My son and I make YouTube videos as a hobby, and in an average month we'll get around 15,000 hours per month of views. $0.15 per hour would be about 10x what YouTube's AdSense currently pays for those views.

If they can match YouTube's sheer volume, or even within an order of magnitude, this is a no-brainer for hobbiest content producers. I like YouTube overall, so if the only effect is that it raises AdSense's payout to compete, then it's a win-win.

There's also DailyMotion.

Never heard of it? Exactly.

Here's the real plan that Nintendo has for mobile:

First off, forget re-releases of old games on cell phones. They won't be doing a Virtual Console, selling old emulated versions of their games, and if any classic games appear they'll be "Remastered" versions specially designed for the device. There may be a marketplace that will (finally!) be tied in to your Nintendo account, and probably transfer in some way to your 3DS and other marketplaces, but it'll sell new titles featuring familiar characters and settings.

They see and understand the market they're entering, and will be making games specifically for it, like "Freemium" Dr. Marios with 5-plays per day energy metering with the option to buy tokens to get more plays. If you've played Pokemon Shuffle or Puzzle and Dragons, you get the idea.

Their new "Console" will probably lean more in this direction, tying their existing IP into the mobile game experience in some way. Remember the Chao idea from the Sonic Adventure games? You'll probably see more Tamogachi style mobile gaming featuring Pokemon and other Nintendo fauna and flora, with options to "feed" them with real-life cash.

Eventually it'll either flop and Iwata will say "I told you so!" or it'll be so successful that investors will want to know why they're even bothering with a console at all. Why spend three years making a new Legend of Zelda when they can push out a new "Link's Candy Crush" every six months.

Moral of the story - be careful what you wish for. Getting the Nintendo experience in your pocket might just be at the cost of having a Nintendo console in your living room.

This. This kind of decision-making is why you never hear about the "Slashdot Effect" anymore. Because you're driving away the people who would normally click on your links.

Since last November, Casey Muratori has been producing a nightly stream for his indie project, Handmade Hero (http://www.handmadehero.org). It's as much an informal class on low-level C programming as a game coding stream, and he's gotten quite a regular audience for it. It helps that he's also interesting to listen to - he's also on a podcast (The Jeff and Casey Show).

It actually reminds me of being back in the college dorms, coding late into the night with friends, someone tapping at the keyboard and everyone else poking suggestions or just hanging out.

Watching his stream is much more interesting than just watching someone playing a game, spewing obscenities and memes while they die over and over.

It wasn't me...at least I'm pretty sure it wasn't.

Then again, I am quite interested in VR tech.

Nintendo's biggest weakness is clearly their complete distain and disregard for supporting online play. From tedious friend codes, to a lack of headset/mic support, to their stubborn insistence in "going their own way" with an online marketplace, their online/connectivity factor is woefully neglected and abused.

How can Nintendo make a billion dollars tomorrow? A Pokemon MMO.

How can Nintendo sell a million Wii U consoles? Give Smash Brothers, Mario Cart, Mario Party, and Starfox the same kind of online matchmaking that you would find in CoD or MoH from any LAST GENERATION console.

Will they? Who knows. But the market for a console that doesn't extend past the living room is drying up, and while there will always be a dedicated band of single player or local multiplayer based fans eager for whatever remake from ten years ago Nintendo wants to produce, the rest of the market has expanded their horizon beyond the four walls of their living room, and demands their console do the same.

Ben Heck's Plan is the subject. Not "Ben Heck" + "Plans"

I think it's awesome that he's willing to put his time, energy and ingenuity towards those less fortunate in the gaming community. Ben has a reputation for some awe-inspiring feats of engineering, and if he's able to use those talents to enable more gamers to enjoy the art and science of Video Games, then good on him.

The world needs more people like Ben Heck.

The United States spends more than $2.5 trillion a year on healthcare, or more than $8,000 per person. That is 21/2 times as much as the average spent by other industrialized nations, according to data collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, whose members include the richest nations.

So is that...
...21 / 2 = 10.5 times as much?
...2 + 1/2 = 2.5 times a much?
...a Kingdom Hearts Sequel?

How many people are jumping at the bit to buy them again for another platform?

I've bought and paid for Minecraft three separate platforms so far (PC/Mac, Xbox, iOS).

I might make it four, if I get a Nexus 7 for Christmas (I've been good this year!)

Same here.

I saw XNA as a great opportunity to teach myself C# and have some fun in the process, and I'm still working on a pet project that's probably too ambitious for it's own good.

I would certainly love to take a hobbyist's journey through coding some Pong or Breakout clones with the Wii U hardware, and possibly go even further, but not if the barrier to entry is too high.

This. Until it's as easy as downloading XNA, I don't want to hear about how "Indie Friendly" the Wii-U is.

Sorry, Unity doesn't count. That's like saying I can program in Linux because I know Flash and Flash runs Everywhere, right?

Because many of us bought into the Wii hype, were bitten by poorly implemented controls and worse 3rd Party support, a flood of shovelware, plus the fact that many of us already own a console that will feature many of the games we want ported over without any loss of quality, better online support, and doesn't require us to switch HDMI cables to support another box.

Enough reasons?

How about ... it could also be the $299/349 pricetag and the raise of game prices to $59.99 in a bad economy, not having as much time to spend on games, the rise of Steam and iOS, Microsoft SmartGlass which does much of the same thing as the Wii U controller so it's not so 'revolutionary', and the lack of a new Mario (a sequel to a game on the 3DS or Wii isn't going to cut it), Zelda, Metroid, SSB, MarioKart or any other core franchise at launch.

Seniors breaking into a Nuclear reactor?

I know it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure that I've seen this show before...