Atleast in Australia.

You don't need to be an expert to understand the gold mine that Nintendo has clawed their way up to. Nintendo has discovered that there is more money to be made in the casual gaming market (the large portion of the world who has no place for "childish" things like videogames in their busy lives) than your usual gamer. Nintendo keeps unleashing newer versions of WiiFit and Brain Training, and the casual market keeps lapping them up.

I'm not saying that there are no good games anymore for the Wii or DS, quite the oppsosite. There are some great original games for both these consoles. But casual gaming families don't buy these consoles for such titles, they buy it so they can play "the latest technological marvels" on Wii Tennis.

In Australia, even the wonderful Professor Layton games are being marketed towards the casual market. I see middle aged mothers walking into stores and buying DSs just so they can play these new fangled puzzle games. I suppose this is not really a bad thing, as it gives them the credit and sales they deserve, but I feel it somehow simplifies the experience.

Ads for Nintendo are about the only gaming related advertisement I see over here, even local celebrities are appearing, playing games like brain training and playing with the new DSis audio tools.

The Nintendo hype is so overwhelming in Australia. The Xbox does alright, and the PS3 manages to draw an audience, but the PSP is losing an uphill battle against the might of the Nintendo DS. Not only is the DS portable and easy to understand, the games themselves are small and appealing to a casual market.
The PSP is victim to its own creation. Because of the oversized cartridges they switched to being a download platform, but this is too complicated for many people, who find the DS system much more accessible. The PSP does have some good games, Chains of Olympus is one of the best handheld games I've ever played. But the line of quality games for the system is dwindling as developers realise that they could either take a gamble on the PSP or play it safe on the DS.

At the point where simplicity is overshadowing innovation, we can no longer move forward.

Don't get me started on the problem with rhythm games