I've been thinking recently about what Nintendo should do and how they could further seperate themselves from their competition and be looked at as a separate entity in the video game World. What it led me to is two different potential paths they could take, but wanted to get other peoples opinion of how they think Nintendo should approach the future.

Option 1: End the Wii U life cycle a little early. By this I don't mean 2015 or 2016, I'm more thinking 2017 or 2018. By doing this they could offer something a little more powerful than the PS4 and XBone with a few years before either of those companies drop their next console. The pros to this is the hardware could be more powerful and still be sold rather cheaply, and by the time devs draw all the power out of the other consoles, Nintendo fans can look forward to multiplat releases end cycle of current gen and beginning cycle of the gen after (cross gen games, ect). The problem would still be those years in between, but that could give Nintendo time to create their 1st party games and release them mid gen. Also the hardware could maintain its good price point.

This is essentially what they done with the Wii U, had it released a year or two earlier. In this scenario Sony might do what Sony does best and come out with commercials or speak in public events saying Nintendo left Wii U owners high and dry, and that's when Nintendo starts their hype campaign, The "We want what you want" campaign. In this they need to put the first party and VERY IMPORTANTLY third party devs up front. Show the people that they get the majority of games, and they also have amazing exclusives and first party titles.

Option 2: They could ride the Wii U out, give us some games we've been dying for like F-Zero, or Star Fox, make a profit and everyone will be happy, but in this scenerio they wait two years AFTER the release of the new PS and XBox systems, and come out with specs that beat them after the specs have been confirmed. This for all intent and purposes work the same but this way means you can kiss any potential multiplats from here to mid next gen bye bye. The pros to this is Nintendo fans get to play those ellusive first party games that keep getting pushed to the sidelines for a second or third Mario or Legend Of Zelda. This could also help show demand for these franchises and get Nintendo motivated to start making those games again, giving people more Nintendo exclusive IPs to brag about. The long term goals would remain the same, however the short term (current gen) goals would need to keep the same course. Keep the 3rd party exclusives coming, keep the Nintendo IP's coming, keep gaming crossovers coming, in general keep the games coming. We should not experience huge gaps in quality releases like the first year EVER! 

The ultimate winning strategy here is to drop midway in a gen, pretty much eliminating any chance of Sony or Microsoft being able to release a new console side by side with or earlier than the next Nintendo console. 

I could go on and on but what are your thoughts?

There won't be a new console anytime soon.

2017-2018 for Wii U Successor

Yawn... Idk why people keep on thinking that Nintendo is gonna stop supporting the wiiU even though Iwata said that they have no plans to stop supporting it for at least another 2 years... Ride out the wiiU, make profits on software and don't fuck up the next console launch in 2017

I don't think the first option makes sense.

You say releasing the next console in 2017 or 2018 is early, when in reality It's actually normal for a Nintendo console (And Sony with the exception of the PS3) Plus, I doubt the Xbox One is going to last as long as the PS4 since 360 is going to continue outpacing Xbox One, giving the possibility of Microsoft releasing their next console in 2017/2018 like Nintendo.

2nd one is great though.

they should release a new console when they can sell something more powerful than a PS4 for 250 dollars making a profit, even if it is only 50% more powerful and not a true generational leap.
A nice gimmick would be to be able to play the handheld games in the console, using the handheld as a controller, that way we could play Pokemon on tv. It would be like the console with a Super Gameboy included.

if wii U was released in 2010 holiday, it would be completly diferent.
wii owners was buying ps360 for HD graphics, online and third parties that are not possible on wii. and ps360 was growing very fast.
if wii U was avaliable at this moment(and with all third parties, and some wii games in HD), they could have choosen the wii sucessor instead of ps360, and wii U could sucessfully compete in the red ocean.

so, wii U came too late. I agree with first opition.

I can agree to some extent, but think that the 8th gen consoles will have a little longer life span than the gens prior. Also the Wii came out in 2006 and the next gen released 2012. That's six years so I can see where you're saying 2018 would be right on time, but that's my point. Don't drop too early, drop just a bit shy of normal and gain an extra year or two. I also would predict this gen lasting a little longer because PS4 can and XBone will want to wait to make sure they know what PS is going to do to eleminate the mistake they made this year. 

Even when I stated dropping support early I was looking at a 2017 time frame (which I feel would be a perfect time to do it).  I didn't write drop it imediately, but just shy of the normal next gen release time frame.

I agree, in both instances the earliest I see one coming out is 2017.