I think drastic changes are coming at Nintendo, even Iwata basically said they were waiting to see how this holiday season goes first but that this holiday season was crucial. 

They can't cruise just on 3DS, the smartphone/tablet industry is like a slow moving cancer that month by month damages the handheld gaming business IMO as each month more and more kids are introduced to playing on those devices (slowly but surely).

Tablet-less Wii U for $199.99 next spring IMO alongside Mario Kart 8 is their only chance at salvaging some out of this disaster. Wii U is definitely a full on disaster now, I think we can call it that now. It's not even close to GameCube sales level.

I'm really not sure what Nintendo can do at this point. Drop the price again? Pack in like 3 or 4 games per console? Their options are limited.

Because

the scary part is, the 2DS was $99 for black friday, and ppl expected that to fly off shelves..

Dump the tablet, price collapse to $199.99 and let it all ride on Mario Kart 8 next spring. Bundle the thing with Wii Sports Club + Mario 3D World, shift the marketing towards it being "Wii 2". 

That's pretty much it. They honestly may have to start thinking about a new console, something that's powerful but cheap R&D wise (basically a AMD graphics card in a box). 

Totally agree with everything. It will be interesting to see what these drastic changes end up being, but if it's just removing the tablet I doubt it will make much of a difference.

It was the highest selling hardware...so it did fly off the shelves more than anything else.

I think people are blaming the 2DS for the poor 3DS sales. I doubt that's fair, I imagine 3DS sales would have been even worse if it wasn't for the cheaper option.

They've built the entire system around the tablet, it's not going to be easy for them to just get rid of it. 

Super cheap Wii U at an impulse buy price is probably their only play, but you're right. Even $99.99 didn't neccessarily "save" the GameCube from finishing with a paltry 22 million. 

I'm also really, really thinking hard about where the 3DS is going to end up, because I don't think 90 million+ is neccessarily a lock anymore. I'm just not seeing a sales "explosion" from it, but rather a machine that kinda sells 13-15 million units per year and doesn't have the life span of the DS.