Saved the N64, really in a lot of ways. Gave Nintendo breathing room to complete Ocarina of Time because basically Nintendo's entire 1997 fall lineup (was supposed to be Zelda: OoT + Banjo-Kazooie + F-Zero X) got delayed.

Well it deserves every sale it gets.  Still the most fun splitscreen shooter I've ever played (slightly edges out Timesplitters 2).  Smash is more fun for me 4 player but Goldeneye is freaking amazing to this day and that's not just nostalgia talking.  My family reunion we whipped it out and my little cousins got to play it for the first time and were beaming like I've never seen.  It was really an awesome sight to see.

It had like zero marketing too, it was supposed to be a throw away title. I remember playing it the week it came out with friends and the multiplayer was almost instantly addictive. By about October/November of that year, the word of mouth on GoldenEye had spread like wildfire.

THAT is actually the type of game the Wii U needs ... some new kind of break out hit, not so much another Mario. I knew people who bought an N64 pretty much strictly for GoldenEye and would play it as much as their Playstation just because of that one game.

Even if the GoldenEye team didn't want to do another Bond FPS, I would've renewed the James Bond license without question. Let NST or some other team at Rare have a go, why not ... Mario Kart/Diddy Kong Racing and Mario/Banjo co-existed just fine.

Nintendo should get whoever made those games back together.  They would benefit greatly.

Interesting chart. It shows how much better other systems sales were. It also shows how much better the software support was for those systems.

Also of note is that Wii U is the only one of those Nintendo consoles to launch a year ahead of their competitors. All of the others were a year behind, so the next gen was well underway.

Well, I've been saying this for months but it's hard to swallow just how low those sales are. There is just so much wrong with the Wii U I'm not even sure I want them to sit this out. What Nintendo needs at this point is an "Ultra Nintendo" as a third pillar (like the DS was in 2004) that goes back to Nintendo's roots: Easy, affordable, pick up and play games and a disruptive business model.

Sadly they probably gave up that audience to Microsoft years ago. One of the biggest mistakes they made with the GameCube for sure was not making sure they retained that FPS audience.

The Bond license is apparently free though, there are worse things that Nintendo could spend their money on, I'd pony up for it, but NCL probably doesn't have the stomach to spend right now.

I think it would benefit them more than exclusive Sonic and especially exclusive Bayonetta.

Oh no doubt, I can even see the TV commercial with Daniel Craig as 007 using the Wii U controller like a high-tech spy gadget would be 1 trillion times (yes, 1 trillion) better than all the marketing Nintendo has done for the Wii U to date. It will never happen though, you'd need a management group that had a clue to figure that one out.

This missed opportunity is making me depressed.  Oh well I'm going to look forward to my Black Friday 2014 WiiU which is hopefully bundled with a good game for $250.  I'll still be getting it for Smash, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, 3D World and maybe Sonic since it looks to be shaping up nicely (actually impressed me more than 3D World at E3).

Quote tree shortened - Kresnik.