Analyst: Nintendo must now play catch up

From CNET News.com: Nintendo might be leading the gaming space in market share, but at least one analyst believes the game company is behind when it comes to technology.

"Nintendo now finds itself in a position of having to play catch up," Wedbush analyst Michael Pacther told Industry Gamers in a recent interview. "Kinect and Move will have an installed base of 8 to 10 million by the end of 2010, and a base of 20 to 25 million by the time Nintendo launches its 'next' generation console."

Pachter told Industry Games that he thinks Nintendo will launch the Wii 2 by the end of next year. The only problem is, Nintendo could have some trouble selling its current customers on getting its new console, he said.

"If the Wii 2 is just a Wii on steroids, with technology similar to the PS3 or 360, it's going to be hard to tell current Wii customers that they should trade up, especially if the Wii 2 is priced close to the 360 plus Kinect or the PS3 plus Move, both of which I think could be offered at $249 by holiday 2011," Pachter said.

It goes beyond price for Pachter. He said that even if the Wii 2 features HD capabilities--which he believes it will--the console will offer "only a catalog of standard definition content." In contrast, Pachter said, "the competitive consoles have deep libraries of content available in HD."

Realizing that, Pachter doesn't necessarily believe that the Wii 2 will kick off the next generation of consoles. Instead, he sees it more as a product that aims to get the Wii console up to speed with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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