Its funny to me that in this generation the machine that has sold the most consoles and therefore the most "popular" is by far the most disliked company by me out of the three.

I used to think Nintendo were squeaky clean but this gen has shined light on a few of their shadows. They make announcements of other people stealing their ideas (when they themselves have copied from others). They have the poorest quality control over games being released on their platform out of all three consoles. Their supply and demand tactics are just down right dirty (although very effective).

I just thought it was interesting to note that the most popular machine didn't necessarily belong to the most popular company ... atleast in my opinion.

I wouldn't say it's poor quality control - Nintendo knows a lot of the shovelware is ****e, but the truth is that there are lots of casual gamers out there who want cheap ****e. Said cheap ****e sells really, really well.

cheap and playerbal is better for gamers than over priced
blu-ray players that suffer in online play

Overpriced Blu-ray players? Hmm to my knowledge one of the biggest draws of a PS3 has always been that it was cheaper to buy a PS3 as a BR player than to buy an actual BR player so that point is pretty redundant.

As for cheap and playable? Wii Chess launched between £30 and £40 (depending on the retailer), thats a lot of money for a chess game. While i accept that any machine will have shovelware i still think its a valid argument to say that nintendo have went a bit OTT with it.

As time goes by (and this E3 only reinforces this trend), I don't think Nintendo are in the same game. Both the 360 and the PS3 are multimedia hardcore gaming devices, with good online functionality (not sure where your coming from sgtspudnick, but I've played Warhawk, CoD4, Burnout Paradise, Resistance and more online with the 'ole PS3, and its fine - and if you're comparing it to Nintendo's offering, then I'd definitely choose your words a little more carefully!) I don't have a 360, but sometimes in a quiet gaming month I'll think about picking it up for some Halo, Gears and Mass Effect goodness - but the only game that made me think half seriously about the Wii was Okami (Ninty's first-party franchises do nothing for me -tried 'em, and found them more than a little overrated - solid, but not console-selling solid), which can be picked up for the PS2. For a serious games machine, for non-Nintendo fanboys, the Wii just isn't there. This is supported by the type of software sales for the Wii vs the 360/PS3. Sure, the Wii is entertainment, but if it were a competition between the Wii, the PS2 and the Gamecube, it'd highlight the gulf between the Wii and a serious gaming console. I'm happy for Nintendo, but they're just not making serious gaming machines anymore (although they are making a quality entertainment device - no two ways about that)

It'll be interesting to see where Nintendo go after Wii. The brunt of their market, who are the 'non-gamers looking for the next big fad', aren't going to have quite the same enthusiasm for Wii a few years down the line. As pointed out earlier in the week the Wii is the families new karoke machine and like the karoke machine they will eventually lose intrest leaving Nintendo with whats left of their core market who, for all their [Nintendo] posturing, they have turned their backs on?

It's good times for Nintendo now, but I believe their current direction is going to hurt them long term. Time will tell I guess.