Nintendo Land failed to really ignite the Wii U and now we see Game & Wario has flopped in its Japanese debut. The era of the mini-game (much like the guitar/instrument gaming craze) is coming to a close it seems like. 

I think the audience has simply had their fill of this type of game. Even on Kinect, Kinect Sports 2 performed considerably less than the first one, and the Star Wars Kinect game (which was basically a Star Wars mini-game-a-thon) also underperformed I think compared to what MS wanted. 

After Wii Sports/Wii Sports Resort/Wii Fit/Wii Fit 2/Wii Play/Wii Play Motion/Wii Music/Wii Party (phew!) ... who really wants more? and it's part of the reason why Nintendo Land never took off the way Nintendo I think really wanted it to even though it's probably the best "mini game collection" title they've ever done. I'm not even mentioning all the third party stuff like Carnival Games/Raving Rabbids/etc. etc. over the years. 

The problem for Nintendo is it looks like they planned the Wii U's first year to rely a lot on these types of mini-game collections, in fact it could be possible almost half of the Wii U's first year releases from Nintendo may wind up being in this style of genre ...

Nintendo Land, Wii Fit U, Wii Party U, Game & Wario, Wii Sports/ U (?) = 5 titles

NSMBU, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Zelda: WW HD, Mario Kart U (?), Yoshi's Epic Yarn = 6 titles

That's a little overkill Nintendo. Unfortunately right now, there's not much Nintendo can do. They may have simply bet on the wrong software horse on top of making a litany of poor hardware design decisions and not being able to get games out on time on top of that. Simply put -- just about everything that could go wrong for Nintendo, has. They've taken a left turn every time they should've turned right and vice versa. 

I disagree. Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus each broke 20 million, so making Wii Fit U (which sounds funny, it's actually Wii U Fit) was a smart idea.

Plus Mario Party 8 was one of Wii's most successful games, and because development costs are so cheap, they can make a game like that fast, boosting sales like mad. So Wii Party U and Game & Wario, also smart investments.

Also Wii Sports is theg ame which made Wii as popular as it is, so yes a Wii Sports U is a damn smart investment.

However Nintendoland........ I think that will appeal to some of the bigger fans, but because it has Nintendo characters blatently advertized, people aren't interested.

Someone should tell you Nintendo land sold 1.77 million copies so far.

Someone should tell you that many would wish to be dead like that.

I think what you want to say is: Games & Wario isnt appealing. And i agree with that.

Nintendo land is doing pretty decently, and it will have huge legs.

Nintendo Land would've sold 15-20 million copies on the Wii 4 years ago though. Of course some of the mini-game attractions would have to be changed, but the same basic concept -- Miis in a Nintendo theme park with mini-games based on popular Nintendo IP ... would've been a huge hit back then. 

Nintendo obviously felt like it could really drive Wii U hardware sales.

So no, I don't find Nintendo Land's sales to be impressive at all. It would be even lower if it wasn't bundled. In Japan, where the game is not bundled the game's sales are not impressive at all. 

I think Wii Fit U and Wii Party U are destined to bomb or dissapoint as well. 

Nintendoland is hardly a failure just because it wasn't the next Wii Sports. It was rather well received and has served its purpose.

Game & Wario is just kind of garbage by all accounts. I wouldn't extrapolate too much based on that, certainly not to the point of dooming an entire genre.

i wouldnt say dead.... maybe exhausted...
but they (and other company) will release a new form of mini games that would bring new customer.
it is a matter of branding and re-branding.
some will day, new will emerge... i mean look at mario party, there was a constant drop of sales in each sequel (most of the time) then it was re-brand for a "motion control" and they sold almost 8 million copies world wide.
so i wouldnt say it is dead... most games would be regurgitated some years...

They should make an old-school JRPG featuring Waluigi as the main character having Mario, Luigi and Wario as side companions.

Back on thread: No. Mini-game collections are profitable, as they're not too much expensive to be done. Yet there is fatigue of them (Which is a shame ,because Wario's game collections tend to be awesome); they should keep investing in 'em but put them to rest for a time now. Then bring the heavy weapons back.

OP logic: Weak mini-game-collections hasn't sold, thus all mini-game-collections can't sell.

I guess the FPS genre is dead then, because 007 Legends flopped.

Fail logic, is fail logic. At least others have put more effort in their doomed threads. I'll give you a 4/10, just because your were quite fast, less than an hour after MC numbers.