Why would we subtract the 3DS sales? What would happen to make them not move forward?

And instead of selling Mario Kart 7 + 8 or Super Smash Bros. 3DS + Wii U the same people, they only sell 1 copy of Mario Kart Fusion or Super Smash Bros. Fusion per customer.

The WiiU is only selling to dedicated Nintendo fans, and parents buying them for their little kids. There is no evidence to suggest that this will change with a new console.

Don't get me wrong, Nintendo can certainly make a living selling to those groups. But they won't be "winning" a console generations like that.

Also, don't bring up Nintendo games as a reason that they'll be able to beat MS or Sony. They aren't, anybody who isn't buying a Nintendo console doesn't give a crap about Nintendo games. I would actually argue that Nintendo games are the reason they are doing so poorly. The rest of the business has moved on, and Nintendo has not.

Like I said, if this thing ONLY speaks to the Nintendo fans, the loyalists, then it stands to reason that it won't fare any better than Wii U; 95% of people that's bought the Wii U are the fans, and it goes to show how big that fan base is, thus, why would we expect the Fusion to sell better if only fans bought it? I don't know if I make any sense, but do you understand what I'm trying to say?

This thing needs to sell to as many people as possible, that's all I'm trying to say.

And the resources like staff, budget and time that become available by not having to do 2 separate iterations of the same franchise, will go towards developing other projects customers will be able to purchase. As in, more games. Diversifying their portfolio, more variety and different genres. The very thing everyone everywhere claims Nintendo's lacking, all the time. I'd very much like to be informed as to the reality in which this is not a positive thing.

The evidence is called the Wii =) It is possible for Nintendo to make something that fans alone want. But I agree, if Nintendo wanna sell more home consoles, they need 3rd party games and parity with Sony's and MS's consoles.

I'm a Nintendo fan too, well aware of the mistakes they've made in their hardware decisions, but the way hardware design should be handled has all but been laid out for practically every console manufacturer, so the past floundering in hardware design shouldn't happen this time.

The jump in performance compared to last generation is actually much better than most people think, we've gone from 512MBs of memory, to 8192MB, so that's a 16X jump, the bandwidth jump is there, last generation the CPU and GPU were on separate dies, this gen they're on the same one, this decreases the talk time between those components and greatly increases efficiency in coding, so much less of the hardware's potential is wasted.

In the case of PS4 there's only one pool of memory, which reduces the need for excessive reading and writing.

The GPU can handle AI and Physics coding and that can be handled alongside graphics processing.

The performance boost is definitely there compared to last generation, the hardware querks are there to tap with developers having to create new techniques to take advantage of that potential.

Sony has never released a console less than 6 years after their last home platform, even in weak hardware there are always better ways to code for that system to extract more potential out of it, even Wii U will see this happen, regardless of it not being a huge step up from PS3 and Xbox 360, although Wii U has the same kind of GPGPU technology as PS4 and XB1, so it also shares the ability to process physics and AI on the GPU.

If Nintendo launches in 2018, while Sony & Microsoft launch in 2019 there's only a year gap, we're passed the architecture shift, the tech can be very comparable to PS5 and XB2, the performance difference would depend on whether Nintendo decides to go with a small form factor box again, along with cost, although PS4 is noticeably more powerful than XB1, while PS4 actually has the smaller form factor.

If Nintendo doesn't wait until 2018 and decides to bite the bullet and launch with older tech of say 2016 they will be shooting themselves in the foot again, potentially giving themselves a Wii vs PS3/360 situation again and they definitely don't want that, especially if they're not in a situation where they can sell to a much wider audience with a gimmick like motion gaming.

A 2018 launch for the NNES (New Nintendo Entertainment System, it's the name I think Nintendo should go with for their next console) seems like a good and logical time for Nintendo to release their next console, it offers up use of truly next-generation processing and memory hardware, which most importantly starts to become cost effective when you look at future tech developments and how the market works.

Well for one, there is no rule that states Nintendo can't release 2 Mario Kart games on the same platform. Sony releases 2 Gran Turismo titles per platform and Microsoft releases Forza pretty much annually so no reason why Nintendo can't make 2 MK games. Also if they choose to still release one, that leaves them open to make new ip or bring back older forgotten ones. The Mario Kart team could release MK9 in 2017 then bring back F-Zero or make a Need for Speed style new ip with Nintendo's own twist to it.

Also take a look at Mario 3D Land, it released for 3DS and it's on its way to selling 10 million, 3D World released for Wii U and is at 2.5 million. Had it released on 3DS, it could very well have sold 2-4x as much.

So with this unified platform it lets Nintendo release games and not have to worry about them selling poorly because they are on a device with a low install base, they can also pump out games at a more consistant pace due to not having two seperate devices to develop for, whether that be sequels, reboots, spinoffs, or new ip.

I just don't get why u are throwing 3DS sales out of the equation, these new devices will essentially be Nintendo's next gen handheld plus a TV version of it that share a library. 3DS and every previous Nintendo handheld has gotten solid 3rd party support, mostly niche Japanese titles along with child-friendly licensed games. With this formula 3DS has been able to sell 50 million in just under 4 years and will go on to sell something like 65m or so. If Nintendo releases these devices at the right price with the right marketing and the right games then there is no reason to believe they will only sell 15m combined, it just doesnt make sense.

The Wii was a fad though.  Nintendo hasn't been able to find long term success in quite a while.