No Going Back?

With the huge market appeal and success of the Wii and DS, can Nintendo ever back away from motion controls and the touch screen? Will going conventional for a new system hurt the install base for the Wii? Can Nintendo ever not have the Touch-screen without losing the casual market end?

I love Nintendo. They always seem to make new innovations that become an industry standard; but will these current trends have them stuck later on? The touch screen has become such a standard in everything we do and has made so many more games possible through the DS. It fits well within the current trend of gaming and all of those pocket devices in general. With the Wii, however, I can't help but to think that if they did in fact try to go more conventional with their next system, they would almost have to support the Wii as a side system for maybe third and second parties to keep that casual market alive. They feed on that simple pick up and play style along with getting the kids to move around. The market is even going the route of motion controls.

I guess this eventually leads to the other question on people's minds - if the big N does go the way of the "next gen", can they recapture an audience by giving them that "next gen" take on their great franchises?

I think the people have found their place when it comes to consoles; people side with the one that is giving them the DLC for their online shooters that are hardcore. Could Nintendo compete with that (assuming they place a strong online service like Xbox Live or PSN) after they lost a lot of their "hardcore fans"? I really think that Nintendo is all about the games, and they will do anything within their power to bring us a great experience, and a fresh experience, for those games. But it will be interesting to see if they can ever go back.

-Eddie