It's been a long time since I completely agreed with someone on the internet.

Everything you said is true. I would add that right now, the image of Nintendo consoles are really damaged beacause of the Wii. I know a lot of people that bought a N64 and or Gamecube, that didn't want to buy a WiiU because wii was crap.

Finally, my biggest disappointment and one of the biggest failures with Nintendo in recent years, is their lack of investment in software development. They made a lot of money during Wii/DS era, and none of it was invested correctly.

-Nintendo didn't buy or create any new studios
-Nintendo didn't secure any third party franchise
-Nintendo didn't create new IPs for WiiU's launch
-Nintendo failed to prepare their team for HD development.
-Nintendo didn't properly used and expand Retro Studios

It seems that Nintendo started doing some of those things, but it was way too late.

LMFAO

Some products are just dud's. But of coarse the fact Nintendo don't make any real efforts to grab the mature audience these days is not helping them.

oh you did? thought it was a copy and paste from an article. 

Anyways, NO. Marketing isn't the biggest problem with Nintendo. That's just flat out wrong. People like to downplay things and look at what could be the eqsieest possible fix to a problem, just so happens to be that Nintendo's problem isn't marketing. 

There are three potential consumers of a games console; the loyalist (these are the fans of a platform that will buy up the console regardless of anything else), the hardcore gamers (these are the people that want to play all the best looking games and a lot of them, they care about things like graphics, online features and services...etc and want to play games that cover every existing genre out there in volume) and the casuals (these are people that will buy nobmore than 1 or two games per year and those games would be relatively easy and noob friendly, they don't have the predisposition to be heavily invested in gaming).

Here is the problem, the loyalist have already bought the console. The hardcore gamers all know about the WiiU, they are all at least relatively informed and know the difference between a Wii and WiiU, they know about Nintendo franchises, they  didn't  care last gen and still don't care this gen. And lastly the casuals, which made up the bulk of all Wii sales,aren't even in the market for a console this generation. Their smarphones are enough for them. 

The  only viable markets available to Nintendo right now are their loyalists (whose numbers have been being watered down since the GC gen which is reflected in the poor WiiU sales so far) and the very same market that both Sony and Microsoft have been fighting tooth and nail for since last gen. A market that Nintendo has completely abandoned evident in their appalling third party support. 

How can you honestly still think, after reading all this that Nintendo's biggest problem is marketing? Feel free to correct me where you think I'm wrong. 

edit: I'll just add, and you and/or Nintendo fans should think of this. How many games have Nintendo made that completely cannot be played with the Touchpad? Does the number of games or features the touchpad have justify its inclusion in the box if that came at the expense of making a more powerful console? If Nintendo made a console as powerful as the XB1, and still made all their typical Nintendo games, and put aside a billion dollars (which after the Wii they definitely could afford doing) to buy/lobby third party support of every major multiplat title, right now not only would the XB1 not be coming second, but even the PS4 would be have as easy a time of it. That should tell you all you need to know about what Nintendo's real problem is. 

Good read but I think there was a problem in one of your statements.

It should say: "The Wii is the console the Wii should have been."

People are aware that Wii U exists, and people know precisely what games to expect on a Nintendo console. The problem is that they would rather spend money replacing their smartphones with the latest model every other year than take a glance at Nintendo's latest offerings. The reason? Bragging about purchasing the latest Nintendo hardware doesn't exactly give you the same response on social media that you would receive had you bought the latest iPhone or a PS4 instead. Nor is the console something that people want to be caught discussing, fearing the many labels invented by Sega fans and their successors. Because of this, any time or money spent on a Nintendo product, regardless of enjoyment, is considered a waste since it does not raise your social status.

So how was Nintendo able to circumvent this and make the Wii their most successful home console to date? The answer is simple: They detached this image from their product. Wii was their first home console without the name "Nintendo" featured somewhere and its main selling point, Wii Sports, featured no Nintendo characters. Had the game been called Nintendo Sports and featured Mario, Link and the rest of the gang, a significant portion of the masses would have found this to be off-putting, thus hindering the console's success dramatically.


Conclusion: Because of how people are concerned about their self-images, the masses do not find Nintendo appealing, and no marketing in the world is going to change that. Even in the event that Nintendo makes a powerful console and manages to attract all valuable third party support that one can think of, it is required that the other console manufacturers have significantly worse third party offerings for people to consider buying a Nintendo console instead. Because they are willing to go far to avoid the Nintendo label.

The problem with the Wii U is much more complex. The problem is that the audience for only Nintendo games have been in decrease ever since the NES, and the only reason the Wii bucked that trend is because of motion controls. Add to that that their already horrible third party situation is only getting worse, and you've got a serious problem. Of course their lackluster marketing doesn't help, but it isn't the root of the problem.

Then why does the 3DS sell well?

A 3DS is easier to hide.

That was a good one