Alternate History: Wii U as a standard 8th gen console

[Wman1996]

JackHandy said:

My dream come true lol. Since Wii, I have fantasized routinely about another Nintendo console that not only goes toe-to-toe with whatever Sony and Microsoft puts out, but one-ups them. Super powerful hardware, standard controller, standard media delivery etc. Could you imagine? All the Nintendo goodness with the hardware for GTA and any other game that developers create. It would be unstoppable... at least for me. I don't know how well it would actually do. It could flop. But hey, I'd be in heaven!

Unfortunately, the Wii to the present pretty much killed that. Nintendo is way too far behind to play catch up even if they released an enthusiast/Pro SKU alongside a normal one. 

Nintendo isn't going to release a hybrid around PS4-to-PS4 Pro level and then at the same time (or a few years later) release a home console Pro version that's around a PS6 or at least halfway between a PS5 and PS6. Nintendo's titles wouldn't take enough advantage of it, and even with optimization I don't see third parties seeing it as viable enough to release their games on when PC, PlayStation, and Xbox are easier.

We don't have full sales data for PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. If this figure is to be believed, PS4 Pro sold 14.3 million units by 19 January 2020. Going by the over 105 million PS4s as a whole sold to that point, that's more than 1 in 8. But it's lower than 1 in 7. Granted, the Pro didn't even release until November 2016. With Nintendo's desire to not lose money on hardware, I don't see them developing a very powerful SKU that would sell 10-15 million units out of a platform that would probably sell over 100 million total.