Sony is building hardware for nearly 70 years. If anyone in this business knows what he's doing, it's Sony. They have some of the best engineers on the planet. They also get really huge discounts, as they are buying in masses and have good connections as one of the biggest manufacturers worldwide. I also have no doubt that many parts of the PS4 will be built by Sony themselves, making production even cheaper. When it comes to hardware, Sony has the advantage on their side. And by the looks of it, they are making good use of it. I have no doubt that Sony can build a machine with more power than Microsofts approach for significantly less cost. Building a console is not just putting some parts together, it takes a hell lot of development and I think when it comes to hardware, Sony easily outclasses the divisions of Microsoft and Nintendo, who are mainly software companies. 

We're getting all confused on the matter of Nintendo fans. There are really two camps of Nintendo fans: the NES/SNES types and the N64/GameCube types. The latter does only have about 15 million or so in its ranks. The former is much larger. They are expanded market of the "lapsed gamer" subset, as opposed to the "non-gamer" subset.

The lapsed gamers find nothing appealing in what gaming has become, aside from those who still hold true to the old values (e.g. Nintendo, when they're thinking straight) can get at them.

Aside from the fact that the second subset of the expanded market still exists, albeit in diminished numbers and energy

NES/SNES gamers though if they do play a lot tend to be 360/PS3 players. I grew up with the NES. So did a lot of my friends. If they do game they're pretty much all about the PS3/360 now. They did get a Wii and they had their fun with it, and playing 2D Mario or Mario Kart was fun for a while, but that has largely worn off now.

Nintendo needs to have some kind of strategy that's better than "remember when ...". That only gets you so far. Playing NSMB for example was cool because a lot of people hadn't played a 2D Mario in many cases since Super Mario World like 15 years ago or whatever.

But now there's a "new" NSMB every couple of years, it's like "big deal". Ditto for Mario Kart, with MKWii a lot of people had not played the franchise since the SNES or N64 days, but now there's a new MK every 2 years.

Nintendo's giant sin with the Wii/DS was they had a golden oppurtunity to create the next big Mario/Pokemon/Zelda character franchise, but they really didn't even try, now things like Wii Sports/Brain Training/Nintendogs don't have longevity so they basically came out of the Wii/DS generation empty handed with no new franchises to sell the Wii U/3DS with. 

Many gamers also simply left, and their force is not to be discounted.

That or they get the 10-15 minutes every second day that they actually play games from playing cheap $1 games on their iPhone or iPad or Galaxy S3. 

After marriage, your gaming time is going to shrink. After marriage and kids .... say bye bye, lol. I have a friend who between work, kids, and marriage can barely get out of the house to have a beer once a week and even getting out for a movie can be hard. 

He sometimes plays Black Ops with his step son on PSN after work, but that's pretty rare. 

The console cannot sustain the good sales that it had during the holiday with a single relevant title (NSMU).

If Nintendo is serious about increasing the Wii U sales to a relevant level they need to a few things:

1) New Super Mario U bundle.
2) U$ 50 price cut during the holiday season
3) Wii U Sports released before black friday
4) Wii U Fit released ASAP
5) Mario Kart U before black friday

EDIT - Small corrections in the first sentence.

I don't know how can anyone expect sensible disscussion while at the same time says a console it is done with less than 6 months in the market.

Yeah but now that Wii U tanked despite having a good launch lineup, like PS3 tanked despite being a PS3, what will save it ? Now that the Wii U is clearly in trouble? Wouldn't that ,whatever it is, be the first entry if it fails ? Whats the expectation among Nintendo fans ?

Okay then, Monster Hunter can still be put there because I still see people naming this game because it isn't in the west yet. Along with Rayman because it was suppose to be an exclusive 19 days before it launched and Lego City. So I guess it can use 2 more games first

VITA IS DOOMED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111
Here in Germany a Black 3ds xl costs 200 € and a black 3ds with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate costs also 200 €.
YOUR MIND CAN'T COMPREHEND THIS !!!!!

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