They NEED to take care of third parties.

This isn't about having power or having sales, but catering to the publishers' desires. Here's a good example of this with the PS3. Pre launch Sony had the ICE team involved during the creation of the system. The CELL and other parts of the PS3 were really complex, but these guys had a much better understanding on how to use it than everyone else. Sony thought this was a good thing, since it allowed all of their first party games to look much better than what third parties could accomplish.

As you probably know, it ended up being a horrible thing as PS3 kept getting "bad" ports. Sony changed this policy over the years and now gives third parties everything they can. It results in much better games. With PS4 this went as far as third parties even having a say with hardware development.


Nintendo needs to do the same thing moving forward. Their first party games are amazing, but they're not enough to fully support two systems. 3rd parties are crucial if they want to be in first.


Also, they need to jump on trends and not be afraid of copying others. Take their online system for example. Matching the uptime of live or psn might be hard on their first go, but there's really no reason for them to lag behind in online features as well. Trophies, cross game chat, proper accounts, etc. should all be on the wii u.

Lolll, nahh, it just means you like birthdays!

This is true.

For Nintendo to have successful consoles each generation, the solution is quite simple. Having more 3rd parties is certainly helpful, but it isn't a determining factor to Nintendo's success (Look at the 3DS for example). Having a powerful console also isn't needed. Nintendo doesn't need to fire Iwata or even mimic the competition. Nintendo only needs one thing and one thing only...

A consistent stream of compelling software... That's it....

The Wii never sold itself. It had a compelling piece of software that made it attractive, and that was Wii Sports. The Wii has thus proved that a powerful piece of hardware isn't needed to sell units. The 3DS proved that overwhelming 3rd party support isn't needed to sell systems.

In regards to Iwata. He has 3 successful systems under his belt. The Gamecube was certainly under Yamauchi's belt, but lets include it anyway. Out of a total of 5 systems, he has overseen the success of 3 of them. Two of which sold over 100 million units. That's very impressive. Kaz Hirai hasn't had this success. Ken Kutaragi, the grandfather of Playstation, was kicked off his throne the moment the PS3 floundered on release, despite him seeing the overwhelming success of both the PS1 and the PS2. If anyone holds a candle to Iwata, it would be Ken Kutaragi. Now before you go off saying that 'Ken Kutaragi made one mistake and paid dearly for it (by stepping down) and why not Iwata?' let's look at the fact that Sony had a lot of excellent talent under their belt. Instead of them fostering and mentoring that talent when they made their mistakes, Sony simply got rid of them. Over time, Sony soon became a shell of its former self. Nowadays, Sony is losing billions of dollars quarterly and unable to innovate like they used to back during the 90s and early 2000s - but of course, I digress...

What Nintendo can do to create a successful system each generation? Provide a steady stream of compelling software.

We seem to have these threads all the time. Anyhow 3rd party isnt that important neither is matching ps/xbox all they need is a good steady stream of 1st party including pokemon and animal crossing and if this tamadachi life takes off and gets ported to wii u then it could be game over. End of the day gc sold the least but made more money then ps2 and xbox. Didnt 360 and ps3 lose money on every console they sold? Whereas wii made money on all 100 million it sold.

Just make decent hardware that one can sell at a profit. Trying to outgun Sony or Microsoft who don't mind taking a loss on each system sold is a losing game. They have to be profitable or near profit on each system sold at launch.  The launch price also has to be no more than 250-300 max.  So this limits Nintendo on having an "inferior" machine compared to the companies that are willing to take a hit on hardware.  One must make up for that with compelling software.

They need a product which seems cool and software that provides value.

The first part is a major problem with Wii U. Wii's style and brand was fresh at release. 6 years later it wasn't. Wii U should have gone in a whole new design, one that appealed to people who want the latest thing. By the time Wii U's life is done it will be wearing clothes more than a decade old.

The second problem can only be solved by Nintendo acquiring more 1st/2nd party studios or gaining 3rd party support. A Nintendo console with full 3rd party backing would be an extremely compelling sell. Certain 3rd parties don't want Nintendo in the console business, however, so that's easier said than done. Picking up two large studios, ones that can produce one AAA a year each, would help address the issue, especially if they were making games in genres such as shooters, RPGs, racing sims and mature adventure titles - and making them well. As it stands, Nintendo simply does not have the amount of software and the software diversity to compete with MS and Sony for many gamers. They need to expand or woo 3rd parties in a big way.

Power alone isn't enough. The 64 and the Cube ignored key industry trends/expectations (e.g storage) and both Microsoft and Sony are active in garnering support. Nintendo could have a system on par with the PS5 next gen but if they maintain the same working attitudes it would fail.

basically this

Go back in time...