The only short-term bandage I think might work is a drastic improvement in the Virtual Console lineup. It could be as little as one notable VC game on the Wii U each week, but it has to be a game that people care about.
What if Nintendo hired a team of roughly 30 to port games to the Virtual Console quickly. Meanwhile, they could start holding votes on Club Nintendo. Club Nintendo members could all vote on one of several games to be released on a certain date. And in order to encourage people to vote, give a $1 or $2 discount to people who vote for the winner.
That way, Nintendo fans have a reason to care about the Wii U at least once a week, feel like Nintendo is making an effort, and feel like THEY are having an impact on the system's success. Plus, this would get people to be more involved in Club Nintendo and advertise its existence.
Random things to Note:
- Nintendo released a grand total of about 80+ NES games and 50+ SNES games from 1983 to 1999. However, between Japan-only releases, third party publishing that has reverted to other companies, and games that nobody will ever buy, the grand total of NES and SNES games worth ever releasing is likely only about 70. Nintendo has already released 34 of their own games for the Wii U Virtual Console, so they really need to expand to new platforms.
- The GBA section coming this spring ought to help, but a lot of GBA games were ports of titles from the NES and SNES, were published by Nintendo for third parties, or were not released outside of Japan, so that only addes about another 40 games.
- Nintendo could use N64 support, but if you take away licensed and Rare games, Nintendo really only released about 25 games outside of Japan. What Nintendo could really use is cross-compatibility with the 3DS Virtual Console, which would expand the library to Game Boy and GBC games, and exclusive GameCube ports, with approximatelt 40 1st party games.
- 3rd party support for the Wii U Virtual Console seems to have mostly come from a few companies, particularly Capcom, Konami, and Namco Bandai. Try to get more publishers on board, particularly Square Enix. They're port-happy enough to do it.
- Sega games, where art thou? You were on the Wii Virtual Console, and are even on the 3DS. Sega even seems to be getting along well with Nintendo currently. Why doesn't somebody get a decent Genesis emulator up for the Wii U? You could also do a Game Gear emulator for 3DS-crossplay, and maybe even Saturn and/or Dreamcast emulators. The Wii U certainly has enough in common with the Dreamcast to deserve it.
