Thought experiment: The year is 2005, the GameCube is a failure, what should Nintendo's next console be like?

[Final-Fan]

RolStoppable said:

JoeTheBro said:
When are you going to return to this thread Rol and explain how all of this was really to show we'd suck at being in charge?

The point of this thread is not to show how anyone would suck at being in charge in 2005. It's to highlight how much the people in 2013 suck; those people who suggest that Nintendo shall make a $400 console as the Wii U's successor, because Nintendo has to win back the hardcore or some other inane reasoning.

If everyone's honest, nobody would have suggested anything like the Wii back in 2005, because the idea is just too far out there. But in 2013 there is the benefit of hindsight. Deviating from the industry norm cannot be assumed to be suicidal for Nintendo, because there's clear proof to the contrary out there (the Wii). Meanwhile, Nintendo giving in to conventional wisdom ("Nintendo must fight over market share with the others.") has a clear pattern of declining sales. All four of those consoles (SNES, N64, GC, Wii U) share the same fate. The Wii U is especially damning, because it's coming off of Nintendo's all time high in home console sales, yet it picks up right where the GC left off.

Sure, there's no guarantee that deviating from the norm will be as successful as the Wii. But there is a guarantee that symmetrical competition with Sony and Microsoft will end in disaster.

I'm not sure how well the SNES part of your argument holds up; it's not that far behind the NES and had less time on the market if I'm not mistaken.  But that doesn't invalidate the thrust of your post by any means.