While Sony has been putting its money where its mouth is on the PSP brand, backing it to the hilt with Vita being categorically confirmed to be the sequel to the original handheld, Nintendo still have most games journalists confused about exactly what their next proposition is.
The WiiU, announced at E3 last year, will be one of the most anticipated parts of this year's show, and is an interesting gamble for Nintendo. On the one hand, they're coming out with a new console ahead of their competitors, which is a remarkably bold move, but on the other, they've not been too forthcoming in positioning the WiiU as a genuine successor to their previous hit home console.
The hardware itself has been confirmed as being superior to that of the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, but that is to be expected. After half a decade, any hardware manufacturer should have been able to figure out how to make something as powerful as the PS3 or 360 for a significantly cheaper price point.
Even Sony and Microsoft have likely got the price of their consoles down to a point where they're turning a profit on each unit sold (usually not the case at launch), which is why they can afford their drastic price-drops when their next generation of hardware comes out. Sony has even gone so far as to brag about the Vita being just as powerful as the Playstation 3, so it should be no surprise to anyone that the WiiU is slated to be 'more' powerful than the current generation of 5 year old consoles, that should be the bare minimum.
Now, considering that it's still fully compatible with the existing Wiimote and Nunchuck controllers, and that it's still unknown whether the new console will be able to support multiple connections to the new screen-based controllers at once, we know that all previous Wii games are likely to work with the WiiU.
While it's purely speculation on my part, it would seem that Nintendo has decided that its market is its own corner, and that it isn't following the lead of Microsoft or Sony, nor waiting for the opportune moment to do the most damage to its competitors with its new launch. Instead, it has proven that you don't need to be the most powerful console to be the most successful, and is looking to compete primarily with itself and draw as much of its new market along for the ride as possible.
Where Nintendo starts to get into a more tricky area is with the falling Wii profits. The attach rate on the Wii is lower than the 360 and PS3 and the hardware sales have fallen significantly, which is perhaps an indicator as to why the WiiU's showing at E3 last year neglected to discuss the specifics of the console in-depth - it was still very early days and the announcement was perhaps slightly forced by slumping sales.
Regardless, the new console can easily be updated again in the middle of what 'core' gamers will deem the 'next' generation. Nintendo seems to be offering us the WiiU, a console which does not delineate itself as an entirely new brand (like the GameCube) but as an extension of a previous console (like the Super Nintendo Entertainment System).
If the WiiU doesn't re-capture the imagination of consumers like the Wii did, Nintendo can cut and run, creating a Wii 2 or an Okama GameSphere or whatever they'd like to in about 4 years, making it clear that the WiiU was never the 'true' successor to the Wii and that this time they mean business. And it'll work too, considering that if they're releasing a few years after Microsoft and Sony's efforts, they'll end up being the technological leader once again.
So, are Nintendo hedging their bets? Are they creating an incremental update to the Wii to try and create a second wave of sales? Or has a genuine revolution occurred thanks to the Wii where Nintendo's market belongs to Nintendo and the 'generations' consoles are going to have to be redefined to refer only to Microsoft and Sony?
By Leigh Harris - Leigh is an Australian games industry veteran and the editor of MCV Pacific. Follow @leighformayor on Twitter.
What do you think?