Well, that would be the instant death of the Wii U since no retailer would sell Wii U anymore so that they could just switch completely to a new console and make all their games perfect for that new system and not only a better looking port. Or at least some of them and some for both consoles.

Sure it isn't great if the console was only maybe 3-4 years on the market but Microsoft did something similar with the first Xbox and it didn't really hurt them.

This rediculous fantasy of Nintendo releasing some uber console in the middle of the gen and all of a sudden the Sony and MS fans, as well as 3rd parties, flock to it with open arms (and it becomes a huge sucess) is absurd.

Anyone delirious enough to think that 3rd parties are going to stop what they are doing mid gen and start tossing millions and millions of dollars towards game development were a new Ninty console to release, with a zero user base to start, is absolutely out of their cotton pickin' minds!

Proof is in the Wii U pudding.  A year headstart with over 4 million user base (almost 6m at present) and big name, big budget, quality games such as Black Flag, Ghosts and Batman struggle to sell a couple hundred thousand units.  Why?  The install base of near 6m is there.

It's because Nintendo console buyers (for the most part) buy it for Nintendo games...and that's it.  Bar none, in a nut shell...look at the 3rd party sales.  It's not a mystery as to why more 3rd party games are not coming to the "U"...and it has very little or nothing to do with hardware.  It's not a problem with the "U", it's a problem with the majority  "U" consumer not putting their money where their mouths are...which gives devs/pubs very little reason to take any risks.

Of course, nintendo will release new hardware eventually...but it won't be for years.  There is absolutely ZERO point in it.  Because again, if anyone thinks that things will change with 3rd parties until the people buying Ninty start buying 3rd party, they're fooling themselves.  I don't care what the hardware has under the hood.

As far as I'm concern, they can kill now and it will be the same situation it's happening right now. Zero games. Or at least, zero must haves.

But they need to guarantee support before I buy their next one or I'll get like the other ones: To play Zelda. Nothing else. (well and Metroid)

Why buy a port of anything on the Wii U? What's the incentive there since the ports on Wii U by and large look just like the ones on the PS3/360? Would you buy a seperate $300+ platform to play the same games you can get on your existing console? Nintendo was incredibly naive to try this formula, it didn't take a rocket scientist to predict slapping a giant screen on the controller was not going to produce another Wiimote fad that could carry them. 

Nintendo basically just made another PS3-360 system when everyone already owns one with no meaningful upgrade in any area. 

If it was at minimum a 750 GFLOP GPU + 3-4GB of RAM and had a two year head start ... now you're cooking a bit anyway, that's a OK upgrade from the existing gen, you probably would've seen a lot of Wii U ports that were more in line with superior PC builds rather than just being dumps of PS3/360 engines and more people willing to buy said games. 

But no, for whatever reason Nintendo expends most of the design effort with the Wii U focusing on PS3-360 level parity and just taking that performance and providing it at a lower electrical output (something no one gives a sh*t about) and shoving it into a smaller box (ditto). 

This is a perfect example of someone that doesn't get it.

How do you guarantee 3rd party support for Nintendo systems that a good percentage of people that buy one do so for the 1st party games, and that's all?!?  You say there are zero 3rd party games supporting the "U" that are worth having.  I say total BS.  There are plenty of quality 3rd party titles that could be bought on the "U", but (from your statement) you and a shit ton of others are NOT buying them.  Until that changes, how can Nintendo guarantee said support prior to launch of new hardware...because how can anyone expect 3rd party to put in 100 percent support all the time?

Look at the 3rd party sales of unarguable quality games.  It's the consumers fault, and It's rediculous thinking that anything is going to change until they start opening their wallets.

Nintendo cannot support a new console, and maintain Wii U support. Then cannot maintain 3DS + Wii U support as is, let alone add another system. It's simply not feasibly, at all. Not even a tiny bit.

New flashy hardware is not going to fix the issue with getting 3rd party games on a Ninty system.  It wouldn't have mattered how powerful the Wii U could have/should have been or how powerful the next console is 4 or 5 years from now.  there is good quality 3rd party software available, and nearly noone (out of nearly 6m owners) is buying it and justifying 3rd party to put any more resources into it than they already are.

To think that a new bad ass machine, in the middle of a healthy gen is going to be of value and turn things around, you are sorely mistaken.  If Ninty does freak out and do such a thing, it would be a very poor decision and would be a large loss of time and money...and I believe that they are smarter than that.

2015 is unreasonable.  2015 would require the system to be nearing its completion and have developers (including Nintendo) already working on it.  

2016 is pushing it, but if they had started earlier this year or last year, they can conceivably do it.  It just wouldn't be the best idea as it can put them enroute to SEGA's kind of ending.

I would think that if they brought out a new system, they would support the Wii U for a little before dropping it given how expensive it would be and how many developers would jump to the new system and not touch the Wii U anymore.  

In the end, the only way I think this would all work out is if Nintendo plans this REALLY well and actually has something that looks like it can compete with the PS4 and XBox One.  I personally don't think Nintendo's thought process is like that, so the likelihood of it happening is low to me.  I think they will stick it out with Wii U for about 5-7 years.  I would probably adjust this depending on how much games like Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and Zelda U push systems.

Sure they can. The change I'm suggesting would radically alter the way Nintendo makes games, there would no longer be a Mario 3D Land AND Mario 3D World ... there would just be one Mario 3D World and then Nintendo could have one grunt studio responsible for porting up or down to various hardware. The consumer could then play the game on which ever Nintendo device they prefer (handheld, console, etc.).

But Iwata has already said as much ... they want to in the future have a software ecosystem more like what iOS is like between iPhone and iPad -- one app that works across multiple platforms. 

The days of every Nintendo system having a completely different library are coming to an end, it's just not feasible for them to do it anymore. Game development is too costly and takes too much time now. And honestly it's for the best ... do we really need NSMB2 when NSMBU is also being made? It would be far better if that NSMB2 team was allowed to work on say a new F-Zero or Wave Race or even a new IP entirely. 

Here is one of the quotes from Mr. Iwata by the way:

Feb 2013:

"What we are saying is that we would like to integrate software development methods, operating systems, and built-in software and software assets for each platform so that we can use them across different machines," Iwata said. "This means that if we manage to integrate our platforms successfully, we may in fact be able to make more platforms."

Feb 2014:

I am not sure if the form factor (the size and configuration of the hardware) will be integrated. In contrast, the number of form factors might increase. Currently, we can only provide two form factors because if we had three or four different architectures, we would face serious shortages of software on every platform. To cite a specific case, Apple is able to release smart devices with various form factors one after another because there is one way of programming adopted by all platforms. Apple has a common platform called iOS. Another example is Android. Though there are various models, Android does not face software shortages because there is one common way of programming on the Android platform that works with various models.

The point is, Nintendo platforms should be like those two examples. Whether we will ultimately need just one device will be determined by what consumers demand in the future,

Reading comprehension people, Iwata is clearly hinting that a very different Nintendo hardware model for the future is incoming, one in which the hardware is kind of just a window frame available in multiple different configurations, rather than being the center of the universe. 

It also means the traditional view of a console "flopping" or not really doesn't matter. Because the software ecosystem is not dependant on any one piece of hardware. Just like if iPad had flopped, it wouldn't have really meant anything for the iOS store or iPhone, it would just mean consumers didn't happen to like that one variant of the hardware. No big deal. Because there will be only one software ecosystem in the future, Nintendo is free make various different hardware variants in the future. In one model happens to flop ... big whoop. 

My first two games were ACIII and ME3.

Then got Trine2 and finally REvelations.

Yeah, talking about unknown lifes.