Pretty self-explanatory. The Wii U is in trouble. The 3DS isn't exactly lighting the world on fire (although Japan is pretty darned warm). YOU know more than those stupid, overpaid analysts and execs, right? What's your plan?

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@deathly_hallows But that didn't work. Remember the Gamecube? Or like... right now, with games still being announced PS3/360/PC and not Wii U? Publishers just treat Nintendo differently. It's for TEH CASUALS AND KIDDIES except right now, Nintendo is having a tough time selling it as that too.

Whatever the case I think we have to wait and see what Sony and Microsoft actually have before I can comment on whether I wish Nintendo went more in that direction. The price tag, among other things.

@Jargon Come on, let's not call people idiots, even if indirectly.

@Jargon
Well if I was theoretically the CEO Wii U never would have happened, I'm just trying to roleplay what I would do if I suddenly assumed control in the midst of this 3rd party support trainwreck. I just simply don't think it's viable to release a non compatible system in today's economy and multimillion dollar development environment. Maybe that makes me an idiot, I'm willing to accept that.

There's also the possibility that the real CEO knows stuff I don't, like 20 bulletproof deals for AAA 3rd party games coming this fall.

@deathly_hallows If you honestly think the Wii U will only sell 10 million units, then I don't really know what to say. Where could you POSSIBLY get that number from?

I'm sure Nintendo will be fine if The Witcher 3 does not release on the Wii U.


Edit: Having the power alone isn't enough. A company simply isn't going to release a game like The Witcher 3 on a Nintendo console even if they can, because it might not fit their demographic enough to make it worth it.

@Zero
I was happy with the level of GCN support, much more so than Wii. Besides, this is a different age, games are much more expensive to produce, publishers want to be multiplatform, it's not at all what is was like when the PS2 ruled.

@PogueSquadron
It's not just Witcher 3 I'm afraid of, it's a repeat of last gen where nearly every single multiplatform game skipped Wii.

@deathly_hallows

You can't really base the situation on games that went into development before Wii U dev kits were out like Bioshock and Tomb Raider

@deathly_hallows Well I'll definitely agree that the 3rd party support is looking like it will be a repeat of last time.

On the other hand...does this mean sink or swim for the Wii U? If people bought Nintendo consoles for third party support, then the Gamecube would've been way more popular than the Wii. There are other factors here that you're not considering.

@deathly_hallows But ports are much more expensive to produce too now, and if publishers don't see the market for games on Wii U, they're not going to bother.

I think. I mean really, we just don't know. I don't think we can just assume that it would get the same kind of support the other two though.

About Gamecube versus Wii, I'm way, way the opposite. I had a PS2 and a Gamecube, the few 3rd party games I cared about on Gamecube I could have bought on the PS2 anyway. And then I had a PS3 and a Wii, and the Wii offered me tons of awesome stuff I couldn't get on PS3.

I was actually worried that the Wii U would just be another Sony / Microsoft machine with some Nintendo games because that'd be a huge, huge shame to me. It may not even get that much though. I hope it gets some kind of the weirdness that we saw on the Wii. It needs some momentum though. Bigtime.

I'm confident that Nintendo is already hard at work courting other 3rd party efforts onto the console. As CEO I'd spend a good amount of time and money to rebrand Wii U. First off, its a horrible name, way too close to Wii's name. Just like the 3DS from DS. Maybe make the "U" the main focus. Commercials would have to be made to enforce the new social aspect of Wii U.

Priority List
1. Rebrand to increase awareness and install base
2. Build partnerships with 3rd parties
3. Get out Mario Kart Wii U

@PogueSquadron
Maybe, I don't pretend to have a beat on everything that's happening in the industry, maybe Nitendo is pulling a Steve Jobs and "skating to where the puck is going to be, instead of skating to the puck", but I just don't see it. In my limited understanding of how shit works Wii U will need 3rd Party support and yet publishers have zero incentive to invest in it.

BTW this has nothing to do with my personal feelings about Wii U, I feel the same way about the Wii U as I do the Vita, I adore the hardware and would use my last $20 bill to buy a game for it, but the future forecast is grim when you look at the big picture of what the non-me, mainstream consumer wants.

@deathly_hallows

You're thinking of Wayne Gretzky, not Steve Jobs

@Jargon

I dunno man, maybe he's talking about Macgyver.

@Jargon
Nope, Steve Jobs said it, it may be a common hockey phrase but he repurposed it for tech, I think maybe it was when the iPhone launched. Sports metaphors for the win.

@deathly_hallows I think there's still hope for you though.

When the Wii came out, did we honestly think we'd be getting decent third party support (Edit: well, more importantly, core titles)? We had some severe droughts on the Wii as well. Early signs had me panicking about whether or not I'd like the system's games. For such a long time, all I cared about on the system was Zelda.

On the Wii U though, we do have some interesting things. Monolithsoft is making a Xenoblade-esque game....we're hearing about this months after the Wii U came out, and it took us several years to get that kind of a game on Wii. The eShop is already getting better support than WiiWare ever did. WiiWare had great games, but I don't think it even launched with the console. We're already seeing signs of life there with games like Trine 2, the Cave, Toki Tori 2, Nano Assault Neo, etc. I feel like a lot of the Wii's best games, we wouldn't have had any idea they were going to come out initially.

At the very least, I think there's more groundwork being laid on the Wii U than the Wii for some solid support from smaller developers, and more hope for certain kinds of games. I mean, things are a bit different - we already have a Dragon Quest game confirmed for the system, which is huge for Nintendo, at least in Japan. Whether or not it comes out here, that's another story I suppose.

I don't think the future is so doom and gloob, but yeah, I just want the ball to get rolling already.

1. No matter the cost, get STEAM on Wii U. That'd bring most of the ps3/360 3rd party games to Wii U without having to put up with their B.S. and there would be competitive pricing! I think this alone could fix most of their problems. If Valve is on the fence Nintendo should drown them in money. Send them hookers. Whatever. It. Takes.
2. Make all finished VC games available on 3DS and Wii U
3. Have a yearly contest where indy studios take a Nintendo character and make an eshop game. Winner gets the costs paid off and gets part of the sales
4. Release new nunchucks and wiimotes that have the magnetic sensors in them
5. Have Nintendo make serious sports games
6. Eternal Darkness 2 with heart beat sensor
7. Luigi stars in his own platformer
8. Bring back Wart and all of his minions
9. advertise, advertise advertise!!!! EVERYONE needs to know that Wii U exists!

As long as Nintendo can attain an install base that allows them to continue to sell their hugely successful first party titles I'm fine with it. I quit buying 3rd party ports on a Nintendo platform before the GC came out, I buy the systems for the 1st party stuff. Which is also why I don't own a Wii U yet, for someone like me there really isn't a whole lot that interests me. When Pikmin 3, a new 3D Mario, the next Zelda, whatever Retro is working on, etc starts to hit the console I'll be buying one for sure. And I gaurantee I'm not alone, I'm sure there are plenty of Nintendo fans waiting in the wings.

If by "steer through the coming storm" though you mean get the same 3rd party support as the other guys, that I don't know. I think Nintendo at this point should team up with EA or Valve or even Gamefly (who has a surprisingly robust online service) and outsource their online platform to them. Even if it costs them money I think it would be a great move to show how serious they are about competing in 3rd party software. Also they need hardware that can run the generations middleware. The Wii couldn't run U3. The Wii U will not be running U4. When 90% of the games coming out use the same engine and your platform can't run the engine, it's common sense you aren't going to be getting the games. They also need to make the architecture of the console as similar to Microsoft as humanly possible. Not the controllers or inputs, just the nuts and bolts of how the machine works. It will make porting games a snap.

But honestly like I said in the first paragraph as long as their audience is large enough to justify making AAA in house first party games, even if only a handful come out each year the console will be well worth it in my opinion. That's what the Wii was like for me. I only bought a game for it every 4 months or so after I got it however they were all great games I really enjoyed.

1. Tell third parties to stop being fraidy-cat wuss-bags. Or, at the very least, stop throwing money at their games and start throwing intelligence and creativity -- that way, they don't need to be such frightened wuss-bags.
2. Repeat step 1 as necessary.
3. Drop the f---in' mic.
4. Push it.

[lyrics here]

First things first I would fix that sluggish OS pronto. Then I would put Miiverse on all typical devices and integrate it with Swapnote on the 3DS. Then I would get Steam support and make the online system for games better by making sure servers aren't region locked. I would combine the Wii U friend list with Miiverse and have relax on the Miiverse moderation. I would then focus on getting games linked to accounts and having Club Nintendo have the same rewards worldwide. I would then make sure all Nintendo products are priced fairly in Australia and Europe.

Then I would pus...

I hear Nintendo is going to do something to speed up the OS of the Wii U in the relatively near future - a process I can only assume involves sacrificing a virgin to the hardware gods atop an old server tower or something - and I think the same should be done for 3DS, if possible. Honestly, everything runs pretty smooth on 3DS, but it does take a good 30 to 45 seconds to load up something like SwapNote. Which is fine for me, but I'm like WHATEVER. But for other people? I think that's too long of a wait. That app (that should have been built into the firmware from day one, honestly) should be able to be fired up INSTANTLY. Even mid-game or mid-other-app.

The eShop should load up quicker, too. Like, iPhone's App Store fast.

I'd make a much bigger push for 3rd parties to get their retail games up on the eShop, too. I think these are coming, but there needs to be more, and I'd like them to come out day-and-date of their physical release.

I'd also add more stuff to 3DS's Virtual Console, like GBA games, SNES games, Master System games, Genesis games, TG-16 games, Neo-Geo games, and even stuff like Neo Geo Pocket Color, N-Gage and heck...maybe even WonderSwan games? Why not. And yeah, Virtual Boy games. Hey, those are already in 3D! Let's...let's do this thang.

Also more apps. YouTube (which I hear is coming) Hulu Plus (which I hear is coming) Twitter...Facebook, all that jazz. Aaannndd...I dunno. A Wii-esque Weather Channel/News Channel or something? Hm. Just some ideas.

Miiverse on 3DS? I guess? I understand this is a thing people want. And of course, more eShop sales. (also something people want)

As for Wii U...um, release games for it?!? I don't own the system, so I can't really remark on what I would do to "fix" it, but I do know it needs more games. Good ones. Exclusive good ones.

Personally? I'd start bathing in virgin blood. And having orgies. Lots of orgies.