arcade may be cheaper but

you only get

standard cables
no headset
256MB storage
no network cable
inability to play xbox games unless you add a HDD

Maybe Nintendo will drop the price of the Wii one day before then!

Might as well do completely pointless daydream specification guessing, given that Nintendo will want to make a profit on the hardware, have a small form factor (low heat) and not sell above $250:

- Radeon HD4670 equivalent on 40nm process with added backward compatibility for Wii graphics hardware

- Dual or Quad core PowerPC, same core as current Wii but faster, and with additional SIMD unit per core for physics/OpenCL (but might be offloaded to graphics)

- BluRay drive (they'll be cheap by 2011) ? 50% chance. Maybe no drive at all?

- 32GB internal flash memory (whilst prices are dropping, they won't drop so fast as to make 64GB a <$20 component). 16GB or 32GB depending on price

- drop gamecube compatibility (memory and controller ports)

Wii HD in 2011, just about the same time when Microsoft announces the
Xbox720 and Sony PS4.

Yes Wii HD will be backward compatible with Wii games, but it's a whole new system all together. Wii will not be able to play Wii HD games.

In my opinion, the only good thing that came out of the Wii was the controller. Everything else, from hardware to software was a huge dissappointment.

One way to kill Wii sales, start talking about the next gen.

I like how that sounds, Wii HD. Or HD Wii.
:)

Yeah, price will not drop unless Nintendo begins to take a hit on their sales. I honestly don't see the Wii staying on top for that long. If it does then the price will stand.

They should try to make the regular Wii available to anyone that wants it before an upgrade. I still don't see Wiis around in stores here.

It's a no-brainer that Nintendo will eventually go HD. But it will be very interesting to see what they do with that extra R&D money. Will they fall into the same habits of MS and Sony by trying to cram as many transistors into their little box as possible for the sole purpose of improving graphical realism? Or will they continue to focus on improving *all* aspects of gaming rather than just one?

I'm sure everyone hopes it's the latter.

2011....... wow how unsurprising.

Nintendo knows what's up when they waited on pushing out a fully new console. with all the changes going on right now with 3d vid cards and CPUs, they'll have a fast, stable, cheap system by 2011.

hey, shoudln't this have a "?" on the end since it's a rumor?

I just hope they give it more internal storage or support USB drives for playing downloaded games. I'm getting pretty full from VC stuff and the two Strong Bad episodes.

... Urge to ... Graduate with CS degree and join Nintendo to make better SSB ...

damn you Sakurai!!!!