Before the debate begins, let's just agree that dedicated consoles do games very well, while Apple's devices provide a satisfactory gaming experience, which may be good enough for most. I'm looking very forward to the Wii-U although the non-gaming aspects depend on the success of one area that Nintendo is weak at (online) and another that Japanese companies in general seem to be weak at (software).

PS Vita looks to have flopped already perhaps - it did really badly in it's second week. I thought there would be enough dedicated gamers out there to see to it the device was a moderate success, but (very) early signs do not look good. Also, the PS Vita is hardly a 'tablet-like' gaming device (I guess you're just side-stepping iPad like), if I recall it got there first with the original PSP!

If Nintendo is not going live until at least the end of 2012, they are likely still in the planning stage. The difference between theory and reality is much greater in reality. At least they have a good model to copy.

The Japanese were so good at taking American ideas, refining them and making better products. Look what they did with the car industry. They had a lead in the electronic gaming industry for the last 30 years. But we have seen much stagnation in the console gaming industry in the last 10 years. There's no way they could expect to put out a gaming console once every 6 years and expect to live on that. I have a PS3 in the living room I hardly ever turn on anymore. My AppleTV gets used more. I play most games on my iPad. The table has now turned and the Japanese have to again borrow American ideas in order to survive.

I have a Wii and will buy the new version when it comes out. Apple's Airplay competes with the consoles but I don't know how well it works. Anyone have any good experiences with Airplay?

Sounds like "full-blown" as in, they'll offer a greater variety of apps and media, because I gather they already have a pretty well put together digital store. I would hope they move away from the silly points system, I only see it as making the process more complicated than it needs to be, at least, I could never appreciate it when confronted with such a system elsewhere.

It's kind of sad, but Nintendo's (and Sony's) chances for keeping up in gaming hardware this time look pretty bleak. Good games aren't enough to keep people (even gamers) from preferring general purpose devices over expensive gaming consoles. Especially when developers are creating increasingly sophisticated and innovative games for iOS. A "general purpose" app store won't be enough to save the Wii-U, imo.

I mean, think about it, iPads, iPod Touches, iPhones, are already laying around the house... these are your dynamic controllers. People don't want to buy additional pricey Wii-U controllers that can't even be utilized outside of the house. The Wii-U is expensive, Apple TV is cheap.

I predict that within the next year or two Apple TV is going to explode with better games from known developers. And I imagine at one point Nintendo will join that lineup...

Nintendo's days as a gaming hardware company are numbered, but they still seem to put out great software. I'm not much of a gamer anymore, but I have to imagine that while the Wii-U is the beginning of the end of their console gaming efforts, they won't soon disappear from the gaming industry. Mario and Zelda will just move over to iOS at some point in the next few years.

Nothing like a good plague in an article