So, if I go in the ring with Mike Tyson and land the first two punches; I'm set to win the boxing match? This is a shockingly illogical way of thinking. I'm sure I can win a 100 meter race with Usain Bolt as well if I get a 10 meter head start.

The Wii U is not "winning" Japan; it is slowly but certainly being caught and will fall into 2nd place in the home console market sooner or later, to deny that at this stage is beyond ridiculous.
Let's also not forget that the PS4 launched in Japan about four months after NA and EU and outside of the holiday season; making it only about a year old in that region with the numbers we have here, with a fairly poor launch and a fairly slow start, it has sold about 1.16 million as of March 1st, more or less exactly 12 months after release, it has still to receive any of its biggest franchises, the first will be either MGS or FF this year and it has not had a price cut or extensive bundling either.

The Wii U has sold around 2.23 million in its roughly 27 months on the market, including two whole holidays and a december launch and it has received all its biggest games besides Zelda.

Are you sure you want to make this argument that it is winning?

Nintendo read this thread before starting the direct. Threw in IR#FE for Soundwave. Not Japan gets two huge JRPGs on the Wii U.

Yes Nintendo could do a lot of things but they never do. Based on their track record the reason most don't think 2016 is the right time is because there will be a lack of games.

If Nintendo can go above and beyond and have a fantastic library then hell I will join you and agree release in 2016. However we knwo they struggle to work with 3rd parties so they need to go drastic and moneyhat them or there is no point till 2017 where they will have enough oftheir own software to cater to gamers. 

If they are not ready games wise in 2016 then it is pointless as it will end up anther Wii U. Look at PS4 why is it selling well? Not so much because of the launch games but because somehting like 80 real developers backed the console at E3 vocally. It gave gamers confidence in the system. Nintendo havea track record of loosing support so a virtual gurantee is not goign to be enough this time around for them. They need results to entice gamers.

To be honest, launching a platform isn't some monumental task. 

You really just need 3 big games properly spaced out over the first 5 months or so with hopefully one bigger scale third party title. 

Any combination of Zelda U/NX, Animal Crossing, Luigi's Mansion 3, and Mario Galaxy 3 should do it. Space these out over the first 6 months. 

Sprinkle in a couple of smaller scale titles like an F-Zero NX, third party ports like FIFA, Call of Duty NX Ops, and voila. 

Having one central platform to develop for rather than two will be a large game changer for Nintendo, they will be able to deliver far more content. 

Nintendo was arrogant with the 3DS and Wii U launches, they figured because NSMB and Nintendogs so well last gen they could just crap out sequels to those games with minimal effort and ride that evergreen wave for the first 7-8 months. 

I would normally agree as this strategy has worked for Sony. But look at Nintendo. Beyond the launch window there is no light at the end of the tunnel. No one can predict what will happen. With Sony and to a degree Microsoft you know that there will be 3rd party backing the system till the end of its life cycle, so it is a safe gamble to jump in early.

With Nintendo hardware there is no general gamer confidence. Which in turn shows devs that gamers have no confidence in the system so a catch 22 scenario. Hence why I think the next system NEEDS a huge launch a a regular old launch will no longer be enough to get gamers to jump on the Nintendo bandwagon.

I dont think a new console will help it Nintendo just need to make more games is all, or obtain more games for Japanese gamers.

PLUS Japanese dont care much for home consoles anymore, so that is a factor too.

That's part of the beauty of the fusion/iOS style game platform (shared games) comes in though. 

I'm sure there are probably more than a couple of 3DS owners who wouldn't mind trying games like Hyrule Warriors or DKC: Tropical Freeze or even Bayonetta 2 ... but they're not going to pay an extra $300 for a home console they really don't want/need just to play a handful of games. 

In a Fusion setup, those games can reach ALL of the users that Nintendo sells to, not just the small minority (yes, minority) console fanbase. 

It's the same thing with me and iOS ... Apple still gets my money even though I chose a Samsung phone over an iPhone (this was before iPhone 6, I wanted a bigger screen phone, opted for Samsung). But I continued with the iOS marketplace because I still had an iPad at home, so I have access to all the app goodies on the iOS marketplace. 

Give the consumer the choice, don't dictate to them, fit their life style, not the other way around. 

2-3 big launch titles is enough, it's the post-launch output that needs fixing. 3DS & Wii U each had decent (not amazing) launch lineups and sales. The problem they faced was both had barely anything release for the next 6-9 months. Ocarina of Time 3D/Star Fox 64 3D & Lego City Undercover/Pikmin 3 were the only major Nintendo-published titles for 3DS/Wii U in the 6-9 months following launch. They both ended up having pretty decent holiday lineups. Nintendo's output for 3DS in 2012 was alot better but still not amazing, 2013 was excellent but 2014/2015 are back  to 2012 levels and Wii U has had constant delays/droughts for going on 3 years now.

With a unified platforn, realistically every year can be like 3DS had in 2013.

If they plan it out well ... something like this really wouldn't be impossible ...

Legend of Zelda (dual launch with Wii U) - launch Sept. 2016
F-Zero NX - launch Sept. 2016

Super Mario Galaxy 3 - November 2016 

Animal Crossing NX - December 2016 

Luigi's Mansion 3 - February 2017

Monster Hunter 5 - April 2017

Mario Kart 9 - June 2017


Game. Set. Match.

Thats still not enough, Nintendos problem has nothing to do with the amount of games they publish, they probably do more than any plaform holder, they need the top games from multiplatform as well, Nintendo being just for Nintendo published games will never be viable in the long term. 

It really feels like they have to partner up with anybody they can just to get games on there system, no one seems to make Nintendo games just because they want to as its a viable business model. 

Something big has to change, they either need another mass market gimmick, which is much easier to say than to acheive, or they need to become much more attractive to other developers.