In the sports world, there's such a thing as peaking too early. People say it all the time, in fact. When making betting pool selections for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, a.k.a. March Madness, you tend to shy away from undefeated or hot teams that have been on a winning streak earlier in the season. Why? Because the team has already been on a roll and played its best games, and you can only hope to win so many games in a row before your number comes up. So you have to be careful to avoid teams that may be cooling off and hope to find a team that will get on a hot streak going into the 64-team tournament.

Over the last week, I couldn't help but think of the "peaking too early" rule in regards to Nintendo's Wii, because it sure feels like the console is starting its downhill trajectory. It's funny how things change oh so quickly in today's world, especially in the hyperactive technology market. Back in May at E3 2006, Wii stole the show from Sony's PlayStation 3 and, to a lesser degree, the already-released Xbox 360 from Microsoft. Since that time, Nintendo's little-console-that-could and its wacky controller have continued to roll as the hot item in gaming. But is the hype coming to a head? Last month, I wrote a column about PlayStation 3's troubles and examined the next-generation consoles in regards to the media hype and news cycle. Here's a quick excerpt:

"After getting beaten up for a few years during the GameCube era and accused of being obsolete, Nintendo is now emerging as the media darling with Wii. Part of this is due to how Wii has separated itself from Xbox 360 and PS3 with an innovative approach and lower price tag. But don't underestimate people's "Nintendo nostalgia," which I think is leading too many folks to view Nintendo as the loveable underdog instead of an out-of-touch has-been.

"So-called purists are falling in love with Nintendo's commitment to fun gameplay over realistic graphics, but what will happen in a year or two? Will people begin to complain that Wii's processing power pales in comparison to that of the PS3? What will happen if Blu-ray turns out to be the dominant DVD standard and provides a huge incentive to purchase a PS3? It's important to keep these things in mind."

Well, I should have written "But what will happen in a month or two?" in the above paragraph because it seems like Nintendo's hype has reached the breaking point. I've read a lot of stuff about Wii in the wake of Nintendo's big event in New York last week, and it appears there may be a little bit of a backlash against Nintendo after its summer of media love.

For example, Nintendo announced the console will launch Nov. 19 in the United States for $250. While $250 was the expected price point by most folks, industry rumours this summer suggested the cost would be as low as $199. While I personally didn't put much stock in this rumour (hey, $150 less than the next system was good enough for me), some gamers did. Check out some of the forum feedback for disappointed gamers who were hoping for a cheaper console. But hey, my US readers can thank themselves lucky - at least you're not like our UK, Irish and European readers, who continually get screwed by a 1:1 conversion ratio on those game prices. Now other gamers and critics are saying Red Steel and the new Zelda title don't look all that good; there's not enough storage capacity on the system; a lot of the games don't support more than two players; and that the Broadway processor from IBM will be too weak to support the system. My, how quickly things can change.