We'll see.  It's really not the wii u's fault but the people who make the decisions in nintendo. A new console will not change anything if nintendo's leaders haven't learned anything from the wii u. 

I think that they can turn things around for the wii u. It's not that far behind the xbox one in sales.  It's obvious that nintendo's exclusive "great" games aren't appealing to the majority of gamers and new gamers. It needs third party support to turn things around along with some NEW IP's that are not targeted towards kids/young people. 

Its not a bad idea actually. But they would indeed have to wait for that 5 year cycle to pass. They cant burn their fans and i dont think they will.

So,even under that theory we can expect Wii U support for another 2 years. Sounds sensible to me, though i dont see why not do it with the Wii U. It already has a userbase and manufacturing structure.

Also, another question would be how powerful would this new system be in relation to the Wii U. If its more powerful(It has to be, otherwise why would people upgrade from the Wii U?), that will rise up the price for the portable and we know Nintendo cant go above 200€/$ for a portable, as we learned with the 3DS launch. This means at best a jump similar to GC>Wii. It also means that it beeing this dual system it may even be driven back to 2018 for components to be cheaper.

Interesting stuff. I like that theory aswell.

The only thing that would make this fly even better is if they can ensure cross platform play between all handheld and console games. If they are consolidating the userbase, they better consolidate it all the way to include online.

Have you tried flipping the question on its head? What does Nintendo gain by keeping a console on the market that is moving so slowly, has lost them 80%+ of their marketshare from the 7th gen and failed to appeal to both the casual and core audiences? What possible gain can they get from letting this go on another 2-3 years? Income? It's not exactly making them rich and it won't make them rich in the future either, I am 100% certain that it will easily be their least profitable console venture ever. Also; giving up on the biggest markets in the world because it clashes with Nintendo values would be ridiculous, reading and responding to markets is how you sell your goods in most cases, simply giving up rather than trying to gain insight and understanding on these markets would be a really poor choice if they want any sort of global presence and influence in the future.
The West will continue to not care so long as Nintendo are unwilling to adapt and respond to the market, it is not unfounded apathy from the market itself, it is apathy from Nintendo borne of disinterest in adapting to markets that is causing this rift.
Waiting for arbitrary hardware cycles is also poor judgement in the face of mounting troubles, this sounds like the other "rules" of the industry that we imagine for ourselves (like the "one manfacturer always wins two generations in a row" from the 7th gen).

The Wii U situation is hurting them as a company and I think they'd be better off moving on and attempting a more clearly defined and aimed product (or products) that appeals to a specific demographic, not the bipolar, haphazard falling between chairs objectives of the Wii U, MS wised up on the Kinect issue when they recognized that two very different demographics were very, very unlikely to fall for the same hardware and thrive in the same developer/software environment (too little too late though and the damage was done, Kinect likely caused quite a bit of harm to the One's position on the market). I see a lot of users saying that moving on from the Wii U chapter hastily could hurt them since they will be pissing off their customers, but; what customers are these? It's barely selling as is, the disadvantages of potentially slighting 14-15 milliion customers (based on a late 2016 launch of a new console) are easily conquered by the prospect of gaining an actual foothold with new, poised and streamlined hardware with a smoother OS solution and cross-platform tools for simultaneous development for home consoles and handhelds that would ensure a more steady stream of income from software as well. They could also build hardware that doesn't lose them money from the get-go and that actually has real sales potential.

The advantages to abandoning the Wii U earlier than is the norm for home consoles far outweigh the disadvantages from where I'm sitting, they would be stupid not to, at this point. Nintendo need to make a grab for an actual market again and aim for actual demographics and they need to rebuild their public image as a force to be reckoned with, the Wii U is not the tool for this job and only serves to shame them, both in gaming and mainstream media and on internet forums; clinging to a bad idea out of spite or out of fear for venturing into unfamiliar territory is not how one succeeds with anything and I think they have just about come to this realization themselves as well, the recent slew of announcements, news and rumors would suggest as much and I think they should be commended for making changes, sticking with the Wii U for several more years would not be a choice worthy of any praise, in my very honest opinion.

I believe they already announced they are unifying their network. Its definitly a hint of possibilities on either of these theories. 

Good. This means I can finally play a mainline Pokemon game on a console. GameFreak better get with the times next gen.

Yes, i have. What they are gaining is simply consumer trust. The thing that led to the downfall of SEGA. Purchasers of their next system will have the confidence to buy it without thinking a new one will come out in a couple of years if this one doesnt sell well aswell. Its extremely dangerous and nukes your important early adopter segment.

Whats worse? Taking a few software development losses or not beeing able to sell ypur next system?

I did not sugest that Nintendo ignore the US, but it is obvious that Nintendo's competitive strengths are in Japan. Their portable consoles are their strong point and they wish to have a broad appeal to all segments. Currently the 3rd party AAA market is aimed at the bro audience and spreads horrid practices in game content, day one DLC, microtransactions after paying a premium, etc. Its filled with horror stories that wuld stain the Nintendo family friendly image they are so protective of. Therefore, i dont think they are willing to go to any lengths to get that 3rd party support and will instead adopt a strategy that will allow them to have a position of strength in the market in wich the 3rd parties will have to submit to.

So, moving on from one mistake to the other is definitly not something they should foster. Appeasing the AAA 3rd party will be nigh impossible. What you sugest is they fight an uphill battle like Sony has, but they dont have the momentum Sony did with 2 gen leads in a row to go into that. Keep in mind that they will keep japanese 3rd party suppoet though. That one i tink falls in line with their objectives.

Also, you are sugesting they try to appeal solely to the same audience Sony and Microsoft already have on lock-down. How would Nintendo appeal to that audience? What would they offer that would be irresistable to that audience in comparison to the competition? Certainly not Mario games. This wold require a dramatic shift of focus from the company software to go and compete in a space with 2 already wellestablishes competitors. No, Nintendo cant go head on in there. They have to side-step and offer somthing the competition doesnt. They can't focus solely on the "mature" gamer.

Rushing into that race would only lead Nintendo to big losses in earnings and consumer trust. They simply dont have the arguments to fight that head-on battle you think they should go for.

Ya like I said, 2017 would be a good year for launch of these devices, that gives Wii U & New 3DS a decent amount of support. Maybe staggered launces, like Portable-Q1 2017 & Console-Q4 2017.

The thing with Wii U is that it already has a bad reputation, once people get it in their mind that a product is inferior, it's very hard for them to change their mind. Nintendo would be better off starting fresh and fixing the problems they had with Wii U in the beginning like marketing & software output.

As for specs, in my last post I said a possibility could be something like 300 gflop, 2gb RAM for the Portable version which would likely allow it to display Wii U level visuals at a lower resolution like 540p. The Console version on the other hand could be something like 1.2 tflop, 8gb RAM which would make it a tad under Xbox One, it would display games at 1080p. Depending on the individual game, they could either be scaled up from the handheld to console or scaled down from the console to the handheld.

I think Nintendo could have gotten away with 3DS being $249.99 if they didn't make some foolish mistakes. In the early going their was some confusion about what 3DS was, many people thought it was simply a DS revision with 3D screens, not a brand new device. Also it had a horrible post-launch drought. It launch in March with Nintendogs+Cats as the big launch title, then the only major releases for the next 6 months were 2 N64 remasters. If it had better marketing and software output than I believe it wouldn't have done so horrible at $250.

Hate to be bumping this thread. Its a great debate we are having but the title should be a question mark and seems a bit negative for the conversation going on.

So, i apologise but i think i will be replying less. 

So, for your post, i can agree with the bad image. But if you think about the case of the PS3, it also had a bad image for years, but the fact that Sony kept supporting it to its last leg earned it a very positive reputation and the effort was rewarded when the PS4 came out.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, SEGA did the opposite. Dropped the Saturn like a rock and the Dreamcast wouldnt take off.

My sugestion for the 2 in 1 portable Wii U is simply to call it something else. The specs would be the same, but it would be called the DS-HD or something like that. You would only see the Wii U logo on the games themselves. But it might be doable, given enough time and support for the Wii U as we discussed before there may be acceptance room for a new double console.

On that note, i'm not sure what you are sugesting would work spec wise for games to work on both systems. Theres alot of stuff on the RAM and the rendering is done by the GPU, so i dont think the systems can have different RAM and Processor clocks.

As for the price... maybe. If they get a good flux of titles going it may be overcome, but i think there is a mental barrier on the consumers that is more difficult to overcome. Much like the 60$ price for a game. 250 for a portable may just be too much to justify the money investment. The Vita didnt fare much better aswell. Tablets and phones may weigh on that equation aswell.

Well with PS3 they did turn it around but at what cost? They lost billions on that device. And I didn't say drop Wii U like a rock, a holiday 2017 launch for the successor gives it a full 5 year cycle and means we are literally only halfway thru with Wii U.

I don't know a whole lot of specs and the technical side of things but from what I have read, most game engines are very scalable these days with things like Unreal Engine 4 being compatible on mobile, console & PC. Look at games like Destiny or Watch Dogs that are on PS3/360/XB1/PS4/PC, all devices with different specs yet they are all able to handle the same game at different graphics settings.

Well PSP debuted at $250 and did pretty well for itself because it was marketed correctly and had a strong software lineup so it's certainly possible for a powerful handheld with strong marketing and software output to sell well.