Why would they? Producing cheap hardware that is based on "withered technology" (Gunpei Yokoi) was a success for their entire handheld line and Nintendo's best selling consoles (Wii and NES, which competed with home computers) were both underpowered for their time.

I know hardcore gamers make up all kinds of theories about why Nintendo's product are successful or not but for investors it's pretty simple: Whenever Nintendo produced a mass market friendly device (and supported it with mass market friendly software) the company thrived: NES, SNES, Wii, GB(C), GBA, DS.

Nintendo is a company like Disney: They need to target a big audience and they have a family friendly image. Producing expensive consoles with a focus on "3D Gaming" or "Hardcore Gamers" or "Third Party Support" simply won't help them. What they need to produce is a quality console with quality software for the mass market. Just like the Wii was.

Compared to C64, which was the best selling home computer at the time, NES actually traded blow for blow when it comes to specs (C64 launched in 82, NES in 83), all at much lower price. Sure, versus Atari ST (85) and Amiga 1000 (85) is was significantly weaker, but those were computers that cost 3-4x more.

Honestly, I doubt anyone is expecting for Nintendo to go high end...but I believe lot of people are hoping they'll get back to making consoles that are at least in the same ballpark as competition.

No. The NX and its specs are probably already designed so the next president probably can't make any significant changes even if they wanted to.

there would be minor things the new CEO would address, but i think Iwata already mentioned it to the group and they are discussing their best action plan on it. i don't think Nintendo would really do a drastic turn around and just compete based on power with the Sony and MS.

This. I'm expecting in the next few days to now the name of the new CEO.

I don't know if it's too late to effect the NX either. Look how drastically the XBO changed mere months before it launched after a change in leadership. The NX is much farther alone than that thing was when it shifted gears.

Keep in mind, though, that I'm just playing devil's advocate at this point.

It might not be that soon. Recent news says that Nintendo has no plans yet for who will succeed Iwata. Miyamoto and Takeda are both standing in for him at the moment as interim co-presidents. There's a lot up in the air right now.

Iwata stuck to the core values of gaming. Even though I couldn't see each hair on Mario's mustache, or each thread on Link's cap, I think Iwata had the right idea. Good games sell hardware regardless. Now if the Wii U had a different name and had Mario Kart at launch, imagine the sales on it! I think the next CEO could take a more competitive approach, but he'd have to delay the NX to make it powerful enough to compete. So maybe after NX we'll see some Nintendo Power that we haven't since SNES

Nintendo hasn't always had that philosophy with console hardware. That's a philosophy they had with handheld technology. What they ended up doing was taking their approach with handhelds and applying it towards consoles. The guy who was the leading proponent of that change was Genyo Takeda, who is Nintendo's General Hardware Manager and as of a few days ago, serves as the Representative Director of Nintendo along with Shigeru Miyamoto. So as long as he holds a lot of influence at Nintendo, we're probably not going to see a change in direction with hardware unless technology evlves in such a way where they can get a fairly powerful consoleb that is somewhat inexpensive and profitable from day 1.

When it comes to the NX, I think the hardware for that is almost finalized, so what we see is what we'll get.

As for the future, I'm definitely hoping for some more better hardware, as well as better online features.