There will never be a Wii 2. Not at the rate the Wii is still selling.
All joking aside. I question if there really will be a Wii 2. If sales do in fact slow down there will still be a strong wave they could ride out for years. Also, Nintendo will wish to emulate or surpass the Wii's success. This would require them to innovate yet again and this requires them to once more disrupt the market. This means that their next system will not be Wii 2 but something else entirely. Though I do fear it is the slow death of traditional gaming as we know/knew it.
Another route they could go is already being explored in the DSi. Re-release the system with a few new features to keep people coming back for more.
There are several big tests that will direct Nintendo's decision on this in the coming year.
Firstly, how many of Nintendo's titles go 'evergreen'. One of the reasons I believe that DS development has slowed down is because sales are still flowing in for their evergreen titles. Mario Kart DS and New Super Mario Bros are still charting in the top ten for system agnostic game sales. These games are several years old.
Nintendo already has several Wii evergreen games in the form of Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit, among others. If Wii Music and Animal Crossing (along with Wii Sports Resort, but more on that later) join the EG Club there will be less incentive for Nintendo to jump to a new system, thus aborting a steady flow of money from these older games.
Secondly, a similar move to the DSi may already be coming to Wii. Wii Sports Resort with it's Motion Plus is a major addition and modification to the console. The amount of change to the way we view and control games could almost warrant the creation of 'Wii 2'. Make a Wii with Motion Plus from the get-go with larger and more streamlinned storage, a more dynamic and user friendly online interface along with HD would more that make up for a number of the Wii's current shortcommings. In fact if Nintendo was following the traditional path of game business then they would have saved Motion Plus for Wii 2. The fact that they are attempting to incorporate it into the current Wii SKU shows that they don't intend to make a brand new system any time in the next couple of years. If sales of WS Resort is strong and the Motion Plus reaches a heavy attach rate, then Nintendo has effectively performed a system re-design of sorts, thus negating the need for a new system to add features.
If Nintendo eventually did release a system it will most likely be a system redesign (Wii-'i' akin to DSi), not an entirely new system. As others here and elsewhere have said, just give the Wii a storage device and true high def output and most of the issues it has compared to modern systems is resolved.
Anyway that is why I feel there will never be a Wii 2. At best expect a Wii 1.5 or Wii Plus re-design in new colors. But in reality, unless sales of both the system and the Motion Plus add-on tank, there will be no new system ever. |