Nintendo's relationships with third parties is so far gone at this point I don't see much of anything fixing it. 

Even in Japan it seems to me like Japanese developers try to push mobile as much as they possibly can and supporting the 3DS is kind of like getting them to eat their vegetables. 

Nintendo would have to embrace some kind of strategy where they effectively let third parties basically chose their next chipset and then charge lower licensing fees than Sony/MS to ever make any real traction with devs now IMO. That and they'd have to start marketing much moreso to teeangers/adults as that's what the majority of the big third party games are aimed at, so they want a platform that's in line with the games they make. 

I don't think Nintendo is willing to do any of that. 

Nintendo has been teasing that the games are coming within the next 6 months or so ever since Spring of 2013- they said they would begin a consistent offering of compelling g software beginning in 2nd half 2013- Here we are in 2nd half 20014. Talking about how they will finally get the games out in 2015 - of course when 2015 gets here it will become the 2nd half of 2015 in which the games will come - At some point Nintendo may release a consistent amount of software but I'll take it seriously when/if it actually happens not because they Nintendo talks as if it is going to happen

I will be very pleasantly surprised if Zelda U releases in 2015

Re unified development for Wii u and 3ds and or home console and handheld- how Will they develop for both platforms w out either making the home console suffer by to compensate for the handheld specs or the handheld suffer via parts of the game being cut out in order to handle a home console title?

They'll just make the same game for both the portable(s) and home variant. 

I don't think Nintendo has much interest in graphics far beyond the Wii U anyway ... for most Nintendo IP, they look great on the Wii U as is (Mario Kart 8) and Nintendo wouldn't be willing IMO to make a $80 million dollar Zelda game or something anyway. 

By 2015/16, mobile chips will be able to provide PS3/360/Wii U level visuals, so I think what they'll do is they'll use one version for their portable and then just use the same chip for their home variant just with 2-3x as many CPU/GPU cores + double/triple the RAM. That way the games can run at say 1080P/60 fps on TV while being perhaps 540p-720p/30 fps on the road. 

Using the same chips will also let them get a cheaper price on the chips, allowing for the price of the hardware to scale faster in cost. 

The home console variant in this type of a setup could be extremely cheap ... perhaps like $179.99 to start with and scaled down in price to $149.99 in under a year. Also extremely small (think VitaTV/AppleTV size, maybe a bit bigger) and power efficient (sub 15 watt power consumption). I can totally see Nintendo doing this, it fits them like a glove. 

If you're hoping for basically a Wii U-2 (err ... GameCube 3?) though which is slightly better than a PS4 next time out, yeah you're probably out of luck. I think Nintendo is done with the traditional home console in a lot of ways after this gen simply because there isn't enough of a market for them. If all they're going to sell is 18 million consoles without a gimmick, well they can probably sell 18-25 million of these "handheld chip in a box" consoles too, probably at a slightly higher profit margin at that without having to invest in tons of R&D costs for hardware development (as they'd just be reusing the chipset from their handheld).

There are always going to be droughts. Nintendo doesn't have the capacity to consistently create multiple games in a month.

Re unified development I can't see this being anything other than an awful dead end. The handheld market has been decimated and continues to drop remarkably, while the market has spoken very loudly and clearly about what they think of Nintendo home consoles. Pushing the two closer together is totally missing the point about why neither is selling very well.

It's not so much pushing them "together" as it is really about basically making them one. 

So instead of 7 million userbase for say Bayonetta 2, Hyrule Warriors to sell to, it would have approximately 50 million in a similar situation (44 mill from the people who prefer portables, 7-8 mill from those who want to play on their TV). 

Instead of the portable line being locked out of most of Nintendo's better games, now they would have access to the same library, so things like Splatoon aren't buried on a usberase where 80% of Nintendo fans don't ever get a chance to play it because they're not willing to buy a Wii U (value proposition just isn't there).

I think people need to understand that what Nintendo is asking of the consumer is kinda insane ... they want $300 for their console ... ok that's "cheap", but they want another $170-$200 for the handheld, so just to enjoy primarily Nintendo games, Nintendo wants $500 more or less, and then they expect their fanbase to buy 2 versions of 2D Mario, 3D Mario, Mario Kart, Smash Bros., etc. etc. etc. No wonder a lot of people are saying "you know what ... I have a 3DS, this is good enough for my Nintendo fix" or just passing on the entire proposition. 

It doesn't solve all of their problems, but it makes a much compelling case for someone to want to buy into a Nintendo ecosystem as their software isn't split and consequently watered down between two seperate platforms. If you could spend as low as say $150 and get into the Nintendo ecosystem and have access to all the games in one place, I think a lot more people would bite on that even if its secondary to their PS4/X1/iPad. 

Honestly, I hope there is more third party support later on, but not the type people vocally ask for. I want the games Nintendo fans know they want. Look at Capcom and Square Enix back on the SNES. I would take all the first party games and those third party games over anything else. I don't want a flood of third party games. I want the third party games that Nintendo fans like to play. I'll take one or two third parties devoted to making quality experiences over a hundred of them doing whatever they want.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that it's better than what they have at the moment. But it would be a short-term solution that doesn't address the fundamental issue, which is dedicated handheld devices are rapidly declining and there isn't enough demand for a Nintendo home console*.

At some point Nintendo have to accept they're trying to sell VCR's in an era of Blu-ray and streaming. Either they can continue to just refine their VCR to try and slow the decline of their market share for as long as possible, or they can accept reality and put their products where their consumers are.

Anyway, on topic, you're right a fusion would help minimise future software droughts. But by all accounts that isn't happening this gen.

*Unless Nintendo can find a new technology to implement in their hardware that attracts the larger market's attention similar to the Wii.

Well I don't think dedicated hardware has that long to go anyway, in 10-12 years sure most software will be streamed, but in that case MS/Sony/Nintendo are all kinda moot, at least Nintendo has many beloved IP in that case, Sony/MS are much more 1/2 dimensional if you strip them of their third party support. 

Fusion should give them at least one more solid hardware generation where they have a 70-80 million userbase and can sell a ton of their own software. 

Nintendo's best play for that type of future is to diversify now into a bigger brand like LEGO did. There's no reason Nintendo can't have things like animated movies, toy lines, even amusement park attractions. They need to become bigger than video games, video games are just too small potatoes of a business to put all your hopes in. 

If they can make a blockbuster movie out of talking LEGO blocks, why not a "Nintendo movie"? Disney basically copied Nintendo character types to make Wreck It Ralph (it's basically "what if Donkey Kong had feelings and wanted to be a good guy -- the movie"). Yamauchi did want to take Nintendo into the animation business, it was just the freak success of the DS/Wii in 2004-2006 that caused Nintendo to put that plan on the back burner. 

No matter what Nintendo does for their next console and how proficient they may or may not become in releasing software at a higher rate, they will not do as well as they need w out a healthy level of 3 rd support

They will need the breadth and depth that a reasonably well rounded 3rd party library would bring- They don t have to have as much 3rd party support as Sony and MSFT but they do need to have it

As a household that only has a Wii u, I have to assume any 3rd party series and or IP I get involved with, I can t count on continued access to the follow up games or Getting access to Any series completion - I started playing AC III on Wii U. But that is series is gone - same with Batman Arkhm series - my 1st and only Mass Effect game was ME3 - why didn t Nintendo see to it we had access to the trilogy - I might have rather them just not offering it at all with out the opportunity to play the others (re the Mass Effect series ). No console can guarantee all 3rs party games but it is clear 3rd party is an afterthought at Nintendo- no matter how much they said otherwise going into the launch of the Wii U, Nintendo is just not committed to 3rd party

This would be Nintendo's release list from last year if their platforms were unified

Fire Emblem Awakening
Brain Age Concentration Training
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
LEGO City Undercover
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Mario & Luigi Dream Team
Pikmin 3
The Wonderful 101
Wii Party U
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD
Pokemon X/Y
Super Mario 3D World
Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Wii Fit U
Mario & Sonic Winter Olympics

Plus Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for the West, Bravely Default for Europe, Monster Hunter 4, Yokai Watch, Dragon Quest VII, Puzzles & Dragons for Japan.

I'd say that 's plenty of software support for a platform.