So what's up with Nintendo, anyways?

I see Nintendo as sort of the Sears of the video game world. They've both been around forever and you keep wondering how either of them manage to stay in business with some of the weird decisions that they make!

Case in point - Nintendo is rumored to be announcing shortly that during this holiday season they will be releasing a redesigned, smaller wii console, only a week after launching their next-gen console, the wii-u. LINK to the story at WebProNews. Why would you undercut the sales of your brand new console with a redesign of a six year old console in the same holiday season? A decision to do something like this boggles my mind. Do they think they're going to make money by saturating the market at both the high and low ends?  Nintendo has made some pretty flaky decisions on how to run their business in the past, and this one rates right up there as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure there will be plenty of people in the game industry that will come up with justifications for this, but in the end, I think Nintendo is doing nothing but hurting themselves in the long run.

As for the wii-u, I've had a chance to check it out and frankly, the graphics don't look next-gen to me, and by that, I mean they don't really compare to the PS3 or XBOX 360, both of which are slated to reportedly be replaced as soon as next holiday season with new consoles. I don't really like the wii-u's tablet-like controller either, though my son says he loves it. It just felt awkward and clunky in my hands and didn't feel like something I'd want to hold onto for several hours of gaming.

It's my opinion that within a year or two, we'll see Nintendo become a shadow of what it once was, or disappear altogether. I think the same goes for Sears too, some dinosaurs just go extinct!