No they wouldn't piss off their fans. I am one of them I buy every Nintendo console DAY 1.

Wii U is a disaster from a consumer point of view. I personally like the device but it just isn't mainstream. In order for them to grow they need to gain new customers. Nintendo fans are a dying bread. They cannot continue making a small percentage of the market happy it will not be viable in the long run.

I would rather they launch a new console 2016  (provided they can get signed agreements from 3rd parties to support the console if they bring it up to spec. I would include some sort of exist clause if they do not deliver on those contracts)

.... You seem obsessed with this nintendo fusion and while it may/ may not happen. 2016 is too early. Do you really think nintendo wants to end with less than 20mill for the console? Do you really think nintendo will stop selling something that is currently making a profit to go into something to sell at a loss so soon. The Wii U Started makign a profit LESS THAN 6 MONTHS ago. So understand this: 1 1/2 year of selling console for a loss and stopping just 2 years after when I'm making a profit now? Nope. common sense tells me to keep going with this product while prepping my next and to keep the momentum going.

When nintendo replaces the 3Ds (which is 2016/2017) then they'll start talking about replacing wii U which would be (2017-2019) anytime before would be wasting the momentum they've been building.

Such a system would have to be a good deal more powerful than a PS4 (in a real, noticable way IMO) and under $399.99 IMO. 

But I don't think Nintendo really has a desire to go this route. I think they're done with consoles in a traditional sense in general (just like Japan is). 

I think Japan shunning the Wii U really stung Nintendo badly as they made the system with the hope that it could rejuvenate the Japanese market first and foremost (even though they'd never say it) with it's quasi-portable LCD controller. It's basically a system designed for the Japanese household. 

Okay I'm done... a lot of you are thinking about this from your standpoint and not from the companies. I see no point in arguing further.

I'm completely looking at it from Nintendo's POV. 

They need to look out for what's best for the company, if I'm a restaurant I need to focus on my overall business, not making food that 2-3 customers really enjoy. 

The public has spoken on the Wii U and it's a resounding dud. Nintendo doesn't support dud's for long. Even look at the GameCube ... they largely bailed out on the system after the DS launch in 2004 (which also forced them to abandon the GBA after only 3 years). 

Would you say today that launching the DS and Wii was a mistake and that they should've supported the GameCube and GBA for another 3-4 years? No, because while it may have made "GameCube Joe and Game Boy Tommy" happy, it would be an insane business policy, it also would've handed the entire portable market to Sony on a silver platter. 

I agree it would have to be a good deal more powerful.

Whether Nintendo go down this path is the million dollar question. If they want to change and play it somewhat safe they would go for that. They could go a less traditional console but realisitcally speaking the fusion would hold back the console part and would not be much better than the PS4. So again would be a pointless console to buy IMHO.

They would need to find a way to get games to wrok with a bigger gap in power between the hand held part and the console which is better than the PS4 inorder to get new people to buy it. Oviously they need to find a way so that devs are not creating two games but can be scaled significantly on the fly to work.

I honestly don't think Nintendo has much interest in competing on power, nor do they have any interest at all in making PS4-level visuals for their games when they just started making PS3/360 level visuals and those visuals suit their games just fine though. I'd buy it sure, but I don't think they'll make it. 

A handheld displaying Wii U graphics will be tough even for a 2016 launch. The Tegra K1 is close, but Nvidia is likely blowing some of the numbers out of their ass, but by 2016 that will probably a reality. 

I think what they'll do is take their handheld chip (roughly 300 GFLOPS) and simply take 2-3 of those cores and throw them into the "console variant" (netting you 600GFLOPS-1 TFLOP). It will literally be the exact same chip/architecture though, just scaled up. This should also run at about 12-14 watts, which is far lower than even the Wii U so I'm guessing Nintendo will like that, the console casing can also be ridiculously small, like three iPhone 5s stacked on top of each other. 

They could sell such a device for like $179.99 to start with too ... it would be ridiculously cheap for them if they're using mobile chips (just like the Vita TV). 

It just fits Nintendo to a tee and it could theoretically be a decent jump up from the Wii U. 

The GLOPS you quoting will not be enough of a jump to warrant a new system. The XBOX ONE is what like 1.2TFLOPS and it is struggling to do 1080p. This has put off a lot of people already.

If they aim for barely xbox one stats then there is no point releasing another console to replce the Wii U as there won't be any significant reason to buy it over a Wii U (apart from the very low price). 

I think it is basically the direction Nintendo will go in. It will be good enough to play Wii U level graphics (which IMO is the max they are willing to spend in terms of game budget), but in 1080p/60 fps while playing at home with perhaps better effects, and will be able to play those same games on a lower resolution in handheld form without massive sacrifices having to be made to every games. Thus you can have a near seamless experience where you can take a game like Mario Kart 9 and play it on the road, and then continue playing when you get home. The resolution and a few graphical effects scale up and down but that's about it. 

The focus will be on the handheld variant I think, that's the one most people will buy.

You can't have too big of gap with this model because otherwise ports will quickly become unworkable for many games, like take the Vita ... it can't handle ports of even most PS3 games (forget about PS4). 

The "console" variant will just be kind of like a bonus model for people who like to play their handheld games on the TV at home. It's kind of like the iPod Touch ... Apple offers it for people who basically want an iPhone but don't want/can't afford the phone part, but iPod Touch sales are basically gravy to Apple, if it sells great, if it doesn't it's not a huge deal. 

The main thing is Nintendo's library will now be fully playable in the hardware format most people prefer their Nintendo gaming to be done on -- the portable. So things like the 3DS having 4x the userbase of the Wii U but not having the top games like Mario Kart 8 and Zelda U will be rectified in this model. They don't have to work so hard to make sure the console sells, this way they will be ensured a good sized userbase for all their releases no matter what (Fusion will sell 60 million minimum, which means Nintendo never has to deal with a sub-30 million userbase).

It actually is kind of weird the system Nintendo has now, where their best selling hardware each generation doesn't have the top tier Nintendo games. Smash Bros. has been available in Nintendo consoles for 15 years now for example, it's just now coming to their portable line. 

Good thing you haven't said anything stupid that would get you banned of top of it

Look. This is the only scenario I see for Nintendo to return to relevancy in the home console market. November 2015, a new console, somewhat more powerful than PS4 (only so that it's finally capable of running multiplat games in 1080p@60fps), compatible with the Gamepad and Wiimote+ (though comes with a Pro Controler to make it cheaper). All the announced games are made for both the new console and the Wii U, so that the Wii U owners get what they were promised and don't b!tch too much. Hence, Wii U owners get Gamepad compatibility (I wouldn't kill it, as I think it's an awesome idea and would give decent income when sold as an extra accessory), Wiimote+ compatibility (I like them as well), get the announced games on their Wii Us if they still want them there, they could even get access to the new console's HD ports of Wii U games they bought on e-shop (if that's possible considering the stone-age level at which that store is without the account system). That should be enough to make them somewhat happy. Also announcing that purchasing games on e-shop would give them the versions on future console would somewhat help prevent people from not buying games while waiting for the new console. I assume the console wouldn't be backwards compatible, cause they have to drop the PowerPC architecture for the PS4/Xbone one, to be more 3rd party developer friendly.

Wii U is a failure. There is no point in sticking to it. No point going further and further into this mess, cause Nintendo is just wasting money, time and brand power. Make a new console ASAP, let this one slowly move into the shadow and die on its own, cause it has no future. 2015 will be the peak year, but it will die afterwards either way, so better act instead of waiting for the inevitable. Before the release I though Wii U would sell a bit more than the GCN, but at this point GCN numbers are a pipe-dream. There is no point fighting a losing battle.

Pissed fanbase? Really? It's brutal, but the Nintendo fanbase is the least important fanbase numberwise out there (I don't blame the fans though - it's all Nintendo's fault, they killed their core fanbase with the Wii. I used to be in Nintendo's camp, then I bought a PS3 and never looked back) and at the same time the most tolerant fanbase - in the past they were happy with the ambassador program for 3DS and now do you hear any outrage after the N3DS announcement? I think Nintendo gamers are perfectly fine with it and would be fine with the new homeconsole. Do you think that out of the 7 million fans who bought the Wii U, at least 3-4 mil won't buy the new system in launch window? And that the rest won't get back to it soon after? I think they would. And I think that the chance of fighting for the regular gamer outside of the few remaining Nintendo fans is well worth the risk. And personally, I believe that Q4 2015 is the last call to do this. 2016 is already too late, it will be too late in the gen to make any kind of splash. In 2014 the gen is still starting and this year doesn't really matter (not that many good games were released), but 2015 will be the first year it will be in full swing, so they need to be present at that point.

And don't forget, Nintendo is known for doing this. The did this with GCN, GBA and their other failure - the Virtual Boy.

This is just my opinion. Wii U will slowly die no matter what, Nintendo can't save it. It will sell best in 2015 (but nothing spectacular), get a drop in 2016 and die after that. There is no way it ever gains any sort of real momentum. Instead of just staring at this wonderful disaster, Nintendo should act, there is no time to waste and they could just as well have a winner on their hands.

Soundwave said:

I honestly don't think Nintendo has much interest in competing on power, nor do they have any interest at all in making PS4-level visuals for their games when they just started making PS3/360 level visuals and those visuals suit their games just fine though. I'd buy it sure, but I don't think they'll make it. 

The problem is that nobody cares what Nintendo is interested in or what kind of games they want to make. It doesn't matter. What matters is what consumers want. Nintendo said they want to make graphics on PS360 level, the consumers shrugged and said "good for you, but you ain't getting our monies". Don't forget that such a console would allow them to finally get 3rd party games - that's the main point. Their games could remain cell-shaded, cartoony and win with art-style. They would still sell millions and nobody would care if they are pushing the console to the limits or not. Mario, Zelda, etc. would sell like crazy either way. The power parity isn't for Nintendo games (maybe except for mature stuff like Metroid, Xenoblade), it's to get 3rd party games, as I believe that the only reason 3rd party games aren't made for Wii U is that it's so weak in terms of hardware power in comparison to PS4/Xbone and can't run 3rd party games the way they are designed to run. The fact that it's a PowerPC (they have to let this go) and that the sales are abysmal is the nail in the coffin.

Just imagine Reggie at E3 2015 unveiling a new console and telling you, you get the best graphics and performance in CoD, Battlefield, TES, Witcher, Cyberpunk, A-Creed, Batman, etc. and get 2 Zelda games, updated MK8, Smash, a bunch of Mario games - all in the launch window. Reggie saying that every single multiplat game you see on E3 will be BEST on their console. That conference would be a glorious power move, ooze with awesomeness and finally draw major attention to Nintendo. I think they could spin everything here into the wibe of "we listen to the fans", "we hear you and we deliver what you really want", "we took what you like and enjoy and improved what you thought could be better" and avoid most of the backlash for such an early launch. I think they should return to the NES brand to bring in nostalgia and draw upon their golden years.

Also, don't forget that Wii U is barely profitable at this point (hardware), but so is the more powerful PS4, being barely more expensive. The new console could be profitable out of the gate or barely bring in any loses and still be below $400, so the new release wouldn't have to be that much of a financial blow to the company.

They should also think about some kind of a subscription service. It's not like they don't have enough classic games in their portfolio to give away similar to PS+. Moreover, at this point a subscription service is pretty much the expected standard and the lack of it isn't a selling point any more. But that would require an account system and is a whole different topic.