The Wii U's low sales should come as no surprise. The reason the Wii was so successful is because Nintendo targeted casual gamers and so the Wii's sales were very high. These casual gamers are fine with their Wii, and just don't simply care about getting a new console. Most hardcore gamers play on an Xbox or PlayStation, so they saved for a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One.

It's makes perfect sense. Aside from the two you mentioned, many others have failed outside of your arbitrary 30 year limitation as well as your subjective measure "of note"... But this is a tengent.

So you feel they'd be better off trying to compete directly by creating more generic consoles against two giants far more capable of providing the typical console and absorbing necessary losses?

Nintendo has found clever ways to profit from their systems with rare exception since they got involved. They certainly make some puzzling decisions, but they're still in it, making money, and doing it their way. Even when I find the end result disappointing, I rather like that one of the big three is trying out unusual things each generation, and every once in a while they seem to stumble on something quite fun.

Yes Nintendo has been making poor design decisions for many generatiins now, starting with N64. And although Wii was a huge succes, as a traditional game console the hardware was really poor for $250.

It didn't, but your thread title and OP say nothing about being home consoles only, which gives a generalization that you are talking about Nintendo as a whole. Maybe you excluded handhelds consoles to make your point stand out more.

Being unique is quintessentially Nintendo it's why they have been so successful. It's just they do some really dumb things in-between that sets them back.

Saying Nintendo will end up like Sega is overexagerrating.

Of note means being in direct competition on at least a consumer recognized level. You could list off tons of console developers pre video game crash, but guess what? They all went out because of the video game crash. That makes my 30 year time frame not so arbitrary because Nintendo literally did not even sort of matter prior to the crash. It's hard to glorify how amazing they were before the NES was really a thing. And otherwise the various attempts from other smaller companies at entering the console game have largely been unsuccessful because they haven't been trying to compete with the major companies, a double edged sword ultimately, but they usually aren't putting out hardware any devs would want to work with anyways. In the end, you've just painted Nintendo as a hero of gaming, persevering through hardship where others have failed, when really, that's just not right. I mean, yeah, Nintendo was a pioneer for modern gaming. Absolutely no doubt about it, but that's about it.

I'm not saying Nintendo's attempts are all bad, but it really wouldn't hurt to go mainline for at least one generation to try to build up a userbase again. They really need one, and even if it means going against their preferred methods, it's clear being unique isn't enough to keep people interested.

NES - innovative console, competition is weak -> crushes competition
SNES -> traditional console, labeled as kiddy by Sega fans -> lost marketshares.
Gameboy -> Innovative console, less powerfull than competitors -> crushes competition
N64 -> traditional console, labeled as kiddy -> lost marketshares
Gamecube -> traditional console, labeled as kiddy -> lost marketshares
NDS -> Innovative consoles, less powerfull than competitors -> crushes competition but is labeled as 'casual' by PSP fans
Wii -> Innovative console, less powerfull than competitor -> crushes competition but is labeled as 'casual' by PS/XB fans
3DS -> Weak innovation, tries to target former PSP fans -> gets crushed by competiton (Smartphones/tablets)
WiiU -> Weak innovation, tries to target former PS/XB fans -> gets crushed by competiton (Ps4(Xbox One)

Being 'the same as others' has cost for Nintendo every generation.

thanks to their uniqueness we have the d-pad, analog stick, rumble, motion controls and duel screen play.

uniqueness is what drives the industry foreword too bad most gamers are traditionalists who won't accept change

Nintendo is gonna outlive all of us anyway, and looking back all these doom threads are gonna be a fun read.