Scaling a game up/down between two extremely similar devices is much easier than making two seperate games for two completely different devices.

Nintendo has historically averaged about 25 published games per year, maybe that drops down to 18-20, that's still better than 12 per device.

100 games in 5 years? Clearly the answer is no. Other systems get over 100 games a year. And while the games might be of high quality on a unified system, they would lack the diversity and innovation that comes from a variety of different publishers and developers making games. Over the last decade or two we've seen series such as GTA, Assassin's Creed, Guitar Hero and COD come along and take over the mainstream gamer. Nintendo's had their own homeruns like Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Brain Age and NSMB, but Nintendo against the world is asking a lot. To compete they need one of a) third party support, b) 3 or 4 new, semi-independent, preferably western studios with new ideas/ip, or c) to purchase a significant publisher that targets a different audience (think Take 2). Without the variety and fresh thought that comes from outside minds, Nintendo will fight an uphill battle and can only win not by combining studios into one platform but if they manage to create a truly groundbreaking new gaming concept such as Wii Sports. If they do that, it won't really matter about quantity. But doing that is unlikely.

I don't literally mean all by themselves, more like without the help of AAA western games that Playstation & Xbox rely on. Like i said, Nintendo gets strong support from Japanese 3rd parties (Level 5, Square-Enix, Koei-Tecmo, Sega/Atlus, Bandai-Namco, Capcom), kid/family-friendly western titles (Lego, Skylanders, Disney, Just Dance, licensed games based on films/series), and their indie support is constantly growing. When u combine that with Nintendo-published titles, ur looking at 100+ titles per year. Any AAA western support is just icing on the cake.

The increase in diversity comes from the fact that Nintendo no longer needs to make 2 seperate entries of all thier major franchises, meaning they can increase their number of new IP by a pretty solid margin. Pumping out a bunch of new IP significantly increases Nintendo's chances of creating the next Pokemon/Nintendogs/Minecraft hit among kids.

Good response.  I still think it's an uphill battle without some outside help or fresh minds.  There's an image thing and a culture thing where Nintendo's internal teams make... Nintendo games.  I think a great example is Monolithsoft and Xenoblade.  They are a former branch of Square and they make Square-type games.  When I play Xenoblade it feels so different than everything else from Nintendo.  It feels like a classic Square game.  I love it, and it compliments Mario and Zelda just like Final Fantasy did on my NES/SNES.  Nintendo could use 2 or 3 such titles a year to make their console a place most gamers want to play.  Maybe the internal teams could do it, but I suspect it really needs non-Nintendo staff to make it happen.

I agree completely, Nintendo should continue doing what they have done for Bayonetta 2, Fatal Frame, Devil's Third, some suggestions I have are publish the next Ninja Gaiden and Soul Calibur. The most recent entries of those series underperformed and Nintendo has strong relations with those companies and they help Nintendo reach a potential new audience. I would like to see Nintendo do the same for some western studios as well.

The Monolith Soft example is pretty good. Another user recently made a thread about Nintendo trying to appeal to the west more, here's a suggestion I had. Turn Retro Studios, Next Level Games, Monster Games into the big western Nintendo trifecta. Expand all three of these studios to the point where they each have 2 full size teams.

Retro Studios has done a great job with Metroid & Donkey Kong, they have proven themselves more than competent in 2 seperate genres, it's time they start doing their own thing. Maybe a first-person shooter (not like Call of Duty) that takes some inspiration from Metroid Prime along with other series like Perfect Dark/Timesplitters/Bioshock/Borderlands and gives it it's own feel. Maybe the other team makes a western RPG, they once were working on one called Raven Blade, perhaps they could revive it while taking some elements of games like Elder Scrolls/Dragon Age and again making it their own.

Next Level Games has a long history of making sports titles, have their 2 teams create a line of Nintendo Sports. I don't think it should be something like Mario Sports or like EA Sports but a line of titles that share aspects of both and is a nice middle ground. For boxing they can still use Punch-Out but evolve it a bit to the point where it's somewhere between the Wii version and Fight Night in terms of visuals/gameplay. Do they same for Football, Soccer, Golf, Tennis, Baseball. Each team makes 3 titles per generation with 2 year cycle times.

Monster Games has a long history of racing games, give them two teams and have them create racing titles that complement Mario Kart and give a wider variety of racers. Let's say each team makes 2 games per generation, Team 1 makes Wave Race & a new Excite title, Team 2 makes F-Zero and a game similar the Cruis'n series while the Mario Kart team makes Mario Kart (obviously) and a title similar to Need for Speed. Now Nintendo has a wide range of different racing titles.

Just some things like this can significantly diversify Nintendo's lineup making a Nintendo device a much more attractive purchase.

With "Unified Console" I actually mean that they only make one console at all.

I think they are sorely lacking a flagship IP for older consumers. They have Mario, Pokemon, etc. which more than fills the family demographic.

Metroid, Xenoblade, Bayonetta are far too niche to give them a credible presence with older players.

And given Nintendo's poor marketing, I don't think their odds of successfully launching a new character IP on their own (ala a Destiny) is all that great either.

I'd suggest securing movie deals. Nintendo used that gambit in the 90s fairly successfully with Star Wars and James Bond so why not try it again.

The Avengers
The Fast & Furious
James Bond

Are all available open IP as far as I can tell. Spend a few bucks. Bond would be IMO the ideal get. Avengers appeals to kids and adults fairly evenly so there would be appeal there too.

They could setup a deal whereby they make the Nintendo platform + iOS + Android versions of games and maybe farm out development of other platforms (Sony/MS) to a close partner like DeNA or Tecmo-Koei or Bandai-Namco with the understanding that those versions are "different" (read: so like Bond FPS' are only for Nintendo platforms).

Losing 20% of ur games every year is a significant drop.

Increasing each devices support by 50% is a significant increase.

Also games are gonna be even bigger next gen so that's a even bigger drop to what 15?.  The main point is the OP gives a really misleading outcome if Nintendo unified their consoles, there's not gonna be anywhere near that many games.