They need to start taking risks with software.
Keep the franchise staples there of course, but outside of that invest in a ton of weird, quirky, bizarre, interesting, unique, fun, crazy, etc. indie games.
Cheap to finance and that's where the new ideas are. Not at EA or Activision where they everything is space marine shooter that must sell 10 million copies to break even.
But Nintendo guilty of themselves of relying on their safety blanket of "Mario in everything" + four to five other 15-30 year old franchises.
Indie games, Nintendo. Embrace them. Get them *exclusive* (it does the Wii U no good to have the same indie game that's on iOS/PC/XBLA/etc.), but paying for them is relatively cheap. Develop long term relationships with the developers that are successful.
Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros. U, DKC ... ok fine. That's great. Where the hell is the new audience supposed to come from with a lineup like that though? It's just going to be the same Nintendo fans over and over and over. If you risk nothing, you gain nothing, gotta take some risks. I'm surprised Nintendo is so risk averse when Brain Training and Nintendogs and Wii Sports and Wii Fit (all risks at the time) are what drove their previous platforms to sky high sales.
At least cultivate an image that your console is home to Mario, yes, but also to unique/quirky new types of experiences that don't have mascot characters in them.
It's also time for the 60 year olds on Nintendo's board of director's to gracefully step aside. Miyamoto needs to be stripped of company level decision making too. He gets to focus on his own 1-3 game projects at one time, but should not have say in Nintendo's business/marketing/hardware design/overall software philosophy decisions.
