting to fold that crowd back in. Hopefully the same can happen with 3D (with eye-tracked perspective correction, microlens arrays and the like), but we best not nip this tech in the bud. I suspect no one would wish there wasn't a colour blue.

I would also add that film is still developing the vocabulary necessary for good 3d movies. Despicable Me was a step in the right direction. I think we are yet to see the wonders which 3d will allow for both videogames and movies.

When has Nintendo ever had the hardcore audience?

It certainly didn't with the Wii or GameCube.



So N64? I'd say they struggled then as well as the PSX was the home to 'hardcore.'



In fact I'd say it's probably been since the SNES that Nintendo had the hardcore audience, and that was over 20 years ago!



I can't imagine there are many gamers from that audience who were still playing to be won back. ;)



However, for what it is worth, I think they did win back those fans (who are all in their late 30s and up into their 40s now). That audience did get Wiis. They got NSMB (not SMG) and Wii Sports (not Metroid Corruption & Zelda). Nintendo did win back their hardcore audience from the late 80s.



I've heard this concept of "winning back the hardcore" before, but I don't know what it really means. Nintendo has never been the console of the hardcore, at least not in recent enough history that the phrase "win back" makes any sense.



You can't win back something you never had. :)

so important, if they don't learn from this cycle how to do online at least as good as sony and microsoft, it will cripple the wii2.