Finally, Iwata is "please understand"- ing the situation:

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/208838/Its_not_as_simple_as_enabling_Mario_to_move_on_a_smartphone.php

"The way people use their time, their lifestyles, who they are have changed," said Iwata. "If we stay in one place, we will become outdated"

Baby steps I suppose, but I guess he finally admits to misreading the current market. 

Honestly a lot of Nintendo fans are more out of touch and more in denial about the situation that Iwata is. At least Iwata knows the truth ... there's a problem and people's lifestyles have changed. 

It's not that some Nintendo fans are more out of touch, they will just do anything to defend their favorite company's decisions. I love Nintendo, but their decisions are NOT something I'd want from them. It took him longer to realize this, but at the very least he acknowledges his failure to understand the current market, and can only go on from there. He's not getting fired, but if he wants to avoid potential presidency issues, he had better get the company on track to the future, the right way. I may be taking more hope from this quote than meets the eye, but I don't think Iwata has ever admitted to completely misreading the market before (could be wrong). 

Sorry but Iwata just has no clue.  If everything was changing so much the 3DS would'nt be selling 13.5 - 14 million per year, and the PS4 and Xbox One wouldnt have had the best launches in the history of gaming.  Millions upon millions of people are still sitting around on the couch playing their gaming consoles.  Before Smartphones everyone had a phone, now everyone just has a smartphone.  I have no doubt a few of those games have made their parent companies alot of money, but Nintendo releasing a bunch of old NES/SNES games on phones for a few million bucks isnt going to save anything.      Nintendo sold 995k Wii U's in December and all it took was a bundle with a year old game and SM3DW.   If they would have had their priorities straight and made sure Donkey Kong and Mario Kart were out for the holiday season it would have easily outsold the Xbox One (1.45 million) and would have given the PS4 a run for its money (2+ million), not to mention that it would have given Nintendo alot of press and momentum heading into next year.     If he really thought that Pikmin and the Wonderful 101 would launch the console in to the mainstream, then he really has no clue wtf hes doing.  

Ninty came out with a 3rd party focus and it didn't work.

The current market is really not that different then it ever was.    GTA V sold 30 million. Call of Duty Ghosts has sold 17 million.  Pokemon sold 9.5 million.  Wii Sports,Wii Sports Resort,Mario Kart Wii all still sold over 1 million copies last year and have been on the market for years.  Sony couldnt even get LBP Karting, Playstation All Stars, and God of War Asecention to a million just for a little comparison.   Nintendo's problem is 1. they didnt release nearly enough games in the Wii U's launch year and 2. every game they put out except for SM3DW were destined be be small sellers.  The best selling Pikmin ever has the 1st and it only sold 1.6 million.   W101 is basically a Gamecube game released 10 years later (Gamers love it, mainstream couldnt care less).    Wind Waker HD was a remake and most remakes do about 30 - 40 percent of their original release, if it was popular in the 1st place. (Wind Waker did 4.6m X .30 = 1.4 Lifetime max).   Wii Party U should have been Mario Party U,  same style game, MUCH more brand recognition.   Nintendo really doesnt have to change that much at all, they need to start releasing more AAA titles.    I have no doubt in my mind that Donkey Kong / Mario Kart / Smash Bros / True new Zelda / Multiplayer focused Metroid / True new Wii Sports / X / Bayonetta / Hyrule Warriors / and atleast 6 - 8 more great titles can save the console, but if they dont get them all out in the next 15 - 18 months, then the console will never be able to move more then 25 million units lifetime.  They need to make people feel like a Wii U is needed, not just a little upgrade to their Wii.

Exactly.  They banked on COD / Mass Effect / Rayman / ZombiU / and all the other 3rd party games they got early on carrying them until their big titles were ready and it blew up in their face.   Hopefully now they get the point and get more games out already. 

I just don't think you can sell a Nintendo console anymore unless it has all the third party support people want and proper hardware parity OR a controller gimmick that breaks through and becomes a phenonemon. 

The Wii U is just Nintendo coming off the high of the Wii and returning back to the normal trend they were on where the SNES sold less than the NES, the N64 sold less than the SNES, and the GameCube sold even less than the N64. 

Throwing the same (by now) 20/30 year old Nintendo franchises at the problem over and over again isn't the solution. 

I think Nintendo basically conceeded the market for core gamer consoles a while ago, as PS3/360 basically took 100% ownership of that market with little/no resistance from Nintendo. The Wii was just a party machine with the occassional dash of Mario here and there for most people. 

The Gamecube was the strongest console on the market hardware wise, had alot of 3rd party support( Resident Evil, Soul Calibur, Exclusive Sonic Games, All the EA titles, Splinter Cell) and a controller that alot of hardcore games still say is the greatest ever and it blew up in their face.  If it wasnt for Smash Bros and Mario Kart, It may not have even sold 10 million.  The entire lineup was aimed towards  hardcore gamer, males, from the ages of 14 to 28. The NES sold the way it did because of Super Mario Bros 1,2, and 3, Duck Hunt, and a few other titles like Zelda, Tetris, Excitebike, and Dr. Mario, pretty much all of which are more on the casual side.   SNES was carried by Super Mario World, Super Mario All Stars DKC 1,2,3, and Street Fighter, all of which were very casual.  SF II, was like the modern Call of Duty, huge 3rd party game that looked and played hardcore, but was also loved by the casual market.   SNES also had Final Fantasy,Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Killer Instinct and was being much more hardcore.   N64 went down that path even more by taking everything all of their franchises and making them 3D instead of 2D.   Alot of DKC fans rejected DK64,  Mario 64 did well, but not nearly as amazing as SMW and SMB. Ocatina of Time was a hit, but Ocarina and Majoras combined had the same sales of Zelda 1 and 2 on the NES.  The console was a radical shift from the SNES and NES and it turned off alot of people.   Gamecube went down that path even moreso.     The Wii may have been the Party/Mario machine, but it also had 350 million 1st party game sales, and sold 100 million consoles.   Sony and Microsoft would have killed for those numbers.  Sony sold 80 million PS3's but only moved 95 million in 1st party software (where all the real money is it.)

So now we are at the Wii U, and once again Nintendo tried to make a console to cater to the hardcore base, and it blew up in their face (so far).   Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, and Wind Waker HD exist because Nintendo once again is trying to cater to the hardcore gamer.  They launched with NSMBU and Nintendo Land, and sold 2.3 million in the first 5 weeks. (Much more Casual).   Nintendo launches SM3DW and Wii U jumps to 450k in November and 995k in December.   I know this has been pretty long but by point is that catering to the hardcores is why they lost so many sales on N64 and Gamecube, and putting them on the backburner is why the Wii sold 100 million.   I do think both can co-exist on one console (DS/PS2 proved this), but trying to build an install base on hardcore games doesnt work.   PS4/Xbone have built their base on Call of Duty/ Battlefield / and FIFA, three of the games casuals ate up most last gen. 

basically is and is are two different things. The problem is that kids have grown up with apple and their purdy looking things that anything outside that norm would not be the cool thing to own if it was in the tablet category.