Nintendo, if only because this way they keep their gamers trust. Microsoft, in a way, shat on everyone that bought a Xbox One, even if they didn't want a Kinect in the first place. It was in a way inevitable that it would happen, but Microsoft wanted to compete in any way possible, even if it meant screwing over the people that bought the Kinect hoping that it would revolutionize gaming.

Nintendo stuck to their gamepad, even when doing poorly, and thus they kept the loyalty of early-adopters.

That being said, a price drop is never a bad thing, as long as you don't remove essential features of the console to do so. If Nintendo can do a $50 price drop without losing the gamepad, it would be perfect.

Nintendo can't afford to be smart here because you don't change the main focus of the console at this point. MS can afford to be smart because Kinect is just an expensive peripheral for Xbox One.

Nintendo!!! :D

Pahaha, what the hell do you mean by "mainstreamers"? What is any market? What you mean is that the WiiU appeals to a niche market. New consoles allow for new mechanics which the WiiU does not.

Franchises messed up due to two reasons; the consoles were out for too long, and moronic publishers & devs.

Consoles should be refreshed every 4 years due to the jump in power. To leave it 7 years + meant nothing new could be done. They were bone dry and copy pasting games is all they could do.

Then publishers pushed devs to churn out new games before they were ready, and devs were too removed from the market to understand why their previous game had been popular, thus release sequels with every good part....removed.

I feel the three bolded statements are where the truth is hiding. The Wii U has a "better" library than the PS4 or XBO at the moment -- higher quality, more variety -- I agree. Yet you say yourself that gamers are not excited for these games, and you're not wrong. In fact, by limiting it to "Wii" titles and perceived "casual" games like 2D Mario, you miss the big picture. It's not just those games. Mario 3D World is outstanding, but it is not exciting to most gamers, even Nintendo fans. Pikmin is not exciting. Wonderful 101 is not an exciting product. Donkey Kong, Wind Waker HD, Lego City -- the list goes on.

Compelling software is not the same thing as high-quality software. The best-selling games of the year are rarely the highest-rated, just as Best Picture-winning films are rarely the highest grossing. The majority of the market prefers to play blockbusters. They want to play Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed and Battlefield and GTA. Nintendo can't win on that front. They cannot convince the Assassin's Creed audience to buy a Wii U if they don't have half of the other games that audience buys every year. Telling these gamers that Mario 3D World has a much higher Metascore won't mean jack shit to them. They don't care about Mario.

These gamers didn't care about the Wii any more than they care now about the Wii U, but they bought one. Nintendo practically tricked them into buying one -- unintentionally, I think. How? Twilight Princess, Brawl, Galaxy. Games that looked "hardcore" that were really no different from your typical Nintendo games when you get right down to it. If Nintendo wants those gamers back, they will have to trick them again. Wonderful 101 is the opposite of this strategy: in no way is that a kids' game, but it sure looks like one. It doesn't get the job done.

Nintendo is free to ignore those gamers, an enormous chunk of the market. But the games I named aren't exciting to Nintendo fans, either. Maybe Mario Kart or Smash Bros can bring the Nintendo faithful aboard the Wii U in earnest. I've certainly seen more excitement for those two than I had for every Wii U release to date combined.

Lets think about this...

The decision to unbundle the kinect is the right one, as it serves little to no purpose besides cosmetic voice commands and a couple of games. But, this decision should have happened at the start. I believe that now there are 4 million of burned early adopters. It doesnt inspire confidence. But, its for the best.

The gamepad on the contrary is useful. For example i am posting this from my Wii U and its quite easy to type with the touchpad and the stylus. That isnt the important part though, but its part of it. The gamepad offers advantages to gameplay when used correctly. Managing inventories or maps on the gamepad without interrupting the flow of the game is a benefit and the easy to use interface is incredibly useful for communicating on MMO games. It also allows for art and written messages, as Miiverse is always an example of.

Not that i would mind if Nintendo chose to release it with a wii mote controller for the sake of sales. I always think that choice isnt a bad thing, but the kinect and the gamepad arent similar situations.

Microsoft by far, I still don't see a game which really needs the gamepad. And actually they all should need it since you don't buy a system for one game.

It doesn't matter what your opinion is. If your opinion mattered, the Wii U would be in the lead right now. The only opinions that matter are the opinions of every single person who will never buy a Wii U because its unwanted "swiss army knive" is making the console $100 too expensive.

I'm wondering how many of those die-hard Microsoft fans who bought the Xbox One the first few months are going to get the next Xbox.

Exactly.