Topic: If YOU ran Nintendo, what would you change?

I knows there's been lots of discussion lately about the underwhelming performance of the Wii U and Nintendo in general. I was wondering, if you had the ability to make some changes to the Wii U or the company in general, what would you do to right the ship?

Keep in mind there are no wrong ideas here, and these are everyone's personal opinions.

Here are some of the things I would do - as pulled from a previous post of mine that I've modified a little.

1. Drop price of the Wii U. $50 should enough to help boost the install base and focus on making money on games. A $60 first party game probably has about $40-$50 in profit in it for Nintendo (not counting development). Selling just one extra game should make up for any potential losses on the console sale.

2. Allow more mature titles to be put on your consoles (And even push for them). Don't ignore titles like GTA V just because it doesn't have an E rating. I had GTA Chinatown Wars for my DS, so it's not solely a "maintaining a family image" problem.

3.Don't release a Nintendo tablet. All this will do is cannibalize sales of both the Wii U and the 3DS. Also, people don't really want gaming tablets. Several companies have tried (Razer Edge Pro, Archos Gamepad...), they don't sell. Plus, games that map physical controller buttons onto a touch screen are particularly difficult to play, we've all tried it.

4. Don't sell Nintendo IP software via Android and iOS. The average 3DS game retails for $40, the average mobile game sells for $1. There's no way to bridge that gap without really watering down games or destroying the profitability of the software. The only exception I think might be with original Gameboy and Gameboy color games that could be sold via mobile for $2-$3. But this should be a "down the road" type thing.

5. Release a Virtual Console subscription service. This is a no-brainer. $10 a month, all the NES and SNES games you can want on the Wii U, and all the Gameboy games on your 3DS. Once they get more N64 and Gamecube games, include them as part of a $15 monthly subscription.

6. Develop a new UI for the Wii U that does look like it's 10 years old. Also, develop better online integration, taking some tips from Microsoft and Sony. Add things like system wide achievements, in game chat, etc...

7. Stop marketing exclusively towards 8 year-old's - they don't have money to buy things. 18 to 35 is where the disposable income is. I'm in my 20's. I feel weird playing some Nintendo games because they are marketed exclusively to children (doesn't stop me though!). I can't even use the Miiverse because I feel like it's a chat room full of little kids. It's too creepy.

Longer Term

8. Stop building under-powered devices. Even the 3DS has a painfully low resolution screen and is significantly under-powered. Basic smartphones today can be purchased for around $130 contract-free and come with dual core processors and 1+GB of RAM. Console lives are 5+ years, if you release something that already has outdated technology, it's only going to be more and more apparent as time goes on. If you compare a 3DS screen to that of a galaxy S4, it's no comparison.

9. Invest heavily in the development of a new home console. It seems to me that new consoles today should actually be easier to create than consoles back in the 80's and 90's. Back then, you were inventing the technology, you were trying to take games that only existed in huge arcade cabinets, and figure out a way to play them on a tiny cartridge in a little console. Today, the 8th generation consoles by Sony and Microsoft are little more than a PC in a plastic box that hooks up to your TV.

10. Release a new home console in 2016. Nintendo is in a great position timing wise to completely blow the XOne and PS4 out of the water. Release something in 2016 that is more powerful, can support 4K output, uses normal controllers with analog triggers, etc. If they do want to stick with the touch screen controller, OK, but make the screen much smaller, maybe 4 in, and allow you to use more than one. It shouldn't even need to stream the game directly to the controller unless you are exclusively using off-tv play. Otherwise, just use it for maps, inventory, etc. This should cut down on the resource demand and truly allow multiple gamepad-like controllers.

11. Do not release a hybrid portable/home console. One way or the other it's going to suffer. It's either going to be an incredibly expensive portable game console with terrible battery life, or it will be an incredibly under-powered home console. Neither is desirable.

I know you said in your post, that "no ideas are bad", but some of your suggestions wouldn't work.

The Wii U price drop already happened.

The 3DS has a dual core processor.

Nintendo isn't ignoring GTA. GTA is ignoring Nintendo.

Nintendo games will never show up on other devices, unless something absolutely drastic happens(which hasn't happened, but could. No one can knw the future, afterall).

Nintendo already invests heavily in console development. They always have, and aren't the only ones. That's just how things work.

A new device won't come out in 2016. That's cutting the Wii U's life so short, that it should have never even happened, which is why it won't happen.

The only points of yours that I have no comment on, are #3, #11, #5, #6, and #7.

If any Nintendolife user would be boss of nintendo, it would be like this:

^I wish

@SCAR392 To follow up.

I'm talking about a further $50 reduction. The first price cut simply wasn't enough. It needs to be priced down in the original Wii range to bring in impulse buys. $100 difference with the PS4 is really hurting it. They'll make the money back on software

Whether the 3DS has a dual core processor or not, it's still a very under-powered device with weak, low-res screen. Compare the specs to the Vita let alone a higher end mobile device and it's apparent.

Nintendo needs to do what it has to in order to bring huge AAA games like GTA V to its console, even if it means helping fit the bill of the port.

I agree, I don't want to see Nintendo games on other devices. My follow-on comment was a last-ditch resort type thing.

I think you misinterpreted this one, obviously they are always looking 1-2 generations away with console development But additional resources need to be pulled in now and it needs to become a major focus to help stop the bleeding on their current console.

A 2016 release wouldn't be cutting it "so short" it would be 1 year less than every console life from the NES and before Wii (5 years).

You seem to have lots of criticism for my ideas but didn't offer any of your own. And how you could possibly know that some of my suggestions "wouldn't work" is quite presumptuous Mr. "Time Machine".

Ok so I've actually been giving this some thought lately (because I'm a geek like that). The solution to Wii U's problems is really simple.

1. Cut the price of the Wii U to $200/€200/£170 (the original Wii price).
2. Bundle a wii remote with it (this will finally put the gamepad-or-not-gamepad argument to rest)
3. Also bundle Nintendo Land and a month's subscription to Wii Sports Club, then at christmas 2014 another game too like Mario 3d world.

This is incidentally, what they've done in Japan, and no problems there.

You'll take a hit, but this is exactly what Nintendo needs to do to convince causal gamers that the Wii U is essentially just a Wii but with more features - and just cheap enough to incentivise PS4 and XBone owners to pick it up as a second console. Hell, you might even make back your $50 per console after the Wii Sports Club free promo runs out. More consoles mean more 3rd parties (and Wii U can run those games, unlike Wii) and the rest will follow.

Most of all, don't panic. Nintendo should not and will not be rushed into making any rash business decisions, like smart phone games etc. They have the biggest selling console on the market with the 3DS, the most bankable IPs in the world (pokemon alone is more valuable than mickey mouse) and a massive war chest of something like 10Billion dollars, which is something like the GDP of a small state. So they lost a few hundred million this year. Out of 10 billion. They're doing fine, and they can afford to take this hit to ensure long term stability.

@corporalpegasus LOL.

I would jump at the opportunity to run a company like Nintendo though.

I also agree with Howard24U's final point that a hybrid system is a no go. Affordable and accessible is the key.

@Howard24U
Nintendo knows more about it's pricing than we do. That means $300 is a good price, for now. It's that simple.

The 3DS isn't really under powered. The only spec in your original suggestion that wasn't met, was RAM, and the RAM it does have meets it's current CPU. Who cares about what other devices have?

While I do think Nintendo should help fund certain things, some things don't need to be funded, and that includes 3rd party. If RockStar were to ask Nintendo to fund GTAV, Nintendo would tell them to f*** off. Everyone knows that RockStar has money.

The development of their hardware happens, regardless. That's what you're not understanding. Even if Wii U had 10 million sales right now, they'd be developing stuff, anyway. Wii U's poor sales aren't a kick in the rear to move any faster, because they want Wii U to succeed. Not abandon it.

It doesn't take a Time Machine to look into the past or present, genius.

The only suggestion I have, is a better OS. That sorts out the online, better load times, more accessibility, faster loading, etc. An account system is probably due, as well. I do understand where they're coming from, though. The Wii and DS weren't built for this stuff, so they're building from scratch, while Microsoft and Sony have already moved a gen past that.

I'll take every old Nintendo game, and slap the word "New" on it, and I will make millions!
Oh...wait, they already do that...

No they didn't. I don't see a "NEW!" Zelda...

1. Hire Kevin Butler
2. Hire more/better people for marketing
3. go as aggressive as possible for marketing every Wii U release
4. Actively do business with upcoming mid-tier level game companies on both sides of the Pacific and treat them like they are Sega and Activision combined. Get 3rd party games for the cheap, use Nintendo's marketing and brand name to elevate their titles and give them a reason to be grateful to be on Nintendo. Create a new downloadable IP (or get a lower level IP for them to make a new game for) for them to develop if necessary.
5. Have everyone watch Sony's E3 conference from last year over and over until everyone remembers how to make gaming look exciting

It's hard to say that a price drop has been the best thing. They'll lose money for manufacturing cheaper, and it's hard to say where that will lead Nintendo. I will say, many stores have put the Wii U on large sales, and I don't think it's done much.

Mature titles don't have much of a tendency to sell on Nintendo system, unless the developers claim they are really big supporters of Nintendo, the Wii U version is "definitive" and pretty much beg to the fanboy's feet, and from thereit might sell. It's not a Nintendo error. It's a consumer error than devs think it takes too much to solve.

Yeah. But in fairness, Nintendo have never once considered a tablet controller

For the record, some 3DS games aren't worth $40. I'm looking at you Spirit Camera.
Nintendo can sell their mobile games at whatever they want. They have a whole fanbase that will buy whatever from them. To me, mobile is a great market for Nintendo. They can make Nintendo a good profit, the mobile industry will look better with Nintendo involved because there's a pretty bad stereotype that all mobile games are cheap, awful to control, and lacks quality. Nintendo can surely help fix that.

I really like this one. Subscription services are a popular way to earn alot of money. If Nintendo puts a subscription service like this, they get great revenue, and we get good VC.

Nintendo needs to be more modern, and it's sad game chat wasn't in Wii U all that well. I really hope for #6

Nintendo's public advertisement in't their only advertisement. They advertise aplenty online, with trailers and Nintendo Directs. Public advertisement is a different kind of advertisement that Nintendo plays.
This is advertisement

This is public advertisement. For a public market.

It's the Gameboy method. Develop cheap, sell cheap. They've done it for years and there's really no questioning that idea, because we all know expensive handhelds don't sell.

I don't know how I feel about this. I prefer cheap console over blockbuster graphics, but that's just an opinion.

2016? They can still ride on the Wii u's back for another good year or two.

Tough one. I think Nintendo should do this, because that does seem to follow up to what we all wished the Gamepad could do. So if they made a fusion, it better be like the Wii u gamepad

This video is more interesting, more entertaining, less overplayed and more productive than this thread topic

I'm still thinking OS improvements are going to happen. This includes voice chat, better friend options in Miiverse, more online options, account system, more 3DS connectivity, faster loading, maybe multimedia, etc.

Only a fraction of the OS is being utilized, so something is happening at Nintendo HQ.

Also, Nintendo has confirmed eShop access on your smarphone, Miiverse, and marketing will happen there. The eShop access means, that you can buy a game/app from there, and it will download on your console at home, so you don't have to wait. If they add cloud features, you could acess save files from anywhere, straight from your console via Spotpass(not cloud storage) for your 3DS. Your smartphone can be your access point.

Things like this are possible, so I'm not so quick to judge Nintendo. They already know things like this are possible. They created the hardware, afterall. BTW, E3 2011 had one developer saying that you could play a different game on the GamePad, but I'm not entirely sure if that's still a thing that they plan on doing.

Ooh, I have never heard about that and it sounds like a great idea but I don't think it made it in the final cut of the console tho. Perhaps a future system update might include it.

There's alot of thing people don't know, that have been said. They confirmed Miiverse for 3DS over a year and a half ago, and people were questioning it's existence a month or so before it came out in. People just don't pay attention, but I'm giving you a pass, because you didn't try to accuse me of lying or anything

Adding it into an update is what I was implying. Even if all they let you play was smaller apps like VC, Netflix, etc. on your second GamePad, that would be pretty neat. They already 100% confirmed 2 GamePads will be supported, simultaneously, in some software, and could include the OS.

I strongly suspect that the 'new business strategy' that Iwata mentioned will be more 3DS/Wii U integration and Wii U companion app that will somehow allow you to keep up to date with your games on the go. And I really hope we see 3DS being used as a second controller for Wii U within this generation.

OS wise - would also love to see in-game chat and cloud-shared restore points for 3DS and Wii U virtual console games
And I'll add my voice to the throng asking for SNES VC games on the 3DS and Gamecube/Dreamcast & Wii games for Wii U VC.

But what I REALLY want is offline posting for Miiverse for Wii U and 3DS - in a similar manner to how it's used in Super Mario 3D World - or Apple's iOS facebook integration. Make the post instantly, then it sends it off to Miiverse in the background. Saves time having to load up Miiverse each time which is sloooooooow

While we're at it - how about more obvious on-screen notifications for Miiverse (at the moment the Home button flashes blue, did you notice that?)...

3DS integration is more possible than it ever was for GBA and DS, so I'd say it's somewhere in the cards. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate already has 3 3DS and 1 Wii U for local, so now think it they let you download play certain cross-play titles.

As for Miiverse being offline, it never is. The Wii U is accessing Miiverse on a consistent basis, so it never really is iffline, as long as you have internet. This is actually why some peoples consoles were freezing, because the Wii U would access the internet and their routers couldn't handle it. Tons of people sent their Wii U consoles in for repair, just to figure out that that wasn't the problem.

Also, I thought the home menu blink was only for friend notifications.