It' s no secret that Wii is essentially using the same hardware that was used in the Gamecube - a console that launched in November 2001. It might not be exactly the same, but it' s certainly a full generation of console technology behind, and with that in mind, should their strategy to be to compete head on next gen, their next home console would be skipping 2 generations worth of technology.

Now, while Nintendo' s R&D department will be able to keep up, what about the people working on the software side of things? Not only would they be coding for a multi-core HD system but by the time the next generation kicks off (late 2010-ish) graphics card technology could be very different to how it is right now. These guys have been coding for the same hardware for 7 years (and counting) and so it won' t be easy to make the jump to the far more complex technologies.

Will Nintendo even bother releasing another home console? Or will they just shrink Wii hardware into portable form and go completely handheld?