[quote name='kodave']I actually think a saving grace for the Wii is the fact the PS2 is still alive and kicking.[/quote]
Not as of maybe 6 months to a year ago. That's when most publishing houses stopped development for the PS2. Also, Gamestop has pretty much killed their PS2 section, reducing it to the size of the Gamecube section.
[quote name='Altanis']I'm not sure if that's because of the graphics. I don't think it is, I think it's more developers aren't willing to support all the major consoles. [/quote]
Well, it is hard to support all the consoles when they don't all support the same resolution. Combine that with the view that Nintendo isn't for the hardcore gamer (validated by the failure of the hard core gamer to buy games aimed at them), it doesn't convince them that they should put in the effort.
I get what everyone says, I really do. Hell, I would love HD graphics in the next Nintendo console. It's caution that I have though because I have this feeling that HD graphics on the next console will either become the basis of game development (result: pretty but terrible games), whereas I'd much rather just play a really good game (result: good game, not HD).
Well, first off pretty != HD. The Wii has some very pretty games (Muramasa comes to mind). Second, if they don't do something to narrow the gap hardware-wise, they are going to fall further behind, which means even more of a lack of good games. Nintendo could get away with the lack of HD in this generation, since they had something else to sell people on it.
In this day and age when many have HD sets, I doubt that they'd get away with another minor hardware refresh. The good thing is, it should be cheaper to develop an HD console now rather than when Sony and Microsoft developed theirs.