Nintendo "WiiU in generation of its own" says Sony

I see what they mean.

When the PS3 and Xbox 360 first came out, I saw that they both focused on multiplayer/network gaming. The Wii was just... different. It's creativity and interactivity drew people to it.

I'm really considering selling my original Wii to buy a WiiU.

 

I think the reason that happened is partly because Nintendo has always had a slightly different design focus from Microsoft and Sony, since their brand image is just not the same; they were always appealing to a different crowd, and game design for all three consoles reflected this. Another contributor is that Nintendo was first out the gate, so they kind of made their own rules. They didn't know what was going to be popular, and they were either going to set the trend or deliver a wholly unique experience. It ended up being a mixture of both, but more the latter.

As far as the Wii U goes... I'm hoping they bridge the gap somewhat, because the Wii was just too different. Different in the wrong ways. Online multi-player was an absolute bust, and third party support was at an all-time low. It did produce a lot of unique content, but if you didn't like any of it, you were one of the people making "Wii has no gaems" jokes. My hope for the Wii U is that it will combine the previously divided player/developer bases. The announcements coming out so far have yet to disappoint, what with the updated classic controller and the third-party ports already in the planning stages.

 

I admit, it seems like they have no competition in terms of new consoles, which is actually a boon for Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, in a way. I'm not sure what could be on offer in terms of generations, but we will likely see in years to come.

 

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I agree with this comment. Nintendo does have a different focus. They don't have the "computer" mentality of Sony and Microsoft. Sony and MS focus on pushing hardware specs to in turn have nicer looking and better playing gaming experiences. Nintendo has always thought about how they could give you an "original" experience. The Wii itself was more about more different and intuitive experiences than being shiny. Not that it's a bad thing on either side, it's just that Nintendo does deserve to be its its own generation.

 

I think increasingly, I've been seeing this divide as has been said above - and I think I can put it down to this:

Sony and Microsoft use their systems to sell their games.
Nintendo uses its games to sell its systems.

Nintendo can make any kinda of system they want and as long as they put a Zelda/Mario/Sonic/Metroid/etc game on it people will buy it.
On the other hand, because Sony and Microsoft don't really have these big, old, fanboy-filled franchises (well, until recently, and I think certainly with Sony and their All Stars battle game is an indication that they're starting to acrue a group of franchises like this), that they push the hardware in an attempt to draw in developers to make games for them.

So I can see why they can seen to be a seperate generation because they have totally different design and marketing philosophies.