I agree with the OP. Wii sales are down massively (and Nintendo deserves it) but this is basically without any support from both first party and third party. I'll still maintain my stance that a redesigned Wii, coupled with a price cut (say $169 for the new model and $149 for the old one) and some decent games would be enough to keep sales at roughly 15 million units this year and above 10 million in 2011. It all depends on Nintendo and how they handle this situation.
I also want to point out (like others have before) that during the N64 and Gamecube period Nintendo, due to being smaller and having less dev teams than today, pretty much released no software at all for their systems - in case of the Gamecube there was almost nothing to play starting mid 2004 and at that point the system was already priced at $99. I remember Paper Mario was the very last N64 first party release (maybe even the last one period) and that game came out in early October in the EU. The Gamecube was released on May 3, 2002 here! That's seven (7!) months without any release and at that time Nintendo was mainly releasing ports for the GBA!
One of the main reasons Nintendo is so focused on getting third paty support is that there is always a two year time period with only very little releases for their home consoles which constantly causes them to drop in the sales charts. It happened to the N64, the Gamecube and now the Wii and everytime Nintendo's stock goes down, the media declares doom on them and gamers all over the internet are ranting (I was a member of the official Nintendo website forum between 1999-2003 or so - I was there). Nintendo did it different with the SNES - N64 transition and it turned out horribly because the N64 seriously lacked games during its first year on the market.
This is most troubling to a company like Nintendo who's only business is games. What if the Wii had only sold like half of what it has now? Nintendo would have to release their next console this year instead of next which would mean two new systems to support at once (which didn't work at all for GBA / GC).I don't want Nintendo to stop focusing on expanding the market but I can see where they are coming from.
It's been like this for the last three generations and the reactions are always the same. Oh and before people said "Nintendo should drop out of the console business" they said "Nintendo should drop out of the console business because they cannot support both home consoles and handhelds". At least that's what they said on the gaming websites I visited back then (which weren't many haha). That's the origin of these claims for those who are interested.
