I just don't see it. I think unless there is something dramatically new/different about the console (like the Wii was for 2006), then the console NX is just going to be a niche product for a small group of Nintendo hardcore that just must play their Nintendo games on the TV.

People used to say the GameCube was going to do great because it fixed a lot of the major problems of the N64 -- no cartridges meant great third party support, very easy to program for unlike the N64, we got Resident Evil exclusivity, it's on Sony, bring it! etc. etc. etc.

Sony beat the living snot out of the GameCube on the strength of basically only a year head start (18 months in Japan). Now you're going to give them a 3 year head start? Good night and good luck.

Beyond that I think the other issue for Nintendo home consoles is fewer and fewer people need a Nintendo home console ... because the handhelds are closing the gap every successive generation in being able to offer pretty much all the main stay Nintendo franchises at a lower cost with the bonus of portability.

15 years ago, the Game Boy couldn't do a 3D Mario of any kind. It couldn't do a 3D Zelda. Mario Kart only appeared nine years after it had been on the SNES. But nowadays? Every generation, the handheld adds a new big Nintendo IP or two that it didn't have before (this gen most notably Smash Brothers has gone portable and the first original 3D Mario has been on a portable).

With the portable NX that will likely close even further. The portable NX and smartphone apps (which will make Nintendo a fortune) will become the new no.1/2 pillars for Nintendo as a business, that's what I see happening.

I think NX will be console for much wider market than Wii U was.

Thi sis a good reading... As long as they will keep reatil their producst I am happy!

Based on what? What would a person who doesn't care much for Nintendo franchises be attracted to by a system that is basically a PS4 (at best, we hope) with another touch screen controller, but 3 years late to the market, giving Sony all kinds of time to build up a massive library, have time to price drop, etc. etc. 

You need to have a better answer here than "well they'll make the name more unique than Wii U". 

Nintendo has a fundamental disconnect with the general console market right now in that they really have not been able to appeal to the general console market since the SNES era ended, aside from a few years with the Wii, where they were able to bring in *adults* who were casual players that weren't interested in the N64 or GameCube. An audience that they subsequently lost to smartphones/tablets (in 3 years flat no less). 

This isn't about making Nintendo fans happy, Nintendo fans will see the new 3D Mario and go gaga in glee (though even there I suspect the vast majority of them will buy the handheld NX, not the console one). But the question really is what is new here with the hardware concept that's going to impress anyone who isn't really impressed with Nintendo right now. Another late-to-the-party console with a touchscreen controller, I just don't see being a winning formula when it's failed so miserably this gen. 

The selling point won't be the touch screen, just like the selling point isn't two screens on the 3DS or analog sticks on literally everything. It's there to make the system better when its useful and needed, to interact with the NXDS seamlessly, and to maintain BC with the Wii U, DS, and 3DS. The selling point will be the firmware, the ecosystem, and the account. I wasn't kidding when I said that Nintendo's new membership program will literally be the most important announcement they make about the NX, because that is what sells it. The relationship you form with Nintendo through your NNID which will be tied to the membership program. They'll buy the NX or NXDS for the same reasons people buy iphones over Androids. Noth because the phones are "better," but because Apple has cultivated an ecosystem that connects with other Apple products and that ecosystem is simple, and high quality. That's what Nintendo will do with the NX.

Unlike Club Nintendo, it won't be opt in. You will have to have an account to interact with anything Nintendo in the future. ...Which is why they are launching it along side their first mobile game. They'll guarantee 100m+ people will have an account with the new program before the NX hardware even launch, and have these people form new relationships with the brand through the ID. When the NX releases, many people will already be apart of the ecosystem just because of those mobile games.

It's all about making Nintendo cool as a brand again, and Nintendo is going to start by making it cool to be apart of the Nintendo Network. I may think Splatoon is a raw deal, but I think its content rollout will be highly indicative of how Nintendo plans to build their mobile games. They want to build massively popular games that remain culturally relevant for a long time. And they'll want these games to be social. That's how you make it cool. You get people interactive with each other passively. That's why Words with Friends worked, and that's what they'll try to do with their mobile games, only they want people playing these games long term. Just like people check social media daily and massively, they want people to play Nintendo daily and passively.

People like to scoff at mobile like it has no tie-in to console/handheld gaming or like it's not important, but it does and it is, and it especially will with the NX. Once Nintendo's branding is refreshed with the new membership program and their mobile games, the same way they refreshed it with the Wii marketing wise, they will swoop in with the new, forward-thinking unified platform that'll be part of an ecosystem many people will already be apart of and caught up with. By the time the NX is announced, Nintendo, as a brand, will be elevated because a massive amount of people will be have positive experiences with Nintendo's brand fresh in their minds thanks to the games and, in turn, thanks to the membership program. So in the same way someone with an iphone will more likely look at the iPad for a considered purchase because of those positive interactions with iOS, Apple, and their Apple ID account, Nintendo is working to get that same relationship with the masses using their membership program and the NX.

There will be. It will be all digital with a unified ecosystem. That is dratically new and different. Nothing like that has ever been done on consoles before, ever. There has never been a console that has even remotely tried to take advantage of the clear advantages a digital only platform has over a physical one.

Home consoles are more popular in the West than handhelds. Nintendo isn't going to ignore that market just because the handhelds do well. There isn't "less of a reason" to own Nintendo consoles because of the handheld. There's less of a reason to buy Nintendo consoles because they haven't been as good as the handhelds have been. All it takes is one good home console to change that. People don't want to only play their big 3D Zelda on their handheld. They don't want to forgoe Smash or Kart on the TV for the games on the TV. Their either want both, or they want those experiences on a big screen. Just because the games will be playable on the NXDS doesn't mean that will be the prefered platform for those kinds of games, because it definitely won't be. Not in the west.

Whoa, I never said "always online" but how would you get said digital content onto your system without downloading it?

Spemanig, I love how you are speaking in cryptic future-tense like it is some kind of conspiracy theory haha. Although I think a lot of your theory holds water, the all digital portion completely loses me. Nintendo would not push it's audience away like that. They were last to the HD party, last to the online party, last to the disc party, and last to the DLC party. Why would they be first to the all digital party? Nintendo is a leader in console innovation, but usually pertaining to hardware changes on the console - namely the controller. They won't be the first to alienate their fans with an all digital console. The reason this is possible with iPhones as well as other mobile devices is because they are linked to some other form of internet (the "G" network), and unless the NX is going to have a contract with a wireless provider to link to their network, I do not see all digital as a possibility this time around. Maybe next time around, maybe, but I have to say in my mind it is a small possibility, not a certainty.

Like I said, those people wouldn't get an NX. I'm not saying it wouldn't be an issue, it just wouldn't be a problem breaking issue. Again, Apple, Google, Amazon, Valve, and Netflix all have massively successful digital only products while facing this exact same issue. There are more than enough people who do have access to the internet to make the NX just as successful.

But they aren't all gamers, and Nintendo is always focused on gaming FIRST, so this is why I am speculating it will hurt them. Gamers are a fickle crowd and want things how they want them. Are you saying that they will again go for a "blue ocean" strategy and try to pull in the non-gaming, mobile crowd? I'm just trying to figure out what line you are taking here : )