If commercial success were all that mattered, Justin Bieber would be as great an artist as John Lennon.

Nothing you just said argues against my original point. The games that released between NES-N64 are some of the most innovative, industry changing pieces of software and art ever released. Artistically, Yamauchi's Nintendo was superior in everyway. So much so, that Iwata's Nintendo can do nothing but feed off it. 

What would the new Nintendo games be if they didn't have the same iconic soundtracks of the 80's and 90's? What would Nintendo of today look like if they couldn't use the franchises CREATED during the Yamauchi era? What if Iwata's Nintendo had to create their own legacy from the ground up in a hostile envoriment like we have today in the way Yamauchi had to when the indstury crashed? 

Yamauchi's era was about innovation and creating experiences that literally changed the entire industry permanently. The Nintendo of the 80's and 90's was about forward thinking and vision. It was about taking huge risks. It was about spending large amounts of money on those risks. It was about foresight and attitude. 

Iwata doesn't seem to want any part of that. He seems more than happy with the status quo and treading water. 

You are full of yourself. "giant tablet uncomfortable controller" that right there shows you've never even held it.

pay to win? explain how amiibo is pay to win? and if you think Mario Golf's dlc is bad you are crazy its better than 99.9% dlc i see.

etking said:
The Wii-U is still overpriced,

The Wii U is less expensive than the PS4 and X1.

no tablet-less version is available,

The tablet is integral to the system; it is unlikely that will change.

the Wii-U still has no games and no 3rd party support.

This is factually incorrect. The Wii U has a good library of games and backwards compatability with the Wii. 3rd party support is weak, but is still there.

Nintendo games also get more and more childish and even adult games like Tomodachi Life are marketed against small children which is scaring away the original target audience.

I may be missing something, but this statement comes over as self-contradictory. What do you mean by original target audience?

I am a Nintendo fan but I will not buy the Wii-U as long as it comes with a heavy, oversized and inconvenient tablet that always needs to be connected even if you do not plan to ever use it and it always runs out of battery too.

The tablet weighs 500g. It doesn't need to be always connected. There is a long-life battery you can buy. As for 'heavy', 'oversized' and 'inconvenient', these claims can only be taken seriously if you have experienced playing a Wii U. I, and the half-dozen or so people who have played our Wii U do not find the tablet heavy, cumbersome or inconvenient. I switch between the tablet, the Wiimote and the Wii U pro controller, depending on which game I am playing.

Amiibo is Nintendo's entry into the pay to win market and the Mario Golf DLC shows that Nintendo will from now on release only half complete games where regular content is cut out to rip off the customer and make him pay twice. But I am not willing not buy incomplete games and I will not pay twice.

Amiibo is not intended for the pay to win market. It is an added optional extra which is not essential to any of the games. There is no intention to release half complete games to make the customer pay more to complete them, like Skylanders. I don't doubt that they could be used for that in the future, but right now, that is not the purpose of Amiibo.

If everything is so great and fine why does the Wii-U run so badly and does not stand a chance against PS4 sales-wise? Why does nobody want to buy the Wii-U, why does no 3rd party company want to develop any games for it?

All those things are caused by Iwata's current strategy.

The Wii U suffered because of poor and ineffective marketing, and in some areas, the complete absence of marketing. I agree that Iwata is accountable for that.

This strategy needs to change dramatically in order to save the Wii-U and Nintendo. With the right strategy, Nintendo could easily win the generation and sell more Wii-U in it's lifetime than PS4 or X1. The old Wii clearly shows that the market potential is there.

Things are beginning to change in terms of marketing, but I wonder if it is too little, too late. Using the Wii as a gauge for market potential is questionable, though, since the poor marketing of the Wii U never really established properly what its target was meant to be. It doesn't seem to be all the Wii users, though.

The tablet needs to be redesigned to be much smaller and optional and every videogame store should feature a Wii-U HD Sports bundle with two Wiimotes and a classic controller for $199, marketed directly at the casual audience. I would immediately buy it and most Wii owners too. And since it comes without a tablet, Nintendo would not loose any money, a win-win situation for Nintendo and customers.

I think someone else has already made this comment - basically you're suggesting the Wii all over again. There is no guarantee that the majority of people who owned a Wii will go and buy a Wii U based on your strategy. Times move on, and so has the casual audience - to tablets and phones. To survive, companies must innovate. That involves risk - not every new venture will work out. The Wii U's marketing and release of games during its first 12 months was damaging. Now, Nintendo are having to play catch-up.

Dropping the Kinect was the right decision, especially in long-term. Microsoft at least acted and tried everything to prevent a premature death of their system.

Price is one of the the most important success factors. Of course the sales did not jump up immediately but this is because the X1 and PS4 both currently have even less games than Wii-U so there is absolutely no reason to buy one of these systems yet.

I agree that price is one of the most important factors, and time will tell whether dropping the Kinect and selling the X1 at a lower price will work.

A $199 tablet-less Wii-U Sports HD bundle would sell exceptionally well. At the current price the mass-market is way out of reach for Nintendo and nobody that never used the tablet thinks that it could actually be fun to use it. The table is the biggest roadblock for success.

Any console at $199 would sell well. The mass-market is not way out of reach, as proved by the sales of more expensive consoles. It is interesting to note, that here, the more expensive 32GB Wii U console sold better than its cheaper 8gb counterpart.

'...nobody that never used the tablet thinks that it could actually be fun to use it.'

THIS, EXACTLY. If you haven't used the tablet, you will have no idea how versatile, useful, and fun it is. Again, this is the fault of poor marketing. I take it from your previous post that you have yet to purchase a Wii U. Until you actually play on one and explore the various uses of the tablet for games and indeed the features beyond gaming, I suggest putting your opinions on hold.

If your comments are based on your actual personal experience, then great - you're entitled to your opinion, just as everyone else is.

I know it is sometimes hard to understand the truth but please take a look at the sales numbers, especially compared to the original Wii. All these are self made problems caused by failed marketing...

Correct.

...and the lack of a tablet-less Wii Sports HD bundle available from day 1.

Incorrect. The tablet may have motion controls, but motion controls is not the single main feature of the Wii U in the same way that it was for the Wii. The tablet provides the possibility for dual-screen gaming (like the DS and 3DS) a TV remote function, off-TV gaming (used on its own or as a mini-TV screen with Pro controllers or Wiimotes).

The Wii U and its tablet are capable of a lot of things, but again, due to poor target marketing, the value of the tablet is being lost.

The Wii-U could have been number 1 this generation but now the PS4 is. And most of the the 100 Million Wii owners still do not even know that the Wii-U exists. Failed marketing and bad initial design, but the marketing strategy and the design / size of the tablet can both be changed. And it should be changed.

Agreed with regards to the marketing. If that was changed, your perception of the tablet would likely be changed, and you would see that it is not necessarily the millstone you believe it to be.

As a Nintendo fan, you have to ask yourself if you want Nintendo to win or to loose the current generation. And winning is not possible without a change.
Changes are urgently needed in marketing, tablet design, price, online gaming and 3rd party support.

I may not seem so on these forums, but I am impartial. At the moment, Nintendo suits the needs of my family. That may change in the future.  Based on personal experience of playing the Wii U with the tablet controller, I believe that changes are needed in the marketing only. This will in turn affect 3rd party support. I don't believe that a change in tablet design will boost Wii U sales.