That means we'll have Wii U on steroids, based on the PowerPC architecture and handled which will be also a controller for the new system as well as backwards compatible with either wii or the Wii U, depends on the cost and technology they want to use. Which is cool. Two independent systems, which could work together as one. What I'm worried about is that the new home console will have power equivalent to PS4, so yet another "underpowered" Nintendo console. I hope its gonna be a powerhouse, which will blow out minds. But hey, it's nintendo, so it's not gonna happen. 

The chances of Nintendo's next home console being substantially more powerful than the PS4 are about as likely as the Vita outselling the GBA. Or winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning in the same day.

Why not? The gimmicks and motion controls don't sell anymore and handhelds facing huge smartphone competition. I think we all agree that Nintendo is aware of it. They might as well go back to the SNES times as they haven't been in that territory for year now. They definetly got funds and resource to do so. 

Modern Nintendo are too cheap to make a system that is competitive in horsepower. They'll opt for outdated graphical hardware to keep costs down, as they have for their last four systems.

And I wouldn't bet on them being aware of it; they seem utterly oblivious to just about every other blatantly obvious problem staring them in the face.

It's not so much that they're oblivious to it, it's that I think they feel competing directly with Sony and especially Microsoft is a non-starter for them. They don't have the other divisions to ride on if things get ugly in the game business and I think they've allowed themselves to become intimidated, especially by MS' massive cash resources. 

This is a recent quote from Iwata:

"Nintendo is not good at competing so we always have to challenge [the status quo] by making something new, rather than competing in an existing market.”

Not many CEOs will admit their company is bad at competing, lol. Within Nintendo though that's their culture, to their credit it does drive them to try different ideas at least. 

But I don't think you'll see Nintendo compete head-on with Sony/MS ever again. I think when it was just Nintendo/Sony (basically because Sega was incompetent/underfunded), Nintendo was OK with that, but when MS moved in and didn't move out of the business like Panasonic did with 3DO, it became too crowded in Nintendo's eyes to chase the traditional home console market. 

Nice read ;)

I think Nintendo still has to do & can do a lot to improve their image & offering to the typical PS/X1/PC gamer & they are aware of that, they tried to cater to 3rd parties, it was clear when they announced Wii U, but 3rd parties took the oportunity to stab Nintendo in the back.

Now they are trying to address that with Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta, Xeno Cross, the 3 exclusive Sonic games (duds, thx Sega), Fire Emblem X SMT, Pokken, Devil's 3rd kind of initiatives.

Nintendo needs more manpower & they've aknowledged it: new NOA HQ, new NOE HQ, they doubled their size in Kyoto & are expanding their studio in Tokyo, they are expanding Retro.

I think they still need to expand more, they can't rely on 3rd parties for the kind of content Nintendo usually does not make.

I've said it before, they have the money, they should buy Studios, like Platinum, Level 5, Atlus (if Sega wants to sell since they are kind of retiring from consoles), Mistwalker... Capcom would be great!!!

Nintendo's growth goes hand in hand with self-supporting, they can't count on 3rd parties, they should continue & strike deals like with Monster Hunter & Dragon Quest, but they have to be self reliant! Well that's my 2 cent ;P

I personally do not think Nintendo will focus on third party games at all next generation. All of their explanations have included only concerns for their devs and their handheld. Otherwise we would have them discussing things with outside fevs, which would almost certainly have been leaked by now.

Whether that is a good idea or not is debatable.

Because that doesnt work for them either.

The thing with the "SNES times" is back then Nintendo really only had to compete primarily with Sega ... a company that was smaller than them and a decided underdog.

Today competing the same way would mean having to go toe to toe with Sony and Microsoft, two huge conglomerate corporations.

If the SNES had to compete against a 16-bit Playstation and XBox, things probably would've ended up much differently, especially with Nintendo's attitude to third parties back then.

16-bit Playstation & Xbox? I really want to see what such devices would have been like circa 1990.