Nintendo still released Skyward Sword and Xenoblade toward the end of the Wii, and these games were masterpieces. Donkey Kong country Returns was also a great and powerful game. I agree that Wii Music was a big error though.

But NSMBWii was released a year after and sold incredibly well.

Sold 250 million combined. So no.

nintendo could and should have made Wii 2 and cruised to another 50 million+ sales. Why they didn't will always baffle me. Current struggles are the product of current choices. Not last gen.

Last Gen? No.

Start of this gen? Yes. They wanted the casuals back but now they thankfully realised they must attract the core gamer.

No, it was a great and sound strategy, something they should do more often.

It will depend on whether you are a long-term or short-term thinker.
Short-term was definately worth it.

Personally I prefer a gaming company does something with long-term stability and consistency so I dont care how much money they made from it, it didnt get my attention.

It was a great strategy, actually. Thinking they could accomplish the same by pretty much the same means and gain a significant core following simultaneously with the Wii U; not so much.

They dun goof'd.

It was the smartest thing they could have done. How can you argue with billions in the bank? MS and Sony would have killed for Nintendo's problem instead of selling at massive losses for years. The only thing they did wrong with the Wii U was underestimate the future power of the ps4 and X1. That and adding media features that are commonplace last gen.

The Wii is too weak for third party games doesn't make sense to me. I mean, Capcom ported Super Street Fighter IV to the 3DS, but not the Wii, which is stronger and will probably have a higher userbase. Tekken 6 was ported to PSP, which is also weaker than the Wii.

The strategy that began with the DS was right on the money... really, a lot of money.
The only problem was that it wasn't perfect.

From a core gamer or hardcore gamer perspective (for this point, sames as MS and Sony consumer perspective), the franchises Nintendo created were more geared towards non gamers and that hurt Nintendo in the end.
Yes, they brought us Excite Truck, Xenoblade and Last Story and other games, but that wasn't part of their core business. And even after they had already won the non-gamers heart they still didn't go with full force after MS and Sony gamers.

Basically, they forgot about one segment of the market that is more loyal towards consoles and handhelds than the non-gamer.
The signs were there and Nintendo ignored them.

From another perspective, the Wii strategy failed because when the market started to move away towards smartphones and tablets, the Wii strategy didn't change: it became centered on the Wii Remote and didn't transform into a Wii tablet, for exemple.
It's not like people stopped caring about those games that played on Wii, they just found them in more convenient devices like a smartphone and tablets.

When Nintendo failed to take the next step in new types of software and build a third pillar in the mobile segment, the market went away.

So what is happening with 3DS and Wii U.
3DS is losing mindshare in the market that was always their strongest: kids and families.
Wii U is doing below GC numbers because they tried to make a console for people who weren't there without offering anything better in terms of software and even hardware.
And for core gamers, from the start, there were no standout games - or games at all (that includes 3rd party games too); there was no message or marketing towards core gamers.
And 2 years after the console launch, we are still to get a decent release schedule.

I think they messed up this gen by having a big ass controller with people not knowing they released a new console.