I'm starting to think that we're getting too many gaming platforms to choose from. Including portables, the platforms currently being pushed are: PS3, Vita, 360, Wii U, 3DS, Ouya, smartphones (iOS/Android), and PC.

To show the perspective a little better, here's an abridged list of the gaming platforms available in 1983, just before the North American gaming crash: Atari 2600 & 5200, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Vectrex, Odyssey 2,Channel F II, and (the then-emerging) PC.

While not the biggest reason for the 1983 crash (The p***-poor quality of games that were pushed just to make a quick buck was the main one.), the over-saturation of gaming platforms contributed to it as there wasn't enough demand to support that many. With that in mind, plus the fact that publishers' sales revenues have not seen sharp rises lately, I believe we have enough gaming choices already.

Sorry. That should've been "some gamers", not "gamers" as a whole as I'm clearly not the only one with this sentiment.

In my opinion, "Free-to-Play" is nothing short of a scam, requiring you to pay real money for in-game items if you want to make any real progress in that game. The real sad thing about this is that gamers are falling for it hook, line, and sinker. We need to stand up against this practice by not getting involved with so-called "Free-to-Play" games in the first place.

This is what happens when enough of us speak up against such draconian policies.

Now about the $500 price point...

I've heard it said that the first step to correcting a problem is admitting that you have one. Now that Nintendo has made the admission, let's see what they do to try to right their ship.

There is no benefit to an always online console, whether it's forced or not. Once support ends and the plugs to the servers are pulled, the console becomes a paperweight.

In Microsoft's defense, they can fix that with a simple update to the X1. But I wouldn't count on that happening anytime soon.

I'll probably buy this game to show my support. Kudos to Sega for having the guts to bring this game over. (Now if Namco had the guts to do the same for The Idolmaster.)

Here we go again on whether Nintendo should go third-party. Technically, this would make financial sense: Without the R&D costs for consoles, Nintendo could focus all of its resources on making games.

The biggest pitfall of going third-party that I can see is a possible repeat of Sega: Loyalists toward Nintendo could feel betrayed by the move and possibly respond by not buying Nintendo games on a non-Nintendo platform.

I'm not saying Nintendo should have its hand forced on this, but rather they should carefully weigh the pros and cons of this option.

I can't help but to think that MS is in damage control mode already regarding the X1

As much as I like Nintendo and hate EA, I have a feeling this puts the writing on the wall for the Wii U.