Will Wright, most famous for SimCity, The Sims and Spore, has indicated his uncertainty about the Nintendo Wii.

In an interview with IndustryGamers, Wright said that the Wii “really is more into what I would call the toy market, because most of the Wii games I’ve enjoyed felt more like toys than like games.”

Of course, the system still offers quite a bit of fun, Wright admits, but for a game developer the Wii isn’t the normal platform for delivering the games we’re used to.

Meanwhile, Wright went on to say that the game industry is indeed looking at a shift, where it’s uncertain when the “next generation” of gaming devices will emerge.

Both Nintendo and Sony have weighed in on the prospect of starting the next generation of video game consoles — and neither company is in a rush to see it happen.

Cammie Dunaway, who heads up marketing at Nintendo of America, told Gamespot in an interview, “Even though our installed base it, at this point, 5 million households larger than the PS2 was at the same point in its lifecycle, [The Nintendo Wii] still has a lot of room to grow.”

Despite this affirmation, there are rumours that new hardware from Nintendo is expected to appear at E3 this spring, possibly in the form of a Nintendo DS follow-up.

Meanwhile, Sony says it’s in no rush to develop a PlayStation 4 anytime soon. Their reasoning: the PS3 has yet to meet its potential.

“I can’t even imagine what can be done technically beyond the PlayStation 3 in the near future,” said Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment’s American division. “A question I often get is when we are going to see PlayStation 4. When somebody can craft the technology that exceeds what were able to do on the PS3, but we are still just starting to harness it.”

Early in this generation, all three game console companies were quick to say that they expect this round to have a much longer life-cycle than recent generations, which only lasted about five years.

Analysts, the media, and random gamers have been speculating for years that Nintendo would, at some point, release a revision for its Nintendo Wii that features high-definition (HD) graphics. After all, Nintendo has the only console that does not support HD, while the Xbox 360 and PS3 do.

With a steady rise in the spread of HDTVs and the phasing out of “standard” definition, it would seem that Nintendo would likely be considering updating its console with HD support.

Reggie Fils-Aime of Nintendo of America has come out with a definitive answer — no. Nintendo is certainly not planning to give the Wii HD graphics.

Oh well.

Nintendo saw a slight rise in Wii sales last September after the company cut the price of its console, but the numbers have fallen again. According to a recent interview, the Nintendo Wii is now selling fewer than 50,000 units per week in Japan.

Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata explains:

“As you probably know, the current situation of Wii cannot be defined as healthy … It is our urgent mission to recover the momentum of Wii during the holidays utilizing Nintendo’s strength.”

The Wii still holds the lead in terms of total sales overall, and the price cut has done more to boost sales outside of Japan, but the past few months have seen a decline in sales, giving the competing Xbox 360 and PS3 to gain some ground.

Nintendo has made the Internet Channel on its Wii console free to all of its users.

The Internet Channel service was free as a beta version when the Wii console was first released.  Since then, the full version of the channel, which is powered by the Opera browser, became a paid service.

Those who have paid the 500 Wii points to purchase the channel will be rewarded with a free NES game on the Virtual Console in October.

Nintendo has certainly made huge strides with its popular Wii console.  With 35 million consoles sold, Nintendo has a 10- and 18-million console lead on Microsoft and Sony respectively.

But so far, the appeal of the Nintendo Wii has been strongest with audiences who aren’t typical gamers.  Nintendo has greatly expanded casual gaming, but the audiences that typically enthused about video games before the Wii aren’t as interested.  That’s where the Xbox 360 and PS3 reign.

But Nintendo is now saying that will change in 2009.  In an interview with MTV Multiplayer, Nintendo marketing VP Cammie Dunaway said that the Wii may start to appeal to the “Halo gamers” in the coming year.

I think that next year you’re going to see the tide turn a little bit, in terms of people realizing that the Wii can have something of interest for everybody.

Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft continue to keep the hardcore gamers busy.  Sony today announced that its PlayStation Network has hit 14 million active users, while Microsoft gears up to unleash the new Xbox Live Experience tomorrow.  Games like Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War and Fallout 3 are selling in huge numbers to the “real” gaming audience.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé told Reuters that his company isn’t in a hurry to move onto a new game console.  The Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS (which includes the new DSi model) are going to stay for a while.

“We believe the role of a new console, a new system, is to bring great new entertainment ideas to life … We will consider the launch of new consoles when we have got great new entertaining ideas that can only be done with a new console.”

There’s certainly no need to push forward yet.  Nintendo’s current strategy puts casual gameplay above graphic and technical marvels, and the Wii continues to deliver on that front.  The NPD recently reported that Nintendo continued to top the charts with the Wii and DS holding the first and second spots in sales, with the Xbox 360 coming in third.

The Nintendo Wii is expected to continue to top the charts through the holidays, while the Nintendo DSi repackaging will hit North America and Europe by the summertime.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has confirmed that Guitar Hero will expand with more instruments in future versions. The news is hardly a surprise, since Rock Band, which also features drums and vocals, has been doing quite well.

“We’ll include a lot of other instruments, vocals. It will help us expand internationally. It’s the first game we’ve had in which we can use local content and local bands.”

Activision hasn’t confirmed when they’ll be making this introduction, but a new Guitar Hero is scheduled for release at the end of 2008.

Industry analyst Billy Pidgeon, of IDC fame, is predicting a shift in the way video game systems will be developed, and priced.

The huge losses that Microsoft and Sony have suffered in getting their consoles into the hands of gamers at a (sort of) affordable price are a sharp contrast to Nintendo’s huge success and profitability with the Wii. While the high-end consoles came at a high cost for both the system developers and consumers alike, Nintendo was able to out-sell the competition with a cheaper, albeit less powerful system.

“I think the results of this cycle will have a strong influence on the next cycle, in that cheaper consoles will be expected,” Pidgeon explains. The massive popularity of casual gaming on Nintendo’s console, as well as with simple games like Guitar Hero is already changing the way game developers approach the industry.

Pidgeon goes on to suppose that the entire industry may shift from hardware-focused consoles to lighter appliances that depend on the Internet. “The platforms of the next cycle may not be a console at all, but software distributed by network to convergent devices like PCs, set top boxes and smart phones,” he explains.

Pidgeon goes as far as to suppose that the Sony PlayStation 3 may be the last console to incorporate “cutting edge” hardware. It may be possible that the video game console will create a greater divide between casual gaming platforms and dedicated, technically superior platforms. If not, hardcore gamers may need to rely on their PC hardware to deliver more powerful games.

Guitar Hero has reached a milestone: In the 26 months since the first Guitar Hero title was released for the PlayStation 2, the rock-and-roll franchise has hit the $1 billion U.S. mark in its North American sales.

Activision, the game’s publisher, was quick to point out that Guitar Hero III broke sales records by both unit volume and dollar value for a single calendar year. Michael Griffith, Activision’s president and CEO, commented on the event:

“Guitar Hero is one of the biggest brands and one of the most powerful distribution platforms in all of entertainment today. Guitar Hero’s popularity with broad audiences is a confirmation that video games have become a true mass medium.”

The first Guitar Hero title hit the PlayStation 2 console in November 2005, and since then has spawned three sequels. The collective total sales is in the neighbourhood of 14 million units.

A big help to Activision in the dollar count is that each Guitar Hero title is sold both as a stand-alone disc and in a bundle with the guitar peripheral that allows gamers to rock-out in style rather than play with a standard game pad. Most Guitar Hero players have at least one guitar, while others purchased the new peripheral with each release, driving up the average dollar value of each sale.

Activision also said that in the weeks since Guitar Hero III was released, over five million add-on songs have been downloaded for the game.