Just looking at it, seriously if they hadn't gotten so obsessed with chasing the mythical dragon of the next big "controller craze" and just made a normal console with a standard Wiimote + Pro Controller combo in the box. The Wiimote brought in casuals, and core gamers don't care about fancy controllers so a regular pad would've suited them just fine.

If they had taken a reasonably priced modern AMD GPU like a 7850 and put that in the box and dropped that ridiculous power restriction (33 watts? who cares). You can always shrink the chip as the years go on and drop the power consumption, IMO even with a cheapo tri/quad core CPU + 4GB of DDR3 RAM they'd be able to run most any PS4/720 game, just in 720p rather than 1080p, which most people can't even see the difference at 10 feet away anyway. 

Don't get me wrong I think the tablet controller is neat, but it just restricted the hardware so much and doesn't bring enough to most games to warrant building an entire platform around this idea. I think the tablet controller maybe could've been an optional accessorie bundled with Nintendo Land for $99.99 or something (not unlike Wii Fit + Balance Board). Betting the entire farm on this controller was a mistake.

A year headstart with this kind a 7850 powered machine, they easily could've not only versions of things like BioShock 2 and Deadspace (read: no game drought) but they also would've had far better looking versions than the PS3/360 all to themselves for an entire year.

Throw in New Super Mario Bros. + a couple other Nintendo IP and a few casual games like Nintendo Land and they would've sold through 10 million this first year easy IMO. People are *tired* of their freaking 360/PS3/Wii they want something new, but another PS3/360 with a low res touchscreen controller is something no one asked for, not consumers nor developers.

A year headstart with this machine and Nintendo's laughing to the bank because Sony/MS would not be able to create machines that outpace a 7850 GPU enough that most people would notice, and Nintendo would not only have probably a 10+ million unit headstart, but also the year would let them bring down their component costs so they could sell at $299.99 and Sony/MS would be stuck at $499.99 for fall 2013.

Imagine Sony and MS having to launch this fall against a Nintendo console that was $200 cheaper, had a year headstart in its library catalog, and had Mario 3D + Mario Kart + very close versions of Watch Dogs, Battlefield 4, COD, Destiny, etc. coming in the fall/early next year. People say GameCube, GameCube, but in this scenario, I believe the Wii U (or Wii 2 or whatever) would be the Playstation 2 in the analogy.

Pretty early to jump to conclusions, no?

Fair enough, but I'm operating under the assumption that the Wii U is going to be a tough road for Nintendo. They really made it very hard on themselves for kind of silly reasons IMO.

Nintendo honestly still can.

Yes I'll just state for the record, technically they can. But I guess what I'm saying they absolutely could've really just run away with this generation very easily.

A 7850 GPU isn't even expensive, it's like a $180 at retail, lol.

I mean imagine Sony/MS running into a system a lot cheaper with Mario Kart, Mario 3D, Wind Waker HD, Wonderful 101, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghost, Watch Dogs, ACIV, BioShock 2, etc. etc. etc. then ramping up quickly next year with Bayonetta 2, Destiny, Smash Bros, etc.

The system would probably dominate if it was $100-$200 cheaper.

Ugh, crappy IE6 won't let me quote...What interests me most at this point is how the Nextbox and PS4 will fare against their predeccessors. While the Xbox360 doesn't seem to have any intersting exclusives this year the PS3 will have TLOU and Beyond: Two Souls exclusively. There is still so much incentive to buy a 7th gen console that I think the PS4 and Nextbox will have similar problems as the WiiU, until the BIG games like MGS V or Halo V arrive.

I think Wii U will do fine and be a great system but I think it should have released Super Wii in 2010 with no Gamepad and instead delayed Sports Resort and Motion Plus for launch. It could have similar specs, hype it up as the most powerful system on yhe market, give 3rd parties choice of wiimote or pro controller and be priced at $299 for 4gb flash memory and motion plus, also a $399 sku with 40gb HDD, motion plus and Sports Resort. That would give Nintendo a console at every 360 price and could steal some of Kinects hype.

Launch games would be similar to Wii U, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Resident Evil 5 Gold, Mass Effect 2, Ass Creed Brotherhood, Black Ops, Darksiders, Arkham Asylum, Monster Hunter Tri HD, Epic Mickey, Just Dance, Sports Resort. 3rd parties would put most of there games on It from 2011-2014, price cut to $279/$349 in early 2012 and at e3 2013 while ms/sony are showing off new consoles nintendo announces a redesigned console (our current wii u) that comes with the gamepad at $279/$349 for 8gb/64gb SSD. This gives Super Wii a couple extra years like Kinect did and is able to compete with the new consoles till 2016-17 when Nintendo releases a next gen console

I've been saying the same thing for months now. A Wiimote 2 (with a small touchpad maybe and a built in battery) and a Classic Controller 2 bundled in the package would've been totally fine. Maybe a camera system to play games like WarioWare, Nintendogs, Mario Party.

I disagree about the power part though: They should've kept their disruptive business model and thus not focused on power. As for games: Instead of going for "bigger" games they should've gone for smaller ones. Bigger focus on the eShop but not for obscure stuff. Think of something like a re-imagining of classic Nintendo titles: Excite Bike HD (with new courses and multiplayer), Ice Climbers HD (again multiplayer and new courses), a new Duck Hunt, a new 2D Metroid with multiplayer, each game being $10-15 and only on eShop. Graphics could've stayed true to their 8-16bit roots but in HD and with better effects. Give us new CONTENT not new graphics Nintendo!

That wouldn't put big games like 3D Mario or Mario Kart out of the question. They'd still come. But the team that is currently working on 3D Mario would be able to churn out like 10 of those "HD" games over the same dev time. People just love classic Nintendo.

I kinda have to agree with the OP, though it's way too early to tell how things will go down just yet. Had Nintendo gone with a more powerful system that could get ports from PS720 they could have taken this gen to town.

But let's not forget that 3rd party games don't do well on Nintendo consoles! Now, whether or not that has to do with that the 3rd party games that comes to Nintendo consoles are crappy versions or that people only play Nintendo games on Nintendo consoles I don't know, but fact is 3rd party games don't do too well....

No, Nintendo's 15 minutes of fame is over. There is nothing they could have done to win this gen.

~Mod Edit~

This post has been moderated.

-Smeags