Maybe, probably not tho. Mimicking Sony/Microsoft strategy, like many people are suggesting, likely won't make a difference. Simply doing what the competitors do isn't all of a sudden going to make PS/XB owners jump ship. It might help with 3rd parties porting games over but that doesn't mean consumers will buy such games.
Going for the casual/family/kids crowd likely won't work again unless it's truly a mind blowing and revolutionary leap in gaming. This crowd is content with simple, fun, pick up and play games on smart devices that cost a dollar or in many cases are free.
Nintendo in a way is stuck in the middle, the mainstream AAA hardcore crowd is happy on PS/XB and the casual/family crowd is content on iOS/Android devices. Instead of trying to fight this, Nintendo should embrace it and focus on their strengths.
Looking at Wii U sales, one might think that without one or both of these audiences that Nintendo can't have respectable hardware sales but I don't believe that. Look at 3DS, it will have sold roughly 50 million units by the end of the year. Lifetime sales for 3DS will likely be around 65 million with Wii U at 15 million or so, giving Nintendo a combined 80 million hardware sales this generation.
I feel that the best option for Nintendo going forward is to unify these devices. Release a seperate handheld and console with the same architecture, operation system, online infrastructure that can share a library. This will help Nintendo save money on R&D and they will be able to increase their software output. These devices could very likely sell 50-70 million combined which is plenty for Nintendo's 1st party games to sell strong numbers on.
One thing that is hurting Nintendo is the lose of the Wii Fit/Brain Training crowd. These games were huge sellers on Wii/DS and are seemingly dead. That's where Quality of Life comes into play. It has gotten extremely difficult to convince people to spend $299 on a console to play fitness games. One of Nintendo's QoL products should be an updated, rebranded, standalone Wii Fit like device. A $99 device that allows fun and simple ways to get in shape could be successful, maybe have a companion app on smart devices to track ur activity/diet when away from home.
Another device I think Nintendo should implement into QoL is an educational tablet for children. Things like the Leapfrog LeapPad and the Vtech InnoTab are successful devices that have educational software based on kids shows/movies and every major toy store has 1-2 isles dedicated to them. Releasing similar $49-99 educational tablets based on Nintendo ip could bring in some nice profits and could help familiarize young kids with Nintendo characters and make them want Nintendo's gaming hardware when they are a little older. Perhaps allow Amiibo support, which brings me to my next idea.
Continue to build and support Amiibo, it's initial launch seems to have been pretty successful. Keep pumping out new figurines, or cards like they previously mentioned, for every major 1st party release.
Also continue to build relations with indie developers in order to build up the eShop to the levels of the App Store or a play Store.
Rebuild the Virtual Console into a big deal again. VC was pretty big back on Wii but Nintendo has not done a very good job with it this generation, build it back up to be bigger and better than it was on Wii and allow an optional subscription service for it. Something like $50/year gets u unlimited access to the VC, this gives consumers 100's of games for a low yearly fee and Nintendo a strong source or revenue.
So while Nintendo likely won't sell the most hardware, they don't really need to. Sell the dedicated gaming hardware to the 50-70 million gamers that play Nintendo consoles while pumping out a strong software lineup and bring in extra profits from Amiibo, QoL, Virtual Console among others. As long as Nintendo is making profits and has a big enough user base for their ip to sell strong numbers than there is no need for them to be first.
