Interest in Wii may tire, says Sega exec

Scott Steinberg, Sega's US Vice President of marketing, reckons the popularity of the Wii could wear off by 2008, and believes PS3 will emerge victorious in the current console war.

Although the latest salesfigures from the NPD Group put Nintendo's console significantly out front, focusing on raw hardwaregusto, Steinberg told Reuters that the console "will start to look really dated in a couple years when developers get more value from the 360 and learn more and more about the PlayStation 3."

He also questioned the long-term appeal of Wii's motion control. Sega may be developing the likes of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games and Ghost Squad for Nintendo's machine, but Steinberg explained he's "a little concerned about the creative depth of the Wii pool."

"I'm not sure if they will top out in 2008 or 2007... How much value can developers and creative folks get out of this wrist motion two years from now, or 5 years from now, or 10 years from now?... How can they design products that aren't too derivative of what's already out there?"

It's a different case with PS3 however, Steinberg confident about the machine's future-proofing.

"We know the PS3 pool is pretty deep. There's a lot to exploit there," he said. Sega, Reuters says, expects PlayStation 3 to be the winner in the current console war. But what say you? Debates like these are the reason Al Gore inventedforums.

June 15, 2007