There's only one gaming piece in the Technology supplement this week so luckily it's a good 'un. Keith argues that Nintendo could benefit from the boom n' bust console cycle by essentially focussing on the games rather than the technology. He has a point of course. Sales are flat at the moment, with punters generally unimpressed by the sequels that clogged the Q4 release schedule. Sadly these same punters ignored the original titles too, with even the relatively successful Shadow of the Colossus knocked off the top spot in the UK charts after one week.
So with the DS being the main sales success story of the last 12 months you can see why Nintendo would be confident that their gamesforall strategy is the right one. And it could be - but anyone hoping the next-gen will see a back to basics approach is likely to be disappointed. The big sellers over the next 12-18 months are likely to be as violent (Halo 3, GTA) and graphically powerful (Oblivion) as ever. So yes, change is in the air, but the core gaming market remains as important as ever.
