What can Nintendo do?

[Jumpin]

Soundwave said:

Jumpin said:

reggin_bolas said:

Jumpin said:
Over dramatic Nintendo is doomed thread #314361

These sorts of threads have been going on for almost two decades now. You can safely hold back those tears young boy and realize that each generation offers new opportunities; and Nintendo's hardware staff is at work devloping the way to best exploit them.

Sometimes they fail, but typically companies do not dominate more than 1-2 generations in a row. Nintendo has about a 50% rate of winning generations.

Huh? You do realize Nintendo consoles have been selling less and less each generation. The only exception is the original Wii. So far the Wii U is on the track to be the worst selling Nintendo console since I guess the virtual boy. 

Nintendo is on a downward spiral of irrelevance. 

Aside from being overdramatic too, you contradict your first sentence with your second. The Wii wasn't the only exception, nor is it only an exception. The Wii and DS were Nintendo's highest selling home console and handheld console in history. This generation doesn't speak for their next generation of consoles. The Wii and DS are irrefutable proof that all it takes is a single generation to turn things around.

Nintendo portables have been selling fairly consistently for the last 15 years, DS peaked higher but the GBC and GBA were all big sellers and while the 3DS is a decline is still holding OK at least. The GBA probably would've hit 120 million or so if its lifecycle was not cut short, it sold at a considerably better rate than the 3DS is (18 million peak year shipment versus 13 million for the 3DS so far). 

If we remove the motion gaming craze of the Wii, its pretty irrefutable that Nintendo consoles are a on a large downward decline though. 

NES (65 mill) - SNES (49 mill) - N64 (33 mill) - GameCube (22 mill) - Wii U (on pace for 16-17 mill) is actually fairly (and alarmingly) consistent. 

Maybe they can come up with another Wiimote like miracle that saves them next hardware cycle, but we've seen this generation that such a strategy can also be incredibly risky ... if the audience doesn't take to your new novelty as well as they did to your past one, you can be totally screwed. Worst of all Nintendo somehow managed to make a controller so expensive this generation that it's even causing them to bleed money.

I don't disagree with your view, but I do disagree with your mode of argument:

Arguments proposing an alternative history like "If Wii didn't have the Wii remote, then...." is not really a good argument,especially if you presume that Nintendo would have simply just released the Wii console with some other type of controller. If the Wii didn't have the Wii remote, Nintendo would have likely released a newer console that was more powerful and earlier to the market. Considering the Xbox 360 success, it is highly probable Nintendo would have been more successful than the Gamecube. 

Also, using an argument that proposes an alternative history would also destroy the initial premise gthat Nintendo is on the decline:

1. If N64 had gone with CDs instead of cartridges, it would have never lost the third party support, including games like FF7. Therefore it would have almost certainly sold better than the SNES and would have easily dominated the generation.

2. If Gamecube hadn't looked like a children's toy and been marketed as PS2 junior, it would have almost certainly sold better than it did. Of course, if the N64 had dominated due to point 1, it is doubtful Nintendo would have ever opted for a more child-oriented strategy with the Gamecube.