Can Nintendo Make Another Successful Home Console w/o Expanding?

[PenguinZ]

JayWood2010 said:

Nintendo has continued to struggle with the WiiU and it gets me to thinking will Nintendo ever be a relevant factor in the home console business again?

And to be clear i think Nintendo games in general will always have a relevance but I also dont think they can single handedly compete with Sony and Microsoft mostly because the audience that Nintendo appeals to is so small.  Sure the Wii was a success thanks to it becoming a phenomenon but that had little to do with Mario + Zelda + etc but more with the Wii mote and how casuals accepted the console.  But theyre gone and its more apparent every day with Kinect and WiiU

And this is what I'm saying.  If there is 10m fans of Mario then you are gathering a 10m fanbase for the WiiU.  And fankly Nintendo pushes mario down your throat with countless spinoffs, 3D, and 2D.  Mario is never ending but again its only a small fanbase if you look at the larger picture.  And this is where the problem is, that audience is the same audience who likes Star Fox, Pikmin, Zelda, etc.  All Nintendo games are focused on the same audience.  Its not very diverse.  They dont try to capture the other 100m's of people who like different stuff.

That is like Microsoft only being Halo.  It would appeal to about 10m people there for Xbox would only sell 10m lifetime.  Or Gran Turismo with Playstation.  However Microsoft and Sony goes for a wider variaty with things with different genres, different demographics, mature rated, and E rated.  Then to top it off they have more powerful graphics, better online, more features like achievements which to this day i dont understand why Nintendo wont add, and third parties that they cater to.  Its a much wider variety.

And then you think NIntendo and you mostly think E for everyone, mascots, and platforming.  WHile they do have other games like Xenoblade in general the games they push is very much Mario, Donkey Kong, etc which i think is a huuuuge problem.  Especially when you can get the same experience on a handheld now (3DS).

So, will Nintendo have to expand creating a wider variety in their portfolio?  Will they need to get away from the Mascot dominated culture and cutesy artsyles?  Or do you think that adding third parties to the mix will fix their problems?

I agree with a few points of the post...

I'm not sure why Nintendo hasn't done achievements yet either, especially considering that I think they're well suited for their games. It's also rather simple to do. It personally isn't a make or break for me, but it would honestly be a nice feature to have. I'd like more online features as well, but honestly I have no issues playing online in terms of performance. Nintendo tries to capture kids and families, but they should be more aggressive with other markets as well. 

And there's some disagreement...

I'm not sure what people expect Nintendo to do with their portfolio of games, because they already provide a pretty diverse offering of games. Also, what makes you think people want diversity in games? Look at the best selling games on any platform... Look at the type of games with annual releases. Look at what sells. Most people don't want new games, they want a similar experience over and over again with a few extra bells and whistles. Occasionally you'll get something new, but enevidably, the newness will wear off and it will simply turn into another franchise to milk.