Tittle basically says it all, but I will give my reasons why I believe this, plus some speculations as what Nintendo will do or should do:
It doesn't take a genius to know that Wii U is struggling right now, but if the Wii U can keep the momentum it had during the holidays it will have the sales to sustain for at least a couple more years. I also believe that in order to maintain a steady flow of games Nintendo should completely ditch out big budget games, as much as people don't like to hear this, I personally believe this is the best thing Nintendo can do to not bleed money. To go into more detail, the known 2014 should stay as it is: Bayonetta 2, X, SMT x FE, Smash Bros. etc, there's absolutely no point in cancelling those games this late in development, but what comes after those games finish development? well, imo, Nintendo should just make "small" games from now on, I'm talking in the scale of NSMBU, DKC: TF, etc (obviously not all platformers), as well as many "indie games" as you can (Doctor Luigi, NES Remix and the likes), just make 1 or 2 big games a year (Zelda, Metroid and maybe other franchises fall in here) Keep development cost low and times very short, this way Nintendo can keep up with at least 1 or 2 games a month and (at the very least) keep the console's momentum until the big game of the year comes out.
Disclaimer: I'm making assumptions here that games like "X" and Bayonetta 2 are very expensive to make, but in reality, given Nintendo's secrecy in development costs, those games might not be as expensive as I imagine, but is very safe to guess that those games are more expensive than 3D World or Tropical Freeze for example, and more importantly, they will sell more and make more profit.
As for 3rd parties, Nintendo should only pursue them as far as (as I mentioned above) doesn't cost them a lot of money, and only from partnerships, for example, something like Bayonetta 2, imo, should be out of the question again, but something like Sonic Lost World should not give Nintendo problems. As much as I'm excited for Bayonetta 2, I don't see how it makes sense financially.
Nintendo should also make a lot of bundles during the console's life, make a Mario Kart and Smash bundles, this should also keep the console's momentum for a while. As for the price, this is harder to say because (as far as I know) we don't know how much Nintendo is currently losing with the Wii U, but I'll say that Nintendo should officially drop the Wii U price this year to $250. With the heavy bundle I mentioned above at this price it should do decently well throughout the year. $200 is probably to low for Nintendo and they could potentially bleed a lot of money at this price, but like I said before, without knowing how much money Nintendo is losing with each Wii U console this is mostly speculation.
With all the things I mentioned above the Wii U should keep enough momentum to make it sell at least GC levels (maybe more). The system is still far from being another Virtual Boy (like a lot of people claimed), it just won't be a big success overall (which anyone with common sense already knew). 4 years for a console sounds short, but given the current circumstances it should be long enough to keep the fanbase and the general consumer happy.
Edit: I should clarify that the next Nintendo console will release during holidays 2016 or early 2017.
Nintendo and PC gamer
