The Wii U will be in 3rd place next gen

[Andrespetmonkey]

RolStoppable said:

There are a lot of flaws in your analysis. It all starts with you subscribing to the price and gimmick hypothesis. If you know the actual reasons for the success of NIntendo consoles, you will be much more accurate in predicting success or failure.

NES and Gameboy define the Nintendo experience and it is defined by games.

I'm looking at recent Nintendo consoles, the Gameboy was the first mainstream handheld gaming device, which replaces the gimmick selling point, and the NES was the first console to make the industry feel inspired again after the crash, again replacing the gimmick selling point. I guess you could argue that it was the games on NES that made revitalized the industry again rather than the NES itself, but first party alone won't make the Wii U as successful, todays world is very different, that's why I only included recent consoles. (starting from the 64)

The farther away Nintendo goes from that, the lower their sales will be.

Nintendo is setting up the Wii U for massive failure, but we'll get a much better picture next week. Maybe they will be able to reduce the damage, but games development takes some time, so it's not possible to switch gears on a whim.

EDIT: Like amp316 correctly pointed out, Nintendo isn't doomed to third place per se, because somebody else could screw up worse.

That's a very good point.