Topic: What do you think Nintendo will do if the Wii U continues to produce lackluster sales?

I was wondering, what BIG thing could Nintendo do if the Wii U continues to fail to meet sales expectations? Do you think Nintendo will do something BIG, something predictable, what? I'm not expert on economics so I'm just wondering what some of you would think would be the next logical step then for them to save the system?

Lackluster sales? It's picked majorly in May and this Fall and Winter season seem promising.

My guess is that they will do what Sony is doing with the Vita. Not release a new successor, but instead drop support to a basal level, just enough to keep the install base happy, and place focus on 3DS and the QoL platform.

Has sold more than Xbox One
Has pretty high software attach rates

Lackluster?

How long has the Wii U been out?

How long has the Xbox One been out?

Right now, if you assume that the >200% increase in sales from Q1 2013 to Q1 2014 is a permanent increase, the Wii U is on track to sell about 24M units in 5 years. That's not very good at all.

And when you consider that increase is very likely NOT permanent, the system is looking at 20M or less units in a lifetime

Wii U sold less consoles than the NES
Wii U has less games than PS2

I think hes saying, you don't compare based on length of availability, but on total sales in the generation.

I just don't think time matters as much anymore. All consoles have been out long enough to see the trend. The trend I see, when Nintendo releases a big game sales increase a lot and then fall slowly. The trend I see with Xbox is when a big game is release they enjoy a boost in sales but it doesn't last. If Wii U continues to have a good attach rate then Nintendo will reach a profit.

I think they'll go into "Gamecube" mode (I think we're already seeing this).

They know it's on track to only hit somewhere inbetween the 20-30 million mark (just like GCN), so they'll focus on catering to the core Nintendo fans & general core gamers (those who might buy it as a secondary system later in it's life), in order to make a small profit on software.

This obviously doesn't put them where they want to be as a company, but it also keeps them from taking a loss. While they won't be (much) better off than they were before the system launched, they won't be worse off either.

Just don't forget that the console war is NOT a winner takes all contest. Nintendo can still turn a very decent operating profit even if they don't "win" the current generation. Microsoft has lost billions on the Xbox line and Sony hasn't done much better AFAIK. Perception is important but the bottom line rules.

Considering how Mario Kart alone has half saved the console, I have my doubts this will happen.

But it hasn't. It's had a great attach rate, but it's not selling systems. Mario Kart just isn't much of a system selling game

Don't kid yourself. The winner takes all every generation! Just look at the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360

Plus, like we see with MK8, they will release doc on current popular titles to make up for smaller install base.

Make another Mario game.

You guys don't think I'll cause them to do something new and innovative?

I highly doubt that

I think they've (finally) realized they can't get the same mass market that the wii had due to phones and tablets. So what they do after wii u should be very interesting

That's not why they can't get the mass market the Wii had. The reason is that the Wii U is the opposite of the Wii in it's appeal.