Sorry, I'm too busy enjoying my Wii U at the moment. I personally don't want any new console to have to fork out hundreds of $$$$ more cash on, any time within the next few years. 2017 at the earlier would suit me just fine. I want as many retail Nintendo and quality indie titles as I can get, and get my money's worth. Zero need to rush another console onto market.

That's fine and all, but Nintendo's entire future in the hardware business is in jeporday, supporting a platform like the Wii U for a long time probably isn't smart.

Though to be honest, if the Fusion platform is the route they go, they probably could share Wii U/Fusion development for a year or so to give the Wii U some games that maybe it wouldn't get otherwise. I imagine even if Fusion is not the same chip (it almost certainly won't be) it sounds like Nintendo will probably try to streamline porting of Wii U engines/architecture quirks to the Fusion platform.

For example, maybe Next Level Games is making Luigi's Mansion 3 for Fusion for fall 2016 ... well perhaps they could make a Wii U version too. Sure it would be a (temporary) headache for some Nintendo devs, but it's not like normal devs don't juggle issues like this all the time (making PC/PS4/X1 sometimes 360/PS3 versions of the same game). 

I think another nice thing Nintendo could do is if you own a Wii U and have it registered on Club Nintendo, perhaps you get a free Fusion game when you buy the Fusion platform. That also I think would be a nice thank you from Nintendo to Wii U fans who stuck with them when times were tough. 

Nintendo can't afford to wait too long on a Fusion platform though before they're taking heavy losses, not just is their console business becoming irrelevant, but the handheld side of their business is starting to fall apart being under attack from tablets/phones. They need some new to counter that and slapping an analog stick onto a 3DS and allowing for faster web browsing at a ridiculously low resolution doesn't cut it. 

Who's saying that Nintendo's next console was as powerful as the next Xbox/ Playstation it would get proper support?

Nintendo 64 was extremely powerful for its time but lost most of the 3rd party support to the Playstation

It needs to appeal to the range of different people though so get decent support, be fairly simple to develop on, standardised specs etc. Not put a gimmick on people like gamepad/ kinect, make it an option.

A lot of why Nintendo is in it's current situation is probably cause of their attitude

Being powerful doesn't necessarilly make it popular. PS4 is a rare case. the most powerful consoles of previous generations didn't do so well to start with.

I think it's more complicated and subtle than that.

- Nintendo 64 had great modern graphic features (textures, effects) but had only expensive and small cartdriges and also a rather low polygon count (lower than PS1, yes).

- Gamecube had a powerfull CPU and GPU but it had only 24MB of main ram compared to the 32MB of PS2 and it was designed as a kid product when PS2 had 32MB of main ram, a DVD player and designed for adult living rooms.

PS4 is the most powerfull but most importantly it's a great looking console designed for modern living rooms (Have you seen the success of the Destiny white PS4 bundle?), better ecosystem (Trophies, PSN etc), "mature" Sony exclusive (TLOU, Gran turismo) and super dev friendly.

Also PS4 and Xb1 have all multiplaform big AAA guaranteed on their really comparable hardware: GTA, Far Cry, Watch_dogs etc.

PS2 already had GTA, gamecube never had. Watch_dogs is maybe going to be released on Wii U, but too late, people who really wanted to play the game already bought it on Sony or Microsoft consoles. And as the Wii U game will probably be barely on par with the PS360 version... People who have a Wii U probably have one of the Sony or Microsoft consoles and won't need a "on par" Wii U port.

Yeah I'd say its fair to point out there are exteniating circumstances in both the N64 and GCN cases, the N64 decision to use only cartridges was the equivalent of shooting oneself in the foot before a race and wondering why you lost. GameCube had less single egregious errors but several smaller ones in unison that doomed the console. 

The Super NES was the last time they made a proper console relatively on par or better than the modern technology of the day without any real controversial or bizarre design decisions. 

Yep. PS4 got it right and where it actually matters too. Nintendo really has been the odd one out since the Playstation came out but they don't seem to ever learn. But at the same time i'm not sure if we need yet another console competeing for the same games as XBox and Playstation.

Nintendo seems like the one who can fail but still rely on its fans to profit  

There is a window of oppurtunity I think because the XBox One is relatively weak in the market that if Nintendo moved quickly with a much more powerful system and gave themselves a fairly large windowed headstart that they probably could take over the no.2 spot in the console business.

But I think it's just too much effort and too far out of Nintendo's comfort zone that they will just wash their hands of the traditional home console entirely.

Instead the Fusion platform will be built on the basis of taking what the 3DS/DS has done well ... which is dominate Japan and try to build from that. But this time they should be able to sell a console variant of the Fusion for very, very cheap ... under $200 even.

If they focus the full weight on their franchise catalog onto just one platform (instead of it being divided into 2) it will probably be a game changer for them. They'll also have more freedom to take risks on original IP if they don't have to make 2 Mario Karts, 2 3D Marios, 2 NSMBs, 2 Smash Bros, 2 Animal Crossings, etc. every gen. 

The only thing we know for sure is that Ninty won't make again a half-assed console, so, with the help of Dr. Mephesto's Japanese cousin, they'll make a four-assed console.

http://southpark.cc.com/clips/103344/four-assed-monkey

They won't make a more powerful system. Nintendo is the cheaper kiddie brand. They need to make a console that can hold up to it's competitors though.

I think a Fusion platform could do reasonably quite well for Nintendo, but their execution needs to be *miles* better than their sloppy Wii U/3DS launches.

Super Mario Galaxy 3, Mario Kart 9, Animal Crossing Next, IMO should all already be in development for it *now* so that they're ready or almost ready for launch by spring/summer 2016. No lazy sequels ala NSMBU either ... I'd push the dev teams to make each installment of these titles the best possible. They should have an all-purpose "Nintendo Amiibo Universe" title too ala Skylanders by 2015/16. 

There should be at minimum 2 big Japanese third party games early on too ... a Monster Hunter 5, Yokai Watch 3/4, Dragon Quest XI ... that type of thing. 

They should make sure they have one killer app for launch and one more killer game 2-3 months after launch to prevent the dreaded post-launch lull.

I wouldn't go crazy courting third parties, but I'd sit down with a few key third parties and have very frank, open discussions. No bullsh*t, lets make some real deals here that are win-win for both sides.