First off all this doom bankruptcy talk is rubbish lets get that outa the way first. Nintendos got plenty of money. They arnt going anywhere anytime soon. Now to the real problem. Wii u sales stink. I think this problem goes back to the gamecube erra. It was masked by wii and the motion controls so nintendo did not address it now its reared its ugly head once again and stares nintendo in the face. How big of a home console audience do they really have. They dont really know and thats a huge problem. From the looks of wii u sales it appears to be along the gamecube numbers or around 20 million. I think in the end they may have a good market becomeing peoples second console but its too early for that to happen yet. To be positioned as a good second console they need to be allot cheaper and they really need to release after sony and ms not a year before! But in the end it could be a viable buisness but it would require changes. No expensive inovation, just a streamlined console with all the hp they can shove in for 250 bucks at launch. Other option is to go head to head with sony and ms with power and price but thats the easy part.The hard part is they gotta get 3rd party back in full force. They need EA. Maybe not every game but they need the sports and the new starwars games. They need grand theft auto ect..... It sucks but they gotta wake up and realize these companies are vital to sucesss. Its true these games currently sale bad on there systems but if they are the same quality on nintendos system people will not have reason to by them elsewhere. It wont be easy because they are going to have to earn peoples trust back and they may have to make some bad deals with these western companies in the begining untill these games start saleing well but in the end it would pay off. If they ever want to dominate the home console space again they gotta wake up and give in and get third party back on board. They cant keep makeing machines for themselves.Sure they dont need the extra hp to make great games they have proven that, but guess what third party does. Same with online. The consoles cant just be about nintendo anymore they gotta give thirdparty a base package similar to ms and sony, then if they want to try some quirky inovation on top of that, go for it. They dont have to use all the extra hp to make mario and zelda but they gotta make sure its easily available for the people who do need it. Nintendos money is in saleing there games. If they take down the roadblocks and maybe even lose a little money upfront on the hardware they can reach a userbase 50-80 million people. No money may not be raining down like in the wii days but they can still sale plenty of games to turn a good profit with that kinda userbase.Now I dont believe nintendo will do this because i think they feel like they already did this and lost with the gamecube but this is a different time. They introduced allot of new people to there franchises with the wii i believe those people are still out there but nintendos gotta take down the roadblocks. Perception is also a big part of this and when your known as being weaker rite out of the gate it is bad for PR. Nintendo has to realize that over here people want power. They may not know what it means but they want it. They dont want to constantly hear what ms and sony can do but nintendo cant. They have to shake this image in the west if they want the masses to buy in. Release full spec sheets and make it clear they can do what the competition can do. They dont have to use it but they gotta flaunt it!  I doubt nintendo will do this rite away because they really are way out of touch with the west and it may take a few more failures and head scratching before they wake up but hopefully they will eventually.

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Not necessary, release cool games that no one else have and it will sell just fine.

Release new and impressive games at a decent rate and better marketing is what they need.

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A couple of paragraphs would be greatly appreciated.

You know what you need to do is learn the press the Enter key twice every few sentences... After you do that, you can talk about where blah company needs to go

Sorry didnt originally plan for it to be that long!

What's wrong with being a niche console? I kind of think they should take the first route you mentioned. Create a simple console, no more than $250 with a game, and try to piece together a coalition of clientele of families, children, some casuals, nintendo loyalists, and a percentage of the hard-core crowd who may be tired of Call of Duty as a secondary. I think it's reasonable to sell 30-40 million doing this. The problem with the Wii U as some ahve pointed out in other threads they are in between Sony and Xbox with 400 - 500 and the last generation ps3 and 360 which are 200 and they don't really know who they want to sell to. They need to figure that out. Price-wise if they were closer to last, maybe a little more with some evolutionary twist with the movement controls and had made the gamepad just an accessory, I think they would be a lot better off right now.

The problem with the second, and you can see for yourself, every generation since the original NES had ever reducing sales. NES - 70 SNES 50 N64 34 Gamecube 22 Meaning back then they were going up with their competitors power wise and especially game development becoming more expensive they were losing...Until of course the Wii.

Another problem is that Microsoft and Sony are years ahead of them in terms of building an online infrastructure, millions of loyal people of hard core gamers, and other things which would require nintendo to dump a lot of money into just coming upto the same level as their competitors if they took that route. 

My recommendations - make the Gamepad an accessory or redesign a cheaper version of it to enable dropping the price to around 200 dollars, continue making killer games and advertise, to salvage this generation. And then think of making a system no more than 250 that is simple.

I would do that along with allowing people to access their virtual console on android and apple phones. Sell a controller that attaches onto the phone for 40 - 50 dollars. Keep your current and new games only on the 3ds, so as to give people a reason to buy the 3ds. I would also make mini-games along with giving people access to the old. and Who knows after people get a taste of the mini-games maybe they'll want to update to the better ones on the wii u or the ads.

I can't say where Nintendo will be in a few years because I think there are a lot of possibilities:

1. They do same thing again and again. They make great games for the consoles they make and do everytime something new and innovative no matter what 3rd parties do. Nintendo is so innovative that they don't need a lot of power. This way can work as it was with the Wii or fail like in the GC era.

2. They concentrate on the software and so they start to develop for other consoles and smart devices. On the one hand this means they can make better games but on the other hand they have to something which fits in the architecture of the other consoles and devices because most of the Nintendo games works only on Nintendo consoles.

3. They concentrate on the handheld market developing better handhelds with great games and franchises. Nintendo escapes the console war between MS and Sony and can nearly make whatever they want.

4. The company collapses. Nintendo failes because they didn't saw the signs comming and other firms buy the franchises and developers.

5. They change their mind. They start to make a more powerful console with 3rd party support to create a huge userbase. That would be the reason they have their great franchises and other games from the 3rd parties. They stay innovative and so Nintendo can win the console war or becomes able to 'fight' against MS and Sony.

Oh i agree nothing wrong with a niche console. I would be happy. Im just not sure nintendo would because it could limit there opportunity for growth which big companies seem to hate. I like the idea about virtual console on smart phones. Thats something they should look into.