Worth a read, Emily Rogers is a big Nintendo fan and one of the better gaming writers on the net IMO: 

http://www.dromble.com/2013/12/10/nintendos-obsession-with-finding-one-game-that-can-sell-consoles/

This is interesting:

Iwata in 2003:

"Iwata replied,”I think the biggest problem we were having was that thinking (that) one single software can make a great change on hardware sales. But we have come to realize by now that the circumstances have changed. No single software can do it, but rather, Nintendo, or more specifically GameCube, does need a great variety of different software which must be put into the market at appropriate intervals.”

Iwata in 2013:

“One game has the power to change everything,” said Iwata during an October 2013 meeting with reporters.

Satoru Iwata explained to reporters, “The key title that is going to drive this year’s year-end sales season is Super Mario 3D World, the latest installment in the Super Mario series that is set to be released in November.”

Interesting. I think the Wii/DS will incredibly successful for Nintendo also taught Nintendo a lot of bad habits, namely that software diversity does not matter and that banking everything on 1 or 2 software titles to become a home run is the name of the game. Forget about a balanced lineup, if third parties join in, fine, if not who cares, keep swinging for that "one title" to hit your sales targets. 

Kind of like a baseball player who gets a home run, but starts to get sloppy afterwards swinging at everything trying to get another home run and forgets to bunt or make a simpler play. 

the diversity will come, besides they did it correct with the 3ds as well, just look how vita game game designer try to copy 3ds game appeal lately


Wii u will sell i have no doubt about it, they are the best game fesigners and they will bring much needed diversity...

Sounds a lot like Nintendo strategy as of late. Make only a couple games a year because they think that their games will magically sell systems.
I think the lesson is plain to see with ps3 outselling 360. The software was there and kept coming.

Interesting, they really needed to have a big 1-2 combo for the holidays. It seems like they had Mario as the big title and hoped that Wii Party/Sonic/Olympics would be strong support titles. 3D Mario+Mario Kart like 3DS had probably would have done the trick and helped Wii U out a bit more.

The 3DS honestly doesn't have that diverse of a lineup either.

No shooters, poor sports games, poor racing games, had good fighters early on but that's dried up, pretty much nothing from Western developers. Things like Wave Race, 1080, F-Zero, etc. aren't getting a sniff on the 3DS either it seems. 

But it doesn't matter as much because people don't really buy handhelds for diverse libraries. People like smaller scale, cartoony games on the smaller screens IMO, even look at iOS/Android, the more popular games tend to be things like Angry Birds, Plants Vs. Zombies, Candy Crush, etc. not Infinity Blade.

Maybe instead of putting everything on 2 games they should just try to create a wider overall portfolio of games. Relying on a "messiah" game is great when it works, but if it doesn't, you basically are stuck with your pants down and no other options. Which is what the Wii U is looking like right now. 

The Wii IMO taught Nintendo all sorts of poor lessons on how to build a console. No need to have third parties and really a well rounded software library with diversity because you can just rely on Mario + party games ... which is fine, until it stops working. I mean sh*t they didn't even need to market the Wii after a certain point, the word of mouth was selling it by itself. 

Nintendo got used to taking short cuts to success. 

If Wii U keeps missing target sales then there will be no diversity as Ninty will just keep resorting to games they think will move consoles. Hint it aint Metroid or Fzero...or i could be wrong and they just say Screw it no one cares any way and decide to go crazy and make whatever they want, since no one cares. Im hoping for the latter.

plus people only buy certain genres and dont buy as much games for handhelds as they would for home consoles. probably why Pokemon and Mario do so well and something like Street Fighter wont even come close

Follow the path of the 3DS. Pump games out like crazy.

It doesn't really work like that on consoles. People want more diversity in console lineups than just "Mario & Friends". with the occassional Pokemon game. 

Handhelds have a much lower attach rate of software which means people simply are happy with maybe 1 or 2 handheld games a year. Japan is the only market where people treat handhelds like a console.