So, I finally played SM3DWorld and...

[Figgycal]

Mr Khan said:

Figgycal said:

Mr Khan said:

 

The guy bankrolled Wonderful 101

So if your hypothesis is true, Iwata is an idiot at trying to follow his own strategy.

Wonderful 101 wasn't a risk for Nintendo. It was family friendly, had cartoonish grapphics, made by a well known game designer and used an artstyle reminiscent of an older game. And I can't imagine it cost that much to make - saying "bankrolled" makes it sound like a bigger number than it really is. It also doesn't have full voice acting. Nothing about it said that Nintendo was getting with the times - it was another love letter to a bygone era. Except this time it wasn't using the Mario or Zelda name and it sold poorly. And I can't imagine anyone not expecting it to sell poorly. Even Nintendo themselves expected it to not do very well (judging by the initial shipments for the game).

It was a weird game in an undefinable genre and supposedly cost 1.5x as much as Bayonetta, a game so unprofitable at 2 million sales (granted, many bargain bin) that Sega refused to push a sequel.

That sounds like horrible money management to me.