F*ck the Wii

The 'casuals' loved this too and it smashed Wii's sales

You are not wrong, but handheld gaming has definately seen a steep decline with the rise of mobile gaming. I think Nintendo is wrong in targeting casuals/non-gamers. I don't think that non-gamers make up a decent percentage of of the PS4's massive success. Casuals and non-gamers(soccer moms, grandparents etc) don't splash out $299+ for a console anymore, at least not in droves of tens of millions. The Wii was an anomaly and prior to tablets and smart phone gaming. I think the majority of people that buy consoles now are people specifically interest in video games as a medium, not someone's aunty.

Let's see...Launch price of $149, in a world with NO mobile gaming VS. launch price of possibly $299, in a world where casuals have moved over to mobile gaming in large numbers.  Hmmm? Not exactly apples to apples is it?

Non-gamers/casuals have never paid for a console.

They did pay nearly $200 for Brain Training and $350 for Wii Fit with a free copy of Wii Sports.

The most they've paid (if anything) for a mobile game is $5

Slarvax said:

The problem with the smartphone userbase is a very small percentage are willing to pay for games, let alone premium $60 games. Not every game is Minecraft, and with game budgets increasing it will be really hard to see AAA games on smartphones anytime soon.

It's also very arbitrary of you to ignore the Wii, another console with only Nintendo first party games. Heck, so many people complaining about the NS being a handheld device, we should compare it with the 3DS, which has fantastic 3rd party support, not Wii U.

it probably will.

The 3DS, which wasn't that impressive in itself (although I like mine) may end up crossing the 70 million mark. It wouldn't be THAT impressive for the next partially handheld Nintendo device to retain the 3DS fanbase and then when you add in those interested in the home console aspect....

I think the strongest reason it may end up with quite a large userbase is going to be the game library. People in the past at times who aren't big Nintendo fans seem to be torn- do they buy the handheld OR the home console? in some cases it was literally a decision of buying one seperate game library vs another. And the confusion and decision making I think would cause people to go with neither. It can be daunting, the idea of having to buy two systems to get access to a lot of great big N games

with a unified consistent game release schedule one should expect this system to sell well.

Also price point wise 300$ (or even over) would be perfectly fine, this is a 2-1 device. People spend 700$ on new phones. Be realistic here folks. Adjusted speaking a lot of the older consoles would be like 500$.