Actually, have you guys SEEN Zelda sales in Japan? I don't think Wind Waker even broke a million there. Zelda hasn't been big since the N64 there, and is exhibiting early stages of Metroid syndrome, perhaps better known as Metal Gear Solid syndrome (i.e. the Americans will buy it, but the Japanese won't). Hopefully the Big N finds a cure...
I don't think anyone considers Japan the be-all-and-end-all (especially not Microsoft). And of course, Capcom's heavy X360 support can be placed directly on that particular Japanese company's belief of this tenet.
But Nintendo is operating under the assumption that Japan is a sort of accelerated canary for the rest of the world in game habits. Traditional game sales in Japan have shrunk and shrunk, so Nintendo unleashed the market disrupting non-game trend there that's reinvigorated it. With Europe and America buying up Nintendogs and Brain Training at lesser but impressive rates, I think there's a little bit of weight to that estimation.
But, let's forget all that. I WANT to see innovation in hardcore games too. I have a hardcore gamer's tastes, if not their zeal. But I don't think that Nintendo is abandoning me. I think they're enabling a whole new explosion in hardcore game innovation, and from a multiplicity of sources.
I believe that their essential improvements in user input really HAS put us one step closer to virtual reality (still a loooong ways to go), and will spawn more immersion, more interactivity, and new forms of interactive gameplay.Sure, more processing power is nice too. But eye candy can always come later: what's more important is expanding the FREEDOM that a player has to interact in their world...
That promise hasn't been fulfilled yet (where's my Wii Oblivion clone gol'darnit!!!), but it's still a promise I hold dear.
~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com