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I agree that a redesign would be good, but I don't agree on all points.

Leaving out the Gamepad, adding Blu-ray, making it quieter... just no.

For one, the console's already extremely quiet. If yours isn't, you might want to troubleshoot that online or give Nintendo a call.

The Gamepad is an integral part of enough games now and people need to stop perpetuating this myth that it's never well-used. For games with user-generated content (Mario Maker, Pushmo World, Smash Bros.), asymmetric multiplayer (New Super Mario Bros. U, Rayman Legends, Mario Party 10), camera modes (Pikmin 3), dual-screen gameplay (ZombiU, Nintendo Land, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker), or touch-based controls (Game & Wario, Super Mario 3D World in some levels, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse), the Gamepad is essential in order to be able to play some or all of the game. A handful of major games don't make specific use of it at all (DKC: Tropical Freeze and Mario Kart 8 are the only big ones I know of, possibly Bayonetta 2 but I haven't played it yet) but there are enough games in the Wii U library that do now that it would be pointless to buy the console without the Gamepad.

I notice that most of the people who talk about the Gamepad being unnecessary generally don't know the Wii U's games very well.

As for Blu-ray... Blu-ray players are widely owned at this point and I doubt its inclusion would be a major selling point. It would also drive the price of their console up, which would do more harm than good.

The mention of a price drop is a maybe. I do think that a small price drop could help boost sales a bit, but it's risky - there have been times in the past where it's only created a small sales spike and then things have gone right back to normal a few weeks later (this happened with the GameCube). If they were to do this, I'd say it would be best to wait until a really major release - Zelda and Xenoblade will probably release fairly close to one another near the end of 2015, and that could be a good time to do so. If Zelda makes it out in time for Black Friday, that could be the best possible time for a price drop that might drive sales heavily through Xmas (the last couple of months of the year are by far the biggest time for sales, anyway). Nintendo could always keep the existing 32GB model and drop its price, and add an improved model at around the price they charge currently.

Doing away with the power brick could be good, though; anything that makes the console more compact is always a plus. The option of a larger hard drive would definitely be good, too. I know a few people who have run out of space on theirs. Extra colours aren't essential, but they couldn't hurt. Same with improving the specs of the console so it runs faster; I doubt most people care about that (and the Wii U runs about as fast as the other consoles at this point), but if it improves the overall experience and they can do so without adding too much to the cost of the console, then it would be good.