A lot of the focus is on things that don't really matter. Nintendo focusing on smelly "hardcore" gamers is not going to generate more sales at all.
What matters to Nintendo's success is releasing compelling software, and generating interest in their product. They were able to do this with the Wii and DS, and to a lesser extent the 3DS. The Wii U has been out for a year and just got its first game that is remotely interesting. There are still no major games out for the Wii U, no flagship Mario or Zelda or any kind of new franchise that is incredibly interesting like Wii Sports was to the Wii.
Saying that Nintendo has been strong on the software front is false, there have been nowhere near the same number of titles announced or released as there were for the Wii. By this time last year, flagship Zelda, flagship Metroid, flagship Wii Sports, flagship Mario Galaxy. For Wii U, one year in and the only really great thing about it is that we have flagship games coming out at undetermined times way in the future, but Mario Kart is JUST 6 months away! Nintendo should have never really done this, it was a really poor software development schedule. They should NEVER launch a console without flagship software.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
