beat me to the punch. I was gonna add open world, sports, platformers. but it would be a waste of time

I think variety does matter within games in terms of sales but what is effecting sales more is the overexposure of the same product. Gears of War went from a 6 million seller to a 1.4 million seller and in my opinion is a dead franchise. Guitar Hero was driven in to the ground, along with Tony Hawk both by Activision. Resistance 3 was a huge flop by only moving 1.3 million as well. NSMB2 has done well (6.7 mil) when compared to any other game but when compared to the 1st DS one (29.2 mil) the interest is obviously down. Now go look at GTA, IV sold 20.2 million which was awesome but V has already moved 26.7 million and will probably get close to 35 million. Skyrim is another great example What's strange to me is that Sony and Microsoft seem to understand the concept during their launch, yet they will continue to crank out the same game once every 12 - 18 months, and then wonder why their games don't sell very well.

I think both statements can be right. One game can drive sales in the short term. But one game can't rehabilitate the ailing fortunes of a console in the long term. But several highly sought-after games released at strategic intervals can lift console sales and support long term sustained high sales. But there aren't that many franchises that can support the many games at strategic intervals method. Basically gamers just have to love the console itself, and not enough gamers are loving Wii U.

Kind of an interesting look at diversity at Nintendo consoles through their first two holiday seasons:

N64

Super Mario 64 - platformer
Pilotwings 64 - flight sim
Wave Race 64 - Jet Ski racer
Killer Instinct Gold - Fighting game
Star Wars Shadows of the Empire - Third Person Action Game
Blast Corps - Unique Overhead Action/Puzzle Game (?)
Mario Kart 64 - Kart racer
Star Fox 64 - Arcadey flight shooter
GoldenEye - First Person Shooter
Tetrisphere - 3D Puzzle Game
Diddy Kong Racing - Kart Racer

Pretty great mix here actually, lots of different genres represented, though Nintendo was forced to push Diddy Kong Racing up to November to make up for fall '97 delays.

Super Mario World - Platformer
Pilotwings - Flight Sim
Sim City - Sim title
F-Zero - Futuristic Racer
Play Action Football - Sports Game
Super Tennis - Sports Game
Legend of Zelda - Action RPG
Mario Paint - Painting Sim
Super Mario Kart - Kart Racer

Pretty good diversity here too. Nintendo didn't need to release as many games back in these days with all the third party support. Street Fighter II (released summer 1992) was a bigger system seller than even Mario or Zelda.

NSMBU - Platformer
NSLU - Platformer
Nintendo Land - Party Game/Mini-Games
Sing Party - Party Game
Ninja Gaiden 3 - Action Game
LEGO City Undercover - Open World Adventure
Game & Wario -- Party Game/Mini-Games
Wii Sports Club -- Party Game/Mini-Games
Wii Fit U -- Fitness Game/Mini-Games
Pikmin 3 -- Overhead Action
Legend of Zelda: WWHD -- Action RPG
Super Mario 3D World -- Platformer
Mario & Sonic Sochi Olympics - Party Game/Mini-Games
Wonderful 101 -- Overhead Action
Wii Party U -- Party Game/Mini-Games

Too many party games I would say. Platformers are OK, but it's kind of compounded by the fact that DKC: TF is the next big Nintendo game and Rayman Legends and Sonic Lost World are two of the bigger third party games too.

Calm your nerves, forum warrior!

It's not easy for the WiiU to emulate the 3DS's succes. Nintendo for one has been almost always quite succesful with their handhelds, not so much with the consoles, Wii is the only exception to this and will more than likely stay like that.

I don't see a contradiction here. The two statements are "No single software can make a great change on hardware sales," and "Super Mario 3D World is going to drive this year's year-end sales season."

If he had said, "No single software can drive a sales season," or "Super Mario 3D World can make a greate change on hardware sales," we'd have a problem.

I also was not, before this time, aware that Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Sonic Lost World, Mario 3D World, Wii Fit U, Donkey Kong Country, Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, and Super Smash Bros were all collectively a single game. This is news to me. Nintendo really needs to diversify and not rely on this one singular title to drive sales.

Good theory.  The games that are coming are great:

X

Zelda U

Mario kart 8

SSB

B2

DKTF

So. Not 1 but a bunch of these will sell the system. But not to great hights.

Rogers is a hack and speaks of things way out of her league of understanding.

But is not Nintendo the one searching for that "1 game to sell hardware" that is the gamers, the press, the analists, if it was nintendo why they keep using resource to release several games contrary to just focusing in just 1, why this year they released NSLU, G&W, Pikmin 3, W101, Zelda WWHD, Wii Fit U, Wii Party U, SMB 3D world or working with other companies to get the 2 sonic games or Lego City game or the eshop games, and next year in all the other games that were already announced and probably other that are still unannounced, Nintendo is working in several project for the WiiU, working with other 3rd party companies and working with indie develpers, and yet is the gamers, the press and the analist that are so obsesed with that "system seller", yeah, Nintendo has not doing the best work, but they are far from being focused in just "1 game to sell hardware".

How about u explain it then?