Nintendo has had loads of new IPs in the 7th gen, so I disagree.  They just need a new high profile IP that appeals to the so called 'core gamer'.  It isn't a question of quantity, but quality compared to their established IPs such as the mainline Mario and Zelda.

Being the most expensive on the market at a point in time is not necessarily a problem, especially if your system is not unusually expensive for a new system and the systems you will be in (more) direct competition with have yet to be released to the market. After all, the PS2 was the most expensive console on the market when it was released and is the most successful home console that has ever been released. On top of this, the underlying question is "how long will it be the most expensive system?"

On the Wii U's touch screen not being unique in the market that may not be a problem and could be seen as a benefit. Between the Nintendo DS, smart phones, and tablet PCs the touch screen has rapidly become one of the most common user interfaces that people use to play videogames; and as a result users and developers have become very comfortable with them. Unlike when the Nintendo DS was first released Nintendo doesn't have to convince gamers or developers on the viability of the touch screen; and they don't have to convince gamers or the developers of the value of having a secondary display anymore. Since the experiment has been completed, developers can take what they know works to make their games better immediately.

In the context of interactive entertainment, I suspect why Nintendo was able to be more successful with creating these edutaiment games on the Nintendo DS than they were on the Wii was because a touch interface is better suited to this approach. This isn't to say that the Wiimote isn't a solid approach for broader games, and I'm glad that they're keeping the Wiimote with motion plus because I want to see what developers can do with that,

On the topic of the controller price, you can quite regularly find 7 inch color touchscreen LCD ebook readers for under $100 and 7 inch tablet PCs for under $150 which both require far more and more expensive components than the Wii U controller. Certainly, these are not big-name products, but it should demonstrate that Nintendo may be able to sell the Wii U controller with a game at a similar price range to what Guitar Hero sold for.

1. i have to disagree at launch the prices were wii $250 360 $400 ps3 $600 and this is in a market where the consoles were the consoles were generally priced around what the wii was originally priced at imo there's no doubting that the wii's price helped it to attain its success

you mentioned the ps2 which was at the time ( i believe ) priced the same as the xbox but that was a different situation as the consoles were all priced within a similar range - gc $150 ps2, xbox $200... i'd hardly compare a $50 difference to what happened this gen sony's console was $350 more expensive and the 360 was $150 more expensive

2. agreed 

3. well i'm no expert on the parts used in these devices myself but i believe nintendo's hesitation to confirm whether the controllers will be available for purchase seperately may contradict what you're saying that doubled with the fact that standard controllers these days cost $50, controllers that don't have a cam, mic, touchscreen etc built in but i do understand what you're saying about ereaders being comparable ( although the least expensive that comes to my mind is the kindle which retails for over $100 without a cam or colour screen )... i guess that regardless we'll have to wait and see what happens

1) I'm not sure what you're trying to say with your post, but when the PS2 launched it was the most expensive console on the market ($300) and was much more expensive than the Playstation (roughly $100), N64 (roughly $100) and Dreamcast ($200). The PS2 was only exclusive at the most expensive on the market until the XBox launched where the PS2 stayed tied for the most expensive console until the XBox 360 launched.

With the Wii U it is highly likely that it will launch in a price range that people have already demonstrated willingness to buy a videogame system they're interested in ($300 to $400), and within 18 months both Sony and Microsoft may launch their own systems which (either through Nintendo dropping the price or Sony and Microsoft releasing at a higher price) makes the Wii U no longer the most expensive console on the market.

Certainly, the price of $250 helped the Wii sell so well; but, being that the Wii remained sold out for essentially 2 years, I highly doubt that selling it at $300 would have had a noticeable impact on sales.

I'm not convinced that Nintendo has abandoned this approach yet, and I think that the difference in when the 3DS launched compared to the DS along with the difference in price and the eventual launch of the PS VIta may be the reason Nintendo hasn't focused on the expanded market yet. The Nintendo DS was given time to establish itself on the market for over a year before the touch-generations games started to be released, and this would put the release of these kinds of games for the 3DS into the next fiscal year for Nintendo. On top of this, the 3DS is noticeably more expensive than the DS was at launch and Nintendo might want to wait for the first price cut to really push games for people who may be less committed gamers. Finally, if Nintendo wants to make the 3DS the platform of choice for core gamers they need to capitalize on the time between the 3DS’ launch and the PS Vita starting to get a steady release of games.

When you include all of these factors, it becomes plausable that they will start pushing the alternative experiences more at next year's E3 ... If it doesn't happen then, I may start to agree with you though.

1. yeah i had it wrong the price difference was actually $100 for a while but then dropped eventually but thats still different to a $150, $250 difference

2. true i guess we'll have to wait and see what happens

I agree completely. Most of my pessimism on Nintendo's immediate prospects revolves around the lack of a new Nintendogs or Wii Fit.

That being said, im confident that even if Nintendo can't cook up some really fresh new experiences to lure in new customers, they have the savvy to stay in the black with the core audience at least.

Umm I have to agree and disagree. A) yes Nintendo is neglecting the casual market and not reaching out to non-gamers. However your statement that developers or publishers shouldn't differentiate hardcore and casual is lunacy. Your very post proves that the casual and hardcore markets are totally different demographics and that Nintendo should target both individually.

Rol I'm pretty dissapointed in the second paragraph. I hope your joking, but this is the launch year of 3DS and the WiiU has no announced games other then SmashBros. Yet your expecting Nintendo to have announced a New Super Mario Bros and WiiSports. Miyamoto already commented last year about making another 2D Mario game so its likely coming, just not officially confirmed. Then WiiSports well since their was a WiiSports demo shown at Nintendo's E3 conferance I'd suspect that a WiiSports related title will most definatly launch on WiiU.

As for your knock on GameCube, Nintendo made several great games for GameCube. The quality of the games did not go up from GameCube to Wii. If anything I'd say game quality went down. For gamers Nintendo returning to GameCube style games (Hardcore and Innovative) is great and if Nintendo gives casuals some games then the 3DS and WiiU should be the best systems to date. Also Luigi's Mansion 2 was a given we all knew it was coming I mean Nintendo said their first experiments with 3D were on Luigi's Mansion for GameCube, it only makes sense for them to produce the product they wanted to produce now. I don't know how as a gamer you could be against the return of Pikmin and Luigi's Mansion or other GameCube era properties, they were some of the best games of last gen.

Again your talking about the casual demographic. I agree Nintendo by not releasing casual games and launching at a cheaper price tag are throwing alot of their gains away. Nintendo is forgetting that the majority of the buyers for Wii and DS were not regular gamers and that Nintendo needs to do something big to get those gamers to upgrade. I think Nintendo's names 3DS and WiiU will not help in the slightest as casuals will not see the need to upgrade. I already know casuals who thought 3DS was a 3D DS and didn't care to buy one because they thought that DS could do everything 3DS could. Nintendo isn't marketing their products right with WiiU how many casuals are going to think its just another Wii and not want to upgrade? Also the advertising where is the advertising I don't see 3DS ads much on TV or in magazines like I saw with DS. Heck I remember seeing ads in Men's health magazines and Maxim and other magazines. I remember the ads all over the internet and tv. But with 3DS I see very little, Nintendo isn't doing enough to get its product noticed.

Now as for the topic. Your wrong DS broke sales records not far out of the gate. Nintendogs and Mario64 both sold over a million shortly after launch. The hardware sold amazingly well. 3DS on the other hand has yet to have a game reach one million in sales, its hardware is sometimes at the very bottom of the charts. Nintendo is about to release some games but can the games really pick the 3DS up to where DS was shortly after its launch? The DS flew off shelves the first year or so of its release. I remember picking mine up for pre-order and a friend desperatly trying to find one in stock for himself because he didn't pre-order. Nintendo had huge success with the DS compared to 3DS.

3DS is currently bombing it is being beaten some weeks by the PSP. No the DS didn't do nearly as bad as 3DS at launch. The lack of marketing lack of fresh new IP targetting casuals or many other titles targetting casuals. The high price point, Nintendo set 3DS up to fail. If the new games coming this year don't boost 3DS sales back to DS levels then I think Nintendo will need to launch a massive ad campaign and cut the price of 3DS by 50$ to 199.99$. Then maybe 3DS will have a fighting chance.

With WiiU will Nintendo run into the same problem as 3DS? Possibly and if they do then they will need to fix the problems ASAP. Nintendo used to do such a great job in marketing and releasing software for casuals and hardcore. They are dropping the ball big time by neglecting the casuals and not marketing their products enough. I mean Reggie announced Nintendo was out sourcing marketing big mistake!

First off, I don't know where you're getting your information from but the DS struggled initially in sales ... Certainly it sold much more rapidly than the 3DS has, but it was also released in the middle of a shopping orgy more commonly known as the Christmas shopping season; after Christmas the DS's sales tanked to a level below what we have seen with the 3DS and didn't recover until the spring when Nintendo released Brain Training and Nintendogs.

VGChartz Hardware data for the period 27th Mar 2005 to 18th Jun 2005:

VGChartz Hardware data for the period 27th Mar 2011 to 18th Jun 2011:

Edit: added to the charts for clarity

Edit #2: Even if you claim that 600,000 of those 3DS was simply a launch based boost (far enough estimate) the 3DS is really not doing THAT poorly

Nintendo obviously could have handled the 3DS launch more smoothly, they should have had some big titles in the launch window, and they should be releasing some of their expanded market games before Christmas, but I still think people's fuzzy memories and failure to consider the 2004 holiday season are why people think the 3DS is doing so poorly compared to the DS.

Nice to see those charts. I never looked up the charts I just know that for about a year DS's were next to impossible to find. I know because all my friends were jealous I had one. So seeing 3DS's at all the stores on the shelves gives the impression that it is not doing as well as DS did. Also I was going based on all the threads and the fact that VGChartz shows the PSP beating 3DS on some weeks and to be honest that is sort of scary.

But you can't deny what I was talking about, like Nintendo's poor marketing and the little support for casuals. I mean Nintendo used to be amazing with its ads they were all over, today I don't see them at all. Then casuals got Nintendogs + Cats but of all the announced titles which casual games are coming out this year?

3DS is not selling well enough for people not to worry. Nintendo could definatly use a boost and with some great software and the Christmas season only months away Nintendo could really cash in. All Nintendo needs is some good advertising one or two casual hits and the line-up already announced and these things could sell like gangbusters.

But I don't think Nintendo has done enough or taken this seriously. They need to market, they need the casuals and they need to show consumers why they should buy a 3DS over a Vita.

Then again the net is hyping Vita big time, but I have doubts that it can over take 3DS if Nintendo puts up a fight.