Regardless of any of your bias or fanboy/fangirl views on this topic, each of the big three, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have all been fairly successful this generation in one way or another. Nintendo has been extremely successful with a new casual crowd that was attracted to the Wii for its low price point, simple games and motion controls. Microsoft has taken the hardcore market with their shooters and other action titles. Sony has in a way, fallen right in between garnering to both hardcore players and casuals alike (With titles such as SingStar, Buzz!, etc). Now, I’m not going to bore you with sales figures and tell you who’s doing best; anyone who’s been following closely this generation should probably already know that. Instead, I’m going to tell you all a few things for each company that I believe, could really help them in the long run.

Let’s start out with Nintendo. As I’ve stated previously, the Wii is doing very well in the casual market, however I believe Nintendo has forgotten a lot of their old fans who bought their consoles for the full console gaming experience. These are the hardcore fans who crave new IPs, thrive off story and characters, and really sink their teeth into the game. Sure, they have a few first party titles such as Twilight Princess, Metroid, Brawl, and Galaxy; but it just isn’t enough. New IPs are something that keeps the industry fresh, and you can’t always rely on sequel after sequel. There eventually has to be a change.

Nintendo has never been very strong with their third party support, and hopefully this changes this generation. There are plenty of up and coming developers and already strong established developers who would be pleased to make new games for their console, given the support. I’m sure many of them would be proud to do something big and creative with the Wii-Mote that could really shine. Speaking of the Wii-Mote, let’s move on.

Sure, the Wii-Mote is a neat idea, and it’s what the console was based around. I understand that, however certain attachments such as the ‘Wii Wheel’ or the ‘Zapper’ are really unnecessary add-ons that can seem really gimmicky to the average player, considering you can perform the same action without them and sometimes even better than if you had used them. Now, just recently a new peripheral for the Wii was launched with the ‘Wii Fit’. As long as something good comes from the ‘Balance Board’ in the future, whether it be from your first party developers or third party, then I’ll let this one go. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing wrong with new ideas, but I strongly believe that Nintendo should find that sweet spot, stick with a standard controller, and lessen the amount of add-ons and peripherals they put on to the market. If they were to follow these points, I’m sure Nintendo could leave a much bigger impact on the competition.

Let me know if you agree or disagree with my points in the comments.

Stay tuned for my posts regarding Microsoft and Sony in the coming days.