Call me crazy, but I still feel Nintendo is in better shape than its competitors. Yes, the HD consoles are finally starting to BAAARELY outsell the Wii, but let's look at all that it took in order for it to happen..

-SEVERAL price drops, especially for the PS3. PS3 has dropped 50% of its initial value after only 3 years, which is pretty unheard of. And it's still struggling in America, the biggest gaming market.

- Multiple bundles and console skews, again, particularly for the PS3.

- Redesigns for BOTH consoles, which in part act as a fresh new launch, as many people run out and rebuy their console. Look at what the redesign did to the DS after all.. So it's almost as if Wii is going up against 4 consoles.

- Universal support of third parties, like 90% of the support as opposed to like 10% for the Wii. More support means more, and better games, which means more sales, and more longevity.

- Motion control devices for BOTH consoles. Kinect in particular has been treated almost like an entirely new console launch for MS.

-The added value of Blu Ray on the PS3, which seems to be having an effect in Japan particularly, as PS3 console sales are high there but game sales are pretty low.

Clearly MS and Sony are more reliant on hardware features to maintain momentum. But you only have so many of these cards.

Wii on the other hand simply needs more games to thrive. Right now it doesn't have them. NSMB, the biggest hardware mover, is now over a year old. If Wii just gets more games that can sell, it easilly negates all of these marketing moves (and yes, a price drop couldn't hurt at this point either ;)). This to me is more sustainable than relying more on hardware features and marketing.

So ? Noone stopped Nintendo from doing their own price drops ?

That's irrelivent.. The point is both consoles have had MULTIPLE price drops to keep up with Wii. They would be in big trouble if they didn't outsell Wii by this point.

So? Did someone stand next to Iwata with gun in a hand telling him to never do any bundles? And that's if we convieniently ignore the fact that Wii is only console that was always bundled with game and later two games outside of Japan (and few smaller countries).

Again, the point is that the other consoles have shuffled around SEVERAL skews and bundles.

 So ? Again if they wanted they could have been lot more active in this field - even by simply increasing number of colors

So I'm gathering that your only argument seems to be "well Nintendo could have done the same thing!" Well obviously they could have, but they didn't did they? The point it, people are rebuying the HD consoles, thus inflating sales. People have no reason to rebuy Wii.

That's the price Nintendo has to pay for releasing console that is generation apart from competitors in horsepower. But i don't see any effort on their part to change this situation - look at Microsoft they spend milions to receive software support but it's now paying off since noone can ignore x360 now. They could have at least offered small Japanise devs support in releasing their titles WW.

Haha please, you know as well as I do that horsepower has little to do with it. Look at the horsepower of N64 and Gamecube, yet these consoles recieved little support. Nintendo does not get the support because of, well, Nintendo. Other companies simply do not want to compete with their games, indeed, often they CAN not..

So ? How is that diffrent from what Wii Fit did for Wii ?

Is this serious? Wii Fit is a game, Kinect is hardware...

Most PS3 game sales in Japan are concentrated around launches of new games - not in a bunch of same evergreen titles which regularly chart in top 10. January was releatively weak as currently 1/4 of PS3 games sold comes from Samurai Warriors 3 but next few weeks will improve that ratio. 

Yet, PS3 rarely even sees games in the top 10, or even the top 20 for that matter in Japan. And when they are there, they fall like a rock. Yet their sales remain high compared to Wii, which usually has several games in the top 10. This tells me that it is the Blu Ray player that is keeping the PS3's momentum in Japan.

They also have superior online support (especially Microsoft) and bigger distribution networks (Especially Sony)  and it's them who have 3rd party support.

Better online at a price. Wii's online is at least free. Though yes its online is inferior, you are right about that. Not really an issue when it comes to sales though, as Wii has managed to sell 85 million despite a shady online system.

Except they are now too busy making 3DS software so the next wave of Wii games could arrive in 2012-2013 if all those studios shifted from handheld to console development right after finishing launch 3DS titles. And again with all the money they have been doing in previous years they could have accumulated more studios - Sony on it's own has one big title planned for each month in 2012.

Agreed, Nintendo is focusing on 3DS games. Once the 3DS stuff settles down, the shift back to Wii support will come, and with it, stronger sales.

They don't need to acquire studios though. That's something a huge corporation with endless pockets like MS does.

 Yes, Zelda Skyward Sword will push some Wii systems...especially for the "Core" who used to own a Wii but sold it. I expect it to push a decent amount similar to Donkey Kong Country Returns but it won't be a NSMBW, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, or even a Brawl.

In other words there's only one company that can be blamed for current Wii sales - Nintendo itself and sum of the errors, arrogancy and architecture they chosen for Wii.

Kinda like a reverse of start of this generation when Sony suffered from it's own design errors and bad decisions to learn from it and improve with each passing year.

I agree with that, don't get me wrong. Nintendo is flaking out on the Wii atm while it focuses on 3DS.

I'm just saying put it in perspective, and it's quite obvious why the HD consoles are currently looking a little better than Wii sales. It's because they've pulled out all the stops in order to do so. Price drops, motion controls accessories, multiple skews, console redesigns, you name it. They are fighting to stay relevant. And yet people act like Wii is the console in a horrible position.

People go CRAZY for zelda games, it'll have a much bigger turnout than DKC. The core audience that still feels betrayed by the Wii will come to it with open arms. Remember, TP was available on the GC too, so some people skeptical during Wii launch didnt get the Wii for Zelda.

The best selling Zelda of all time sold 7.6 Million...while very good its not going to put the Wii on top again for more than 2-3 weeks. I still don't think Zelda Skyward Sword will be as strong of a System seller as most people in this thread think.(Don't call me a fanboy...Wii is my favorite System I just don't see Zelda doing all that much for Wii sales in the long run.)