Haha. Well as soon as I saw the U specs + price + the fact that they had a tablet, I said "This is a terrible mistake".

If they had launched a U @ $199 OTD with a bundled franchise hit, they would have been in fantastic shape, even better if they had 3DS support out of box as well. The tablet is not something that is a hindsight failure, it should have been a foreseen failure lol.

Thank you Cap. Hindsight

I'll quote Iwata:

"[Yamauchi] always said that if you have failure, you don't need to be too concerned. You always have good things and bad, and this reflects the history of Nintendo. If you do the same thing as others, it will wear you out."

Also from the OP: "Need more time to fix bugs or glitches? Release the game in time and let the gamers report the issues, then simply apply software updates accordingly. "

NO! NO NO NO! What? NO! I thought gamers were unanimously against being beta testers to products that aren't ready for release. When I buy a game, I don't want to have to deal with bugs until the devs get around to finishing it. Why would anyone complain about Nintendo not releasing broken games? Why would anyone want Nintendo to "adapt to the industry standard" of doing things half assed?

I still do not understand the software delays Nintendo has experienced. The only thing I can figure is that they gave hyper-optimistic release dates in order to make the Wii U look like it had a strong "launch window". That, or they just flat-out lied. Other developers have been making high def games for the last decade. It's completely common-place by this point. There is no way in hell it could have sneaked up on them. If it did then it was their own fault and just a massive screw-up that would reek of managerial incompetence.

As for the hardware, the lesson Nintendo learned from the Wii was that gimmicks/innovations have the potential to blow up big and go viral. Unfortunately, they also have a greater chance to bomb. It's like how guys who are trying to hit home runs strike out more than those who are looking for singles or doubles. They are now a company that gambles on hardware. Worked with the Wii, failed with the Wii U. It failed with the 3DS but luckily that gimmick/innovation was cheap enough that it become inconsequential.

Personally, I think the best path for Nintendo might be to drop the gambling approach and instead concentrate on delivering a system that is $100 cheaper than PS/Xbox while providing the best technology for the price. Keep the cheap motion controls solution for the family-friendly games, use a standard controller for those that need it. Keep costs low and the value to the consumer high. I think the gamepad and Kinect have proven that consumers want the most bang for their buck more than they want expensive peripherals. If you want attachments then keep the cost low.

It's not fuckin' rocket science.

3DS stumbled out of the gate, as you say, because it's launch lineup SUCKED. There were ZERO "must have" titles to help sell the console. The price wasn't even the issue, and the price drop, while it absolutely helped sales, wasn't technically necessary. What really picked up sales, was the release of MK7, and Super Mario 3D Land. When those came out, 3DS finally had some "killer apps".

Wii U is a bit different. It didn't stumble RIGHT out of the gate. In fact it did well within it's launch window, selling close to 3 million units. It even had a rather robust launch lineup, one of the single biggest arrays of launch software in gaming history actually. BUT, one thing it kind of didn't have, was a "MUST HAVE" killer app. Nintendo Land simply wasn't as readily accessible and "for everyone" as Wii Sports had been. Nintendo tried, and they obviously thought NL would be that, but it just wasn't. NSMBU was a great game, and it still to this day has the highest attach rate of any game on the console. But it was hindered by Nintendo releasing it FAR too close to NSMB2 on 3DS. The enthusiasm for the game would have been much higher if Nintendo had release NSMB2 much further away from U than they did.

Wii U's real trouble started in the first half+ of 2013, when they published a grand total of ONE title themselves, Lego City (which is a great game), and third party support during that same period also became sparse. Third party support AT LAUNCH was very strong. But because many of those games didn't sell very well, some of those third parties, namely EA, stopped or lessened their support going forward. System sales suffered because of a lack of software released for much of 2013. THAT, along with poor/lack of advertising, was the main cause of Wii U's troubles. Things picked up late in the year, which reflected in Wii U selling around 1 million consoles in the last few months of 2013.

2014 is going BETTER, with two Nintendo retail releases in the first two months, Wii Fit U and DKCR2. But then there's the gap between March and late May, before MK8 comes out. There is still, unlike last year, a slow trickle of third party retail software releasing in those months, and support is certainly steadier than it was last year. BUT, the simple fact is, if Nintendo had managed to release MK8 on April 30th, instead of May 30th, at least perception wise, that might've made all the difference in the world, as far as there seeming like a major gap.

But, the undeniable fact is, that Mario Kart 8 IS a "must have", system selling type of killer app title, and it's release WILL help Wii U sales. It's not a question of IF it will help, only a question of how much. Will it help some, or a lot? And how will Nintendo follow MK8? Will they manage to have a stronger, steadier release lineup from June-December 2014? One would hope so, especially considering that games like Bayonetta 2, Yarn Yoshi, and even X surely should all be close to done, all of them having been in development for years.

So regardless of whatever blather is being talked about Nintendo's "arrogance", nothing has changed as far as the real issue behind Wii U's struggles. It hasn't had a single, MUST HAVE piece of software to push the system. It just hasn't. It's had many GOOD games. But even Super Mario 3D World, as good as it is, was hurt somewhat by the perception that "oh, it's just another 3D Land game". So it also wasn't the "killer app" Wii U needed. Mario Kart will be, there is no arguing that. It only remains to be seen how MUCH it will help, and if Nintendo can drive the momentum forward going forward.

Your observation skills are simply superb, Rol.

You forgot bugs that crash the game or corrupt save data or both. Oh, and pay for online.

"idk". You're right, you don't know. It's poor reading of the market like this that has hurt the Japanese developers so much. So many people in the industry put the blame on the wrong shoulders. Itadaki, cliffyb, and others did this. Jim Sterling is right. Japanese devs went out of their way to make games more westernized and lost so much audience because of it. It all comes down to really poor analysis of the market, and bad leadership on top of it all.

Releasing games in the dlc way is not a bad idea. It's a very smart idea. It allows developers to save costs until it's shown that the support for the game exists.

Mobile gaming is not bad. In fact, it's very good, and very smart. Mobile is huge already and is only growing. Only an idiot would not prepare. You look at ps4 and how almost every dev is supporting it. They all know how successful it is going to be. If it's only logical to support ps4, how is it bad to support mobile?

Also, just because you use EA as an example, it doesn't give your argument credibility. There are plenty of great companies and games and franchises that use dlc properly. Look at pc expansions. Expansions are basically dlc. So there you have the fallout series, starcraft, warcraft, eve, world of warcraft, elder scrolls, crusader kings, far cry, warhammer 40k, and countless others. DLC is just following the 15 year+ trend that is called expansion.

EDIT: Not trying to be an asshole, but try to put a little more thought into this. Nintendo would do well to work with DLC more....and they are. Fire Emblem is a perfect example of it. Why should gamers have to wait upwards of 5 years for sequels? There is only ONE smash brothers per generation. Would it kill them to update the game? No. They can put out dlc and expand every couple years. They would make money. It would be profitable.

Instead, Nintendo says, "he's some shit. Eat your shit, and STFU". No, Nintendo is definitely cutting their own wrists. They are missing out on tons of profits. GBA on 3ds is already possible. Yet no downloadable games. There was ONE mario party in wii era. ONE. There were like 4 on gamecube, and each one sold really well. It's a failure in the leadership and in their market strategy.

if Nintendo is arrogant what are the rest of Companies?
I think Nintendo is less arrogant than the average videogame publisher...