Topic: What if Nintendo kept the Wii U and released another powerful console?

It's an interesting idea but perhaps not one that would work well.

Here's why:

1. Just having a more powerful console will not attract third parties. Their dislike of Nintendo goes deeper * than just 'their consoles don't have enough power', as anyone who's seen the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube will be able to point out. Such a new console will just get ignored by the third parties, just like the Wii U is.

• There have been many explanations for this, but the better ones tend to be 'Nintendo's policies in the NES days annoyed a lot of companies to the point they don't want to work with them' and 'third parties don't want to have to compete with Nintendo games'.

2. Not advertising this new console because 'gamers would be aware' is ridiculous, since the PS4 and Xbox One (and other non Nintendo consoles) don't only appeal to 'gamers' in the internet forum/social media savvy sense. The latter group makes up maybe 2% of the audience on ANY system, including those by Nintendo's competitors. They (aka most of the people who buy games like Call of Duty, Halo, etc) probably won't know something like this even existed without advertising. Then again, nor would most Sony/Microsoft gamers in general, unless they have a habit of hanging around Nintendo fan sites and forums.

3. It playing Wii U games is nice, but it makes the Wii U pointless. If people get given a choice between a console with PS4/Xbox One level power and Wii U compatibility or just a plain Wii U... very few are going to choose the latter. No, kids and mums are not exceptions here; the former's probably already playing Call of Duty and GTA and the likes and the latter is likely to just buy whatever is most convenient... and in this case, the console that can play both types of games is probably gonna be cheap in the long run. Why buy one console now and one in a few years time when you could just buy the latter now and merely give the kids the more kid friendly games from the Wii U?

Buy one 200 dollar console now and then one 500 dollar console later when different games are needed... or buy one 500 dollar console now and buy games... hmm, tough choice [/sarcasm]

4. Development resources are already split across the Wii U and 3DS. Do you really want them split across another console as well, giving us even longer gaps between games?

5. Letting third parties drive anything is stupid, because they don't have an incentive to make games for a console with no install base, and it won't get one without games. Even if the Wii U Pro was literally identical to its competition (and it wouldn't be), the third parties would't want to spend money making games for it when the amount of buyers is lower than elsewhere.

1 - then why the hell even have casual option and waste money on manufacturing the thing?
2 - actually, more gamer experience is on Wii U. And that's a fact.
3 - but you will confuse casuals... just like the Wii U does now
4 - like with the Wii... and N64
5 - then why, why the f--- would you even make PRO if it wouldn't be the main target for gamers like you insist it should?

Also LOL at the quotes. Apple didn't do competition to themselves, because they had competition, and all the iphones 6s and 10s and whatevers are to be BEFORE competition, to out-do them even by few months to catch extra cash.

You don't know how this market works, you don't know that there were companies doing the same idiotic mistake... and yet try to sound like you know how market works.

So you want them to make the PS4, basically?

Not only won't Nintendo make a more 'western'/3rd party AAA friendly console, I would put money on the fact they will deviate even further from their competitors when they release a wii u successor. I can totally understand the criticisms, and despite the fact they've continued to produce fantastic games, they really dropped the ball with the console itself, and their vision for it (or lack there of), hence the poor sales.

They need to improve their on-line, account system and generally just be more age 'agnostic'. They can make their child-friendly games (most of which I , as an adult, thoroughly enjoy), but the platform needs to be more cognizant of the fact that gamers with real purchasing power are in the 18-35+ age bracket who don't necessarily have any sort of affinity for child-like games... Keep the Nintendo philosophy of innovative gameplay, but broaden the demographic...

There are a variety of under-represented genres of games that used to be popular with gamers who have real purchasing power today. What about an FPS shooter like No One Lives Forever?? No one's making a game like that today. Freedom Force? How about a more light-hearted X-Com??? or something from the God-Game genre, Nintendo style?? There's plenty of unrepresented genres of Western games that Nintendo could be mining to broaden their appeal...

They need help from 'like-minded', select Western developers like Retro, Next Level Games and Rare before them to connect to a more mainstream, Western audience by creating games that have that inherently Nintendo 'design' magic, but are appealing to them.

What they need to do to get back in the game imo, is to create a home console with tech we've never seen in a gaming device before that fundamentally changes the way you play. I have no idea what that might be, but creating a 'copycat' me-too' console will doom them as much as creating another wii u will. They need some exciting new tech that's seriously innovative that will appeal to a broad spectrum of gamers because its something they've never seen before. Having an innovative 3D Mario at launch with 1 or 2 other original IP that are made as technical demonstrations of the console's potential will be crucial...and i'm not talking party/casual games like wii sports or Nintendo Land.

Tell me something. Would the consumers be happy with this decision? You are telling me that I should buy another system to experience more Nintendo goodness.

You are trying to convince me that making this thing will satisfy everyone?

This thing already exists, it's called portable consoles and last-generation's console.....

Who's hoping for Wii U backwards compatible with both Gamepad and games for their next console?
slowly raises hand

Raises hand SHARPLY

Definitely, anyway they're in a position where Gamepad support is the only realistic option if there's any backwards compatiblity. A fair amount of games can't be played without the Gamepad with many more coming in 2015 including Splatoon, Star Fox, Kirby and likely Zelda U given what has happened in the past. I just don't see Nintendo going for no backwards compatibility in favour of participating again in the graphics war.

Nopedy nope nope. I see what you're saying but nope. This is what killed Sega off. I think the best approach for Nintendo is to either release a powerful console that can match it's competitors next generation, or if they want to go low power, they should release a handheld-console hybrid.

@JakobMB Yes, they should definitely offer gamepad support. And if the console IS going to be a hybrid, I think it would be fairly easy to do. Because I'm sure that the handheld part of it, will be similar to a gamepad, but smaller anyway. I'd also like Wii support too. And they should definitely go with an evolution of the GCN controller's layout next time. So give us a wireless GCN controller, with extra triggers, clickable control sticks, and a bigger c-stick.

Edit: Now that I think about it, I think Nintendo should just go ahead and ditch the wii remote idea for it's next console. Yes I know, we would lose Wii and Wii U compatibility, but I think Nintendo should move on from that controller, and embrace standard controllers again, for the sake of simplicity.

That's more than likely going to happen... I mean, we don't have GameCube ports on our Wii Us (the adapters don't count and the console itself is not backwards compatible with GCN games).

EDIT: And that wouldn't get rid of Wii U compatibility. Just the games that support Wii remotes couldn't use them anymore. As far as I can think, the only games that will take a serious hit are NintendoLand and New Super Mario Bros. U.

what if people could finally stop making these stupid threads?

That, and they should include the ability to use handhelds as an extra controller so we can finally end this forced asymmetric multiplayer nonsense.

I'd feel sad if I couldn't play Wii U games on the next console

Me two but if the next console came out at $300 or lower, I could be persuaded into just keeping my Wii U (as long as VC games transferred over lol)

You misunderstood what I was saying. I was saying that they should keep the Gamepad and allow handhelds to serve as extra Gamepads. The Wii U is too limited by only having one Gamepad, whatever features they use the Gamepad for can't be used in local multiplayer (Splatoon in particular is really going to be hurt by this).

Platform number 3, droughts get worse.

I'm fine with that as long as the Gamepad isn't bundled into the system. If you want to buy a Gamepad, or have one from your Wii U, then go ahead and enjoy it. But PLEASE Nintendo, don't raise the price of the system just to include a screen on the controller. We have seen from the Wii U's library that there isn't much potential in that idea.

You mean in the next 4 years? Because if it's now lemme tell you that you just screwed Nintendo by doing a Sega.

I don't even think releasing a console like that period is good for Nintendo. They're not going to be able to compete with Microsoft and Sony graphically. It's too expensive. Nintendo just needs to stay the course until it's time for their next console and then come up with something actually innovative.