The Dreamcast you may have a valid gripe for, but Sega wasn't getting off scott free for the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn debacles, too bad for them people turned their backs on them when they actually made a good system. 

The N64 did pretty darn good considering Nintendo crippled the system with the cartridge format so it was basically only a handful of companies making games for it. 

Yeah, I mean with 32 million N64's sold...  That's hardcore fans and then some.

I disagree.  Facts are the games industry is larger than ever and more people are playing than ever before.  Wii absolutely turned non-gamers into gamers.  Just not into 'core' gamers.   Wii's audience is still playing games from Just Dance 4 to Angry Birds.   Tablets/Smartphones and to a much lesser extent Kinect, still enjoy, and thrive on, the the fruits of Nintendo's efforts.

Screw the hardcore? The N64 sold very well because of the hardcore, but Nintendo became a secondary console to the Playstation. The Dreamcast was Segas own fault, lets not get into this again. Sega fell behind, even their published games are behind.

Cartridges were fine. They actually made gameplay better due to low loading times, something "hardcore" gamers should have valued more than "awesome cutscenes".

The Dreamcast had built up an amazing game library when the PS2 launched with basically nothing. It would have been an easy choice for informed "hardcore" customers.

Face it, catering to the hardcore is nothing but financial suicide.

Sega had been falling behind since the the 32X period and kept falling from that point on with the Saturn and the Dreamcast was a gaping hole of piracy and lack of demand because Sega was still considered second to Nintendo but third to Sony. We all loved the Dreamcast and it truly was a classic gamers console for its time, but at some point Sega became too niche and they didnt up their tech to DVD's.

Your view on Sega's history is narrow and biased. That's all I can say from our previous discussion. (EDIT, by that I mean that you woldn't accept the big picture, that the Playstations really hurt Sega)

The self-proclaimed "hardcore" didn't win the N64 the console war, so screw them.

The N64 cartridges effectively alienated Nintendo from Capcom, Konami, Squaresoft, Enix, and 90% of the rest of the dev community. So no, I wouldn't say that was "fine", if Nintendo had compromised and added a CD drive to the N64, that system probably would've sold 100+ million. That's Nintendo's own fault for being stupid and handing over all their developer support to Sony on a silver platter. 

Nintendo can cater to casuals all they want. They're not coming back. The Wii U is no Wii and it's not 2007 anymore. 

The casuals are the party girl at the bar, who normally would never date Nintendo, but on that one night, Nintendo did everything just right and came off as the "fun guy on the dance floor" and party girl was just a bit tipsy and they ended up having a one night stand. But helllllllll no would she ever date Nintendo full time, she had her fun, she gets hit on 1000 times every night, and now she's not returning Nintendo's calls. 

And Nintendo, like a poor sap, shows up to the same nightclub the next weekend, wearing the same clothes, desperately trying to replicate the formula hoping she'll show up, when meanwhile she's in bed with Apple, the guy she really wanted all along anyway. 

That's the way I see it. Move on, Nintendo. Go find a girl that actually likes you for who you are.

That's a horrible analogy.

You have to realize that the NES is closer to the Wii direction than the Wii U at the moment.

I think the analogy is quite apt. If these casuals have any loyalty, where are they now? *crickets*. They're not supporting Nintendo, they are bailing out and if what they want is cheap 99 cent games that are basically a distraction for them for 10-20 minutes a day at best .... let them have what they want. 

Why expend so much energy on an audience that really doesn't give a sh*t about your type of product in the first place? They had their fun with Wii Sports, it was a fun fad for a couple of years, and most have moved on, with a chunk sticking around for Just Dance, which is probably on its own way out in a year or two as well. 

Good for Apple and Google/Android, but honestly if after owning a Wii for 4-6 years, all you want is Angry Birds ... as far as I'm concerned, there's the door, don't let it hit your ass on the way out. I'm not shedding any tears over this "supposed" audience bailing out and going elsewhere.