What do you mean by "save it"?

look at the sales of the WiiU, you should know what i mean then.

My U's a keeper, i will never get rid of it and can see myself using it well into the future, all nintendo need to do is keep supporting it which they said they would do until the fans are satisfied, wish they would localize Project Zero 5 already.

Make as many 3ds owners want a Wii U as possible; advertise the thing in every 3ds game box. As much as I LOATH advertising they need to put the Wii U all over television and disgusting fastfood happymeal toys. Hell do a promotion with some major soft drink or gmo chip bull****. Put the Wii U everywhere so no one in industrialized society can not know what it is. Next, make a pokemon game that is similar to the handheld games but upgraded in every way (maybe do a nfc thing with amiibos for certain characters). THEN, make a NEW franchise of Pokemon/Halo system saving proportions! (Splatoon looks awesome but probably won't be enough; they need to make the PS4 & XboxOne crowd Jelly) Lastly, give us gamecube games already...

posts like this are a little silly at this point. nintendo has telegraphed what their moves will be in the next 2-3 yrs, which is to support the wii u and 3ds and keep their fanbase happy. wii u will end the cycle in 2017 with gamecube-like sales +/- 1.5m (it will have the reverse sales trajectory, increasing rather than decreasing over time, with 2014 and 2015 being the peak years). 3ds will end with gba-like numbers, +/- 7m depending on how long it's on the market (prob til 2016). they'll keep making great games throughout, just as they did in the doldrums of '13.

Is it really necessary for Nintendo to be #1 in home consoles ?

Droping the gamepad is out of the question. It would cause more confusion among consumers, and bring more problem right now. It´s not a solution.

The best they can do is continue to look for partnerships for exclusive games, deliver quality software and drop the price of the device a little bit more and better marketing campaigns in the West. That´s all.

Right now, what they need is please their investitors and those measures may be enough to keep them profitable.

we all saw what dropping kinect meant for the already ridiculously unintuitive xbone interface. basically dropping the kinect was like dropping all of their high-flown entertainment center ambitions. to drop the gamepad would, in some ways, be to drop the wii u itself.

usually this piece of received wisdom is doled out by the same people who say nintendo needs to put a f2p super mario galaxy on ios with microtransactions to make mario jump higher. i.e., people who actively want nintendo to fail.

I'd agree with them if that is their reason. Otherwise all you hear is random excuses why they won't buy it. All they'd really have to say is 'I don't want one.' And that would end all debate.

First Xbox One has Bundled heavily, AAA games have launched and Xbox 360 focused hard on 3rd party. Last gen people forget that MS went crazy for 3rd party, they where not supported by that many.   Sony has 3rd party support, a nice exclusive line up of games and has dedicated itself to Online from the start.

Second nintendo needs to also focus on Multi-player, A achievement system, I don't know how many times I sent them messages to implement a achievement system. Wheather they like it our not, it's like getting a little award in class for doing good, sure there is no value but to the player there is. You get Replay value for achievements, competition between friends and it just adds to the system overall.  Maybe some don't care but a lot do and this just adds to the system.

Some achievements are so hard, that you just want to do them. It makes you go that extra mile for no good reason but to do it and challenge yourself.

There Advertising is horrible, needs to be worked on bad

They never really explained there vision of gaming this gen. It was, " Hey you liked the Wii, Buy the WiiU because of that". 

They should have been working on ONLINE all last gen when they had the money, people and time. They still have the money but their online lacks bad. This is huge in the gaming world, people want to play with their friends and they want to be able to do it in a exciting, new and easy fashion.

Also they need to allow you to play your 3ds games on your Wii U. The 3DS should be allowed to attach to the WiiU, this adds value and creates cross play.

I find My self staying away from my WiiU just because of these reasons.

If Nintendo get rid of the game pad their situation will not improve. It will get worse because the entire system was built around the gamepad and it was what all their advertising was showing to attract customers. If Nintendo now starts the 'now we're just like the other guys', they are dead in the water.