First off I don't think this is a doom thread or a redundant thread. I also don't think that the Wii U is really that bad off, just had a weak couple months. I also think Nintendo has a solid plan to get things going. That said, I think Nintendo needs to do the following to right the ship:
1. Exclusive core titles. At least two, preferably 4 major, impressive, 1st party titles. An epic 3D Mario that can wow onlookers. X needs to be deep and impressive. MarioKart is an obvious draw. A mature title, preferably a 1st or 3rd person shooter/adventure by Retro. Most or all of these need to be visually stunning. The system needs these to give core buyers a reason to buy the system. They need these within the next 12 months.
2. The Gamepad and casual titles. Contrary to what a lot of people say, I think the Gamepad is indeed a great casual draw. It just hasn’t been used as such yet. I’ve seen it in action with casuals and they think it’s awesome. It’s a tablet that can also control the livingroom TV, Music and so on, and non-gamers and occasional gamers think it’s neat like an ipad. Just as Wii Remotes mimicked TV remotes for simplicity, Gamepads mimic the very popular tablets and smartphones. What Wii U needs is games and apps that offer the tablet experience only better. NintendoLand was poorly named and poorly thought out. The one minigame on there that does what it needs to do is the Ninja star game. That looks cool to observers, flinging starts from the pad onto the TV. It also has nice polished visuals. NintendoLand should have been called “WiiApps” or something of the sort and featured a bunch of those. The system needs more of those, as well as a whole bunch of iOS type apps that are cheap and easy downloads. They need to have a bunch of these games and apps to lure casuals in. Porting tablet apps is great too, and I think Nintendo is working to do that.
3. Marketing. The marketing has been abysmal for this system. Wii U needs a totally new approach. They should just hire or copy Apple’s agency, in particular the excellent iPad ads. They should show the gamepad doing magical things (throwing ninja stars from the pad screen to the TV, for example). They need to imply that Wii U can do things you’ve never been able to do before and that it can do things an iPad can do for cheaper. The ads need to present the system as something very accessible but also sophisticated.
4. Price. Needs to come down, but only once other next get competitors launch. At this stage it won’t do anything. When they launch – if they launch at $400+ - a $299 deluxe could look very attractive.
5. More links to 3DS. 3DS is very popular. The ability to swap game info between systems as in MH3 is pretty cool. More of this could turn 3DS into a gateway to WiiU sales.
6. Wait. As it stands the WiiU is in a tough battle with the cheaper and well-supported PS360. Things will become easier when there are more expensive alternatives on the market and PS360 is less supported. They need to do the above things, but it needs to wait to time just before those consoles are available.
