Nope. As much as they try to hide it, for the current prices every main console is being sold with a loss.

It won't bayonetta 2 is trying to do that as well as X to an extent.

It might seem like a gamers dream, but it's the stockholders who decide in the end. And if Wii-U keeps selling like it does now the install base will be to small and the will miss out on way to much software sales.

Hmm, I strongly disagree with Nintendo actually building a console for the "hardcore", this isn't what they did at all. What they did was try to build a console for everyone and it backfired, rather predictably, and it turned out to lack appeal to any one group of consumers. The lack of storage, the online components, no attempt at making new IP's with themes and styles similar to what one finds elsewhere and the ridiculous Gamepad are things in and on themselves showing this. The Wii U launched with an identity crisis, a crisis that Nintendo haven't even tried to counter until now, their measure against it? Massive advertising towards kids and casuals, the fact that they even attempt this shows that they know deep down that the thing was never built to attract the Sony/MS crowd. Somehow, they also seem to have missed out on the fact that the casuals are also long gone and have headed for greener pastures, so to speak.

This is a market that is just as guided by perception as any other, you can liken it to Apple's situation; initially everyone assumed that they made the best products in the world since they were expensive and everyone wanted them. This is a mentality that can be applied to most markets, Nintendo will never be percieved as anything but Nintendo, their image simply does not correspond with the average PS/Xbox customer. I think that's kind of a good thing, the market would become truly boring if you had three consoles that were basically the same, offering the same anemic games and gimmicks.

Nintendo didn't make an attempt to please anyone, they got stupid after the Wii's success and somehow thought they had the potential to draw in casuals and hardcore gamers all at once, a silly notion at best. They failed to realize that the hardcore would never be swayed by the hardware, the software and the amazingly short-sighted Gamepad and they obviously missed the fact that the casual userbase are currently swimming around in another ocean. This is simply a case of a massive misreading of the market, the Western one in particular.

I think Nintendo were kind of in the same mental state as Sony were at the beginning of the 7th gen; coming off of a highly successful console, they seemingly thought they would get a bunch of free sales and marketshare by default. The main difference is the severity of the situation, they both made asses out of themselves, despite John Lucas' drivel, but Sony at least had a potentially desireable and marketable product as the baseline so there was room for an actual recovery, at least a partial one. The PS brand was inherited by the PS3 at an all time high, the PS3 was the main reason for losing momentum, thus it was also the vessel to turn it around, while the Wii was the cause of the Wii brand's decline and the Wii U inherited a trademark at an all time low, that is also a massive difference, marketing-wise at any rate.

Anyway; Nintendo didn't build a console for the "hardcore", they built one for "everyone" and ended up alienating the bunch of them. The Wii had aim, the Wii U does not and never did. Malstrom claimed that the Wii U is "too eccentric" for average consumers, but like I said in the (now dead) UNITY thread; it's even worse than that, it is invisible.

The reason I believe Sony has been so successful in capturing the gamers attention throughout all four home consoles, Its because they have focused in "games", not just THEIR games and THEIR interests but in games in general and the general's gamers interest. I mean look at the latest Wii U commercials and look at any PlayStation ad, you can clearly see that they embrace geekdom or revolve around the hardcore gaming experiance.

Nintendo cares so much about their own interest and believe so much in their own skills and ways, their is no space left for strong third party support, and if you look at history's best selling consoles such as the PS1, PS2, PS3, X360, NES, SNES, DS and 3DS you'll notice that one key element in their success is strong third party support, and a great diversity of games, I didn't count the Wii because that's a whole different beast, it had a  mass appealing gimmick.

So to summarize, Nintendo has changed in past years but they need to keep changing and get with the times. They need to be less proud and make a console that will get a strong third party support, or they can keep trying to hit the jackpot with another gimmick.

Give me variety of games.
new ips, how many marios is there.....
Differentiate from MS Sony, make fun a priority while given equal power/graphics.

1. Release system with hardware which is actually relevant. Not necessarily the most powerful console but considerably impressive for the time. (Ala Gamecube),
2. Find Name that is isn't "Wii"... something that sounds new, cool but not alienating to their family aduience.
3. Arrive early in the next gen race (2017)
3. Work with at least 1 or 2 major 3rd parties to ensure early support (in form of a trusted IP/franchise, i.e not ZombieU) which would be a proof of concept that 3rd parties can succeed. This partially relates to the 1st point, because unless Nintendo's hardware can offer an clear advantage over the previous gen, no one would be interested if said game is multiplatform (assasins Creed 3 wii u)
4. A gamer friendly control. Gimmicks should not interfere with the ergonomics, feel and appearance of the control. Nintendo need to make a controller which is friendly to all types of games, not just mario.
5.They need to attempt to expand their portfolio with new franchises.

Nintendo may have achieved elements of this in previous console releases but they've never collectively done all of it, whereas both sony and microsoft have.

What can they do? I genuinely don't know. If you look at GC and N64, they struggled to sell large amounts of hardware relative to the competition despite the fact that at that time their IPs had even broader appeal than now, nowadays there's too much of a stigma amongst large parts of the PS360 audience about nintendo being for kiddies after the Wii sold so well to casuals that I think even lots of great games with the right genres and aesthetics would struggle.

They might be able to make uncharted type games for example, but I think they would sell very poorly for years until nintendo managed to readjust their image and given their conservative management I doubt they're keen to do that because of the losses it would create

Really they either need to accept that their potential for success in the console market is limited and just budget accordingly so they still make money off it whilst focusing on handhelds or pull a Wii and bottle lightning for a second time (which may just create another cycle and therefore, another WiiU). That or make something a bajillion times more powerful than PS5/XB2 and much cheaper which the 3rd parties couldn't ignore

True.  Sony consoles get supported for a long time. When you consider that the last XBOX game was in 2008  (support was stopped in early 2009) and then compare this with the PS2 which had it's last game five years later in 2013 you are in two different leagues.

Indeed power is one of those things that it is better to have than not. 

The wii sold a hell of a lot to casuals but at the same time it was a good "second console" for many gamers. Nintendo cannot compete with MS and Sony with the wii u and if this was their intention they are far more removed from reality than I initially thought.

They are considered "kiddie" and not third-party friendly.

I was hoping for Nintendo to repeat this "second console" trick. Rather than compete with MS and Sony for living room space, combine with them for living room space. To do this they needed to have a steady stream of their own exclusives in year one.

Unfortunately they bragged about third-party support and believed the developers will deliver the games while their own developers sat back and planned for the long term.  When the third-parties started to abandon ship they then saw the light but it was way too late.

When Nintendo spend some of that cash they are hoarding on expanding their dev teams to deliver more exclusive Nintendo games maybe things will get better. They need to learn to depend on themselves on no one else for games. Of all three they are in the best position to do this. If the third-party want to play fine, but to depend on them if you are willing to do your own thing and release inferior consoles is ludicrous.

There is an old saying that if you appeal to everyone or everyone likes you, you are doing something wrong. In other words you are a fake.

Release a Kinect-like camera that tracks the Wii Remote, instantly break into Sony and Microsofts motion control audience.

Other than that, no chance.