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sc94597 on 31 December 2015
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Hiku said:

Not so sure about that. At least Mario Kart Wii sold over 300% of what Mario Kart 64 sold, and Smash Brawl sales were at 230% compared to Smash 64, Mario Galaxy sold the same as Mario 64. But for Mario and Zelda it was pretty much the same as N64, yeah.
But we have to keep in mind that a huge part of Wii's userbase were made up of the casual gamer crowd who either moved on to mobile gaming, or stopped playing as the various soccer moms and whatnot who used Wii fit weren't much of gamers to begin with. I can't really say how interested they would be in specific Nintendo franchises. But I do think there are many former Nintendo owners out there who liked those games in the past and would still want to play them today, but refuse to buy Nintendo's consoles for one reason or another. I just don't think the people interested in their games dropped to just 10m or so.
Speaking from a personal perspective, as much as I loved Nintendo's games for NES, SNES and N64, I always wanted to buy a new Nintendo console, every time one came out. I realy did. But in the end, they just never managed to convince me. I was even so sure that I'd buy a Wii U this time that I bought Mario Kart 8.

But I never bought a Wii U, and I never will. So that's $50 down the drain because of my continued faith in Nintendo's ability to convince me to buy one of their consoles again, in spite of being disappointed console after console for various reasons, I still have that hope when a new one comes out. And I've been hoping for that for around 15 years now.


I think there are a lot of Nintendo fans still out there who just don't want to invest in their hardware. At least I see that trend in most of my friends.
If they make a console that I genuinely feel is worth buying, then I will do so. And if they release their games for all consoles, I would definitely buy them.

I am almost certain that every "hardcore" gamer had access to a Wii last generation, even if they didn't buy one themselves - it was in their family. Honestly, i really don't believe the Nintendo fanbase is much greater than the Gamecube's hardware sales (somewhere around 20 million) and even then that doesn't necessarily mean that all of them like every Nintendo franchise. Sure there are the scattered people who enjoy a Nintendo game or two, but if they can't justify a Wii U purchase, can they really be called fans of Nintendo rather than a select few franchises of theirs? I mean, for Nintendo fans, there are plenty of great games on the Wii U that justify the platform. Sure, Zelda U isn't here yet, and there hasn't been a Metroid game (both of which are in my top five gaming franchises) but Pikmin, Xenoblade, Mario, Mario Kart, Star Fox, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Yoshi, and Smash are Nintendo bread and butter. Those other two franchises are those which have broad appeal among all core gamers. While I am sure there are a few Nintendo fans who absolutely love most of what they have to offer who haven't bought the system (heck until November I was one of them) I still believe that they are a very small group. 

Side Note: 

It makes sense that Super Smash Bros Brawl sold more than Super Smash Bros, because the latter was a new IP, while the first was an established franchise. Mario Kart has broad appeal to casual gamers, so more casuals => more sales.