I'm going to have to disagree with u hear. If this were the case then the majority of Nintendo ip would have sold significantly better on Wii compared to other Nintendo consoles. With the exception of Mario Kart, no traditional Nintendo series saw massive growth compared to previous installments. I'll give a few examples

Animal Crossing (GC)-3.15m vs Animal Crossing:City Folk (Wii)-4.55m

Kirby's Adventure (NES)-1.75m vs Kirby Super Star (SNES)-1.44m vs Kirby 64 (N64)-1.77m vs Kirby Return to Dreamland (Wii)-1.62m vs Kirby Epic Yarn (Wii)-2.01m

Fire Emblem:Path of Radiance (GC)-0.54m vs Fire Emblem:Radiant Dawn (Wii)-0.48m

Battalion Wars (GC)-0.40m vs Battalion Wars 2 (Wii)-0.33m

Metroid (NES)-2.73m vs Super Metroid (SNES)-1.42m) vs Metroid Prime (GC)-2.82m) vs Metroid Prime 2 (GC)-1.33m vs Metroid Prime 3 (Wii)-1.77m vs Metroid Other M (Wii)-1.27m

Donkey Kong Country (SNES)-9.30m vs DKC2 (SNES)-5.15m vs DKC3 (SNES)-3.51m vs Donkey Kong 64 (N64)-5.27m vs DKC Returns (Wii)-6.20m

Legend of Zelda (NES)-6.51m vs Zelda II (NES)-4.38m vs Link to the Past (SNES)-4.61m vs Ocarina of Time (N64)-7.60m vs Major's Mask (N64)-3.36m vs Wind Waker (GC)-4.60m vs Twilight Princess (Wii)-6.99m vs Skyward Sword (Wii)-3.79m

Paper Mario (N64)-1.38m vs Thousand Year Door (GC)-2.25m vs Super Paper Mario (Wii)-3.66m

Mario 64 (N64)-11.89m vs Mario Sunshine (GC)-6.31m vs Mario Galaxy (Wii)-11.12m vs Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)-7.28m

Super Mario Bros (NES)-40.24m vs Mario 3 (NES)-17.28m vs Mario World (SNES)-20.61m vs New Super Mario (Wii)-27.58m

Smash Bros (N64)-5.55m vs Smash Bros Melee (GC)-7.07m vs Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)-12.32m

Mario Kart (SNES)-8.76m vs Mario Kart 64 (N64)-9.87m vs MK Double Dash (GC)-6.95m vs Mario Kart Wii (Wii)-34.70m

So as u can see, outside of Mario Kart, no Nintendo ip on Wii had massive growth from previous generations. Some grew but nowhere near as much as one would expect from a console that sold 40-80m more than its predecessors. Basically what Nintendo needs is to sell hardware at a profit and just have a large enough install base to sell their ip on and they will be fine.

What I see there is them having problems trying to rush games out for the launch of the WIi U... if they were 3rd party they wouldn't have problems like that.

They wont ever become 3rd-party and they shouldn't. The real problem is they underestimated the move to HD and things like the confusion with the console's name and the adveritisement didn't really help to solve the confusion going around.

If anything, they are showing signs that they are back up and fighting. Even if the Wii U doesn't sell anywhere near other consoles, the fact they are making big changes is positive. At least Wii U owners are enjoying their consoles and by the time they new console arrives, they will have have learned their lesson and the changes they are going through now should hopefully be a big help for when it launches. At least they know what to do and what to avoid.

Ah, but see this point ties in with my claim that the Wii captured a part of the market that has now departed.  Those games didn't sell that well on the Wii because that huge install base was mostly non-gamers.  If you cut out the Grandmas playing Wii Sports you would have a system more in line with the current downward hardware trend, and the sales of those games wouldn't be surprising at all.  If those games were on a system with a massive install base of basically nothing but gamers, their sales would be massive.

So it was exclusively grandmas that made up the extra 70-80 million units over N64/GC? I just don't see Nintendo games selling massively better on PS/Xbox than they do on their own platforms, it's not like the majority of Nintendo ip share the same type of genres as those consoles (shooters/sports/racing sims/sandbox action games).

What would be better for Nintendo in my opinion is to unify the handheld and console divisions by making their next-gen devices nearly identical in order to have them share a software library. This will cut down on R&D costs plus will essentially end first party droughts that Nintendo consoles are known for.

As seen by platforms like SNES, N64 or 3DS for example, Nintendo hardware doesn't have to do massive numbers in order to for their software to do amazing. With an install base of 50 million or so, games like Mario platformers/Mario Kart/Smash Bros/Pokemon are all capable of selling over 10 million each along with games like Zelda/Luigi's Mansion/Animal Crossing over 5 million and Yoshi/Kirby/Metroid/Kid Icarus/Fire Emblem/Pikmin 1-2 million.

Nintendo just needs to release affordable hardware ($199.99 or lower) at a profit and have a strong/consistent lineup of exclusive software, as long as they do this they will continue to make money and sell enough hardware/software to be remain relevant.