Why the Wii U Is Destined to Become the Next Sega Dreamcast

[Raze]

AnthonyW86 said:

 Also Nintendo barely makes an profit on the Wii-U system itself if any, a situation very different to that of the Wii and other Nintendo home consoles.

...but not different for a Sony or MS console, so why aren't THEY the new dreamcast? If Nintendo is "barely" making a profit, its still better than the huge losses that Sony took with the PS3 and the Vita hardware.

The problem with "gaming analysts" is that unless they're well over 30, they haven't seen the whole industry's history - the crash in the 80s, the rise of Nintendo, the birth of the PS1, the switch from cartridge to optical, etc. Many young game journalists will have a hard time trying to assess the industry's trends well, outside of referring to something edited to death on Wikipedia.

If Nintendo was going to be hurt, it was the end result of the N64, the PS1 took a lion's share of the market, and Nintendo responded with the GameCube, which still sold at a minor loss, with the new competitor, Microsoft, on the scene. People swore that the XBOX would be end of Nintendo. Then Nintendo changed gears and took a big risk with the Wii, and made out like a bandit. 

The Wii U might perform around GameCube levels, maybe somewhere between GC and Wii levels, but will never become an "also ran" like the Dreamcast was, mostly due to a solid IP based fanbase. Zelda, Mario and Metroid will have been around 30 years in 2017, which isn't far away now. Donkey Kong is even older than that. For all the milking in the world, there's still a solid fanbase for those IPs.