Could Nintendo Sell the Wii Alongside Project Cafe?

Adam Sessler from G4 certainly thinks it’s a possibility.

AS: I think the new Nintendo Console, just to satisfy my curiosity. I’ve been pontificating on what they’re going to do with it and I definitely believe that this is not a successor to the Wii. It’s probably closer to a successor to the GameCube, to kind of get to that core audience that Nintendo kind of lost with the Wii. I’m assuming it’s going to be a system with a more traditional interface and a more traditional controller. A lot of developers are trying to make games with a little more complexity. Nintendo can make games. If they do go in that direction, that’s kind of a first; the idea that you can have two parallel consoles in one cycle, because I don’t think it’s there to replace the Wii. I think it’s yet another pillar in Nintendo’s arsenal.

I see the logic, regardless of if Project Cafe is backwards compatible or not. Should Nintendo really abandon the 86+ million install base of the Wii for a system that is likely to cost at least 300$ or more? Hardly. They could actually do an industry first, and create a two tiered console battle heading into the future. They would have their upper echelon console in Cafe that can do everything the Wii does and tons more, but costs more and is aimed specifically at the crowd of the core gamers. Then, they have the Wii still around for the casuals that simply like there one casual game a year or so and could care less about graphics or long hours of play time.

Sony is “still” selling Playstation 2’s during the Playstation 3 era, so it’s almost a similar concept, except the two crowds would be pretty distinct. Is this actually possible? I think at the start it may be this way, but if Wii sales continue to decline they will eventually abandon it for Cafe. At least, that’s my guess. Also, would Nintendo still make Wii specific software? Who knows at this juncture. 7 days people. 7 days.

Source: Community Voices