1.  Frankly, this statement speaks volumes about the difference between you and I.  While I do see the necessity to sell well, particularly in a business such as games, pleasing yourself artistically is important in that you want others to get an idea of what it means to you, not what you think it should mean to them.  I guarantee that games like Pac Man, SMB and Wii Sports were games the designers had faith in, and therefore, they realized that others would like them too, as opposed to making something they just hoped would appeal to others first.

2.  Again, I fail to see how over 9m copies sold was a waste of resources for a game that was so well received.  Also, why does every game Nintendo releases have to be poised to sell systems?  It would be nice if each and every one could, but what about those games that are great for the people who already own their system even if they don't move consoles to new users?  Third parties shouldn't be the only ones able to provide these.

3.  While I can agree that Just Dance would get more people who are not already gamers into playing games, if all they see for choices are more fare like Just Dance, they wouldn't stick around long.  Fortunately there are other experiences that a "gateway game" like JD can lead to, something like Bioshock, perhaps, that will keep people interested in gaming as a whole.

4.  Cafe debuting poorly and 3DS still struggling a year from now are of course, possibilites.  But first, I highly doubt it, and second, bumping the thread will only remind me of your admittedly sound basis (systems sellers are important) but your flawed reasoning (everything else is garbage).

You do realize it's impossible to only make system sellers? At one point, you've got to make games for people who already bought your system too or else they'll be left thinking they've made a bad choice purchasing your console and that will hurt your sales for the next generation of consoles.

It isn't really abandoning its consumers, the fact is the Wii as a hardware device doesn't intirgue enough developers to sustain another year or two. At least in Japan.

Outside of Mario and Wii branded releases, Nintendo has struggled to sell anything in Japan on the system and only Capcom and maybe a handful of others have as well. Pretty sure that MH Tri is the onlyl 3rd party game in game to get over 400k, excluding Mario and Sonic collaborations for the system. Which is crazy considering until last year it was the market leader.Part of the problem there is that Nintendo while creating the casual market in this current generation, is having a hard time replicating that success with new games that don't have a accessory packed in. Thus they are returning to try to grab the original audience tehy built up with traditional gamers.

And it isn't like Nintendo and others have not tried, Nintendo just dropped more then  a few attempts to create the casual buzz that came with Wii Sports and other games and the traditional gamer as well like with one of the most polished RPGs of the generation a few months ago and before that returns of both Metriod and Punch Out. The thing is while they can cost in NA and other territories, they were bombing out with the Wii in there own backyard and the Japanese developers were their best hope as most western studios and publishers only dropped downgraded ports on the system.

With the DS, it was pretty much time to advance to the 3DS with the PSP becoming a viable threat again (in Japan at least), Cafe is pretty much in that same mold. Both the developers and the paying consumers are saying they want more and both the DS and Wii can only do so much, so Nintendo is giving it to them, with the hope that they can still find something new to grab the casual gamers' and the imaginative developers' eye.

Good lord, this.

I can't believe I read this whole topic, even if was entertaining on some level I can't think of a good word for.

Don't anger me padib. You won't like me when I'm angry.

I've noticed that all these "Nintendo is evil and doomed!" threads have lots of opinion, but next to no evidence. I'm sure you've made lots of sensible arguments over the course of the thread so would you mind adding them to your OP? For the moment, you've made no argument as to why you think Nintendo has abandoned their audience, you just said they have. Well, except for the part about Galaxy and Other M. I can agree to Other M (or, God protect me from fans here, Metroid in general) being a rather worthless venture, but Galaxy isn't (and I'm not fanboyishly defending it - I detest Galaxy, personally). You see, Nintendo can't just come up with 20m IPs whenever it wants and, they'll ruin NSMB's or MK's appeal by making too many of them in the same generation. Galaxy, whilst not their most successful venture ever, is good enough in terms of sales to serve as filler work for their development teams while they think of the next 20m-selling IP or wait till it's been enough time since the last installment of NSMB or something.

Okay axt, here's the thing:

.  Why are you so fixated on sales? Are you a gamer? Or a share-holder? I've met lots of gamers like this who seem to care more about the sales than what the console offers them.

Even while in third place with GC, Nintendo made profits from almost the get-go. With the Wii, they've made tons of cash.

So much in fact that they could release a console on the market to fail just for the lulz. =p

Nintendo could never be in the kind of position Sony and MS were at the beginning of this gen because they don't sell at a loss.

. You keep on going about how Nintendo should have made more Wii-Fit and more Sports Resorts for the 'casual' market. Alot of these people picked up the Wii for a couple of games and because of its popularity and then left it when the fun died down for them. They got their experience and they weren't interest in anymore. Some others probably got into gaming a bit and started looking for new experiences.

The core market is much more sustainable than the casual market because alot of them don't stick around for long.

The core market should be of interest to Nintendo because these are the people who buy many games a year, which is alot of money for gaming companies. That's why I think a big part of their strategy was to turn these new gamers into core gamers and get them more interested in gaming. Since their first console would have been the Wii, they are more likely to stick with Nintendo.

Nintendo will probably continue to make games like...erm...Cafe Sports and...Cafe Fit, but don't expect them to sell like they did on Wii. The Wii caught lighting in a bottle. It's near impossible to create that kind of thing again (so soon).

.  Nintendo will not see massive success next gen by just copy-pasting their Wii strategy like you seem to believe. It doesn't work that way.

. Your statements about rejecting of Nintendo IPs and how they should be discontinued because they sold less than 20 million truly baffles me. I'm questioning wether you are a gamer or if you just follow this industy for sales.

I also don't think you know how few games manage to sell the amounts the Mario Galaxies did. Sales don't represent the quality of a game by the way.

. The Wii is no longer in a blue ocean. MS (and I guess Sony too...) have started swimming in that ocean.

. NO company will always be on top forever. You can fall as quickly as you rise. They have to take risks to flourish and sometimes those risks will cause them to falter.

. You seem to want Nintendo to abandon their core fans who have been with them since n64 and beyond by discontinuing Zelda, 3D Marios, Metroid and God knows what other great Nintendo IPs and put all their eggs in the unsustainable market that is the 'casuals'. Very foolish if you ask me.

You are too stubborn. You may have some good points but many others are pure bullocks and you seem to refuse to take points of the other posters into careful consideration.  Your ideas would sooner cause Nintendo to fail than prosper. Nintendo markets to EVERYONE, not just casuals and not just retro gamers. EVERYONE.

Guys, i totally, finally get it:

Nintendo should go third party. That way they can be free to make all the games they want and no-one will care if they're wastes of resources or not.

Simple. Time to give up the hardware ghost

Do you really think core gamers stick around? Something that I really hate the cores for is for their continued betrayal of Nintendo. SNES, N64, GC... they were all core consoles and they had continued declining sales. N64, in particular, did everything that fans wanted, but was subject to an enormous decline. Not saying that casual gamers won't betray Nintendo, but at least they haven't proven themselves to be traitors yet, unlike core gamers.

I hope I'm not the only one who finds this post deeply disturbing.