@Quiggy
Not OK with it - but there is a lot more you can do with a second Wii than with about $40/3 months in fees (Remember, there are two of us...). Also a whole lot more resale value in the end too.
We have a living room and a separate den-office so I don`t see the big issue with buying two consoles. We already have two 360s and two PS3s.

The monthly fees were just the thing that pushed it over the edge. The lack of portability weakened things, and then knowing that because of the fees no one else we regularly played with would be buying it... Well, that killed the desire to pick it up altogether. Although now that it`s fallen to 2980yen everywhere we`ll probably be buying just one copy sometime soon. I find it hard to imagine investing the level of time we put into MHP2G (600+ hours each) on something such a pain to play with friends.

@Lunastra;
Personally, I don`t think it would really have made a huge difference - and possibly could have just made things worse in some areas. The problems weren`t with graphics - it is with the multi-play system itself. At least with the Wii it`s all one online system and not spread over multiple platforms.
Monster Hunter succeeded on the PSP because of the multi-player aspect. It`s quite common to get together with friends and play MH. Online multiplayer doesn`t quite have the same appeal as just popping the PSP out of your bag and going on a quest with 3 friends who just happen to have about an hour to spare. Especially when the online multiplayer costs money (as it does in Japan - I have heard rumors that it is free elsewhere?)
In Japan, finding 3 friends who have MH and an hour of free time is much easier than finding just one who will make an online play date with you.

There is already a PC version of MH out, with graphics as nice as you want to go, etc... But it is nowhere near as popular as the PSP version for the reasons I cited above.

My husband and I played the death out of MHP2G and were ready to buy another Wii just to play 3 with each other... But the fact that it has a monthly charge killed that thought.

And... This was supposed to be a reply to my original post. I thought the comment system was fixed. *sob*
Feel free to kill or ignore this one. I`m going to take the reply challenge again and hopefully get it to go where it should have gone.

@Lunastra;
Personally, I don`t think it would really have made a huge difference - and possibly could have just made things worse in some areas. The problems weren`t with graphics - it is with the multi-play system itself. At least with the Wii it`s all one online system and not spread over multiple platforms.
Monster Hunter succeeded on the PSP because of the multi-player aspect. It`s quite common to get together with friends and play MH. Online multiplayer doesn`t quite have the same appeal as just popping the PSP out of your bag and going on a quest with 3 friends who just happen to have about an hour to spare. Especially when the online multiplayer costs money (as it does in Japan - I have heard rumors that it is free elsewhere?)
In Japan, finding 3 friends who have MH and an hour of free time is much easier than finding just one who will make an online play date with you.

There is already a PC version of MH out, with graphics as nice as you want to go, etc... But it is nowhere near as popular as the PSP version for the reasons I cited above.

My husband and I played the death out of MHP2G and were ready to buy another Wii just to play 3 with each other... But the fact that it has a monthly charge killed that thought.

Monster Hunter didn`t sell pretty much because it wasn`t portable and wasn`t free to play with friends... Two huge reasons the PSP versions *were* so successful. This isn`t a game you play at home with a monthly service cost to play with other people who pay the price - it`s a game you pull out when in the office late waiting for someone to call with nothing to do. And everyone else pulls theirs out and you have fun. None of that means poor sales. If it had been on the PSP again they`d have had amazing success.
For those who know Japanese - Taiko no Tatsujin is now lovingly known as Zaiko no Tatsujin...

The things up for "rental" on this are SD to begin with. The type of stuff memories are made of. It`s full of shorts that everyone 25+ remembers from their childhood - shows from the 80s, kid`s songs, etc.

The Dissidia ones flopped - there are still stores around here with stock of them marked down to 100yen a can in hopes they`ll sell before they expire. I don`t find it hard to imagine these going the same way.

The FFXII Potions, those were great. The ones in glass bottles. Besides just being cool and leaving you with something you could actually display (unlike a crappy can) - they actually tasted good.

And they would kill my migraines. I cried a little inside when they all disappeared from stores.

I`ll toss in another vote for the Xacti series. I carry the HD700 around in my bag, but have played with quite a few others and plan to upgrade to the HD2000.
It`s a great little camcorder for it`s size, and takes pretty good photos to boot. I used to carry around a larger camcorder to events and a regular camera in my bag - but I always seemed to miss out on things I didn`t know about in advance. The camcorder was great, but got maybe 3 or 4 uses a year. A total waste.

Now I carry my Xacti in my bag and don`t have to worry about it. We took a spontaneous boat ride down a river for an hour the other day, and I set up my pocket tripod and got a wonderful recording of the trip that would never have happened otherwise.

I`m very happy with it. Maybe not the very best camera out there, but the best balance between quality, size, and cost that I have seen.

I`m personally more impressed these days by the sudsy soap, faucet, and hand dryer in one thing that I`ve been encountering. They seem to be more and more common... put your hand to the left and get it covered in sudsy soap - move it to the right and rinse - move it back toward you and it`s dried by violent wind.
Get it all done in one stop.

They NEED to raise awareness and interest? Wow. In Japan there is *already* a 6 month waiting list for the car...