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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@TheOldManFromZelda
Is this before or after you have been attacked by drop bears?

I would make the drop bears my pets. With spiked collars.

@TheOldManFromZelda
Impossible, not even Gillard herself can tame those things!

I love how satanic rituals are an option, haha.

Anyhoo, I had an anxiety dream about this topic last night, and I really was the CEO, and I really did discontinue the Wii U, and then we had a Negative World meet-up and no one would talk to me... I'm totally serious that's exactly how the dream played out.

So I've thought about it... and maybe dropping the Wii U is rash, maybe it can still be saved, here's my revised plan:

1. Drop the price of Wii U to $199, off early adopters an "ambassador" package that includes 10 VC games, including 5 popular GCN games that will be offered as a part of the new GCN VC.

2. Buy or make a deal with From Software and secure the Dark Souls franchise as a Nintendo exclusive.

3. Buy Insomniac, then put them to work on an exclusive FPS game for Wii U, perhaps working with Retro to create Prime Hunters 2 for the big-screen.

4. Shore up the relationship between Nintendo and Capcom/Square Enix, try to get Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, Dragon's Dogma, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and others as Nintendo exclusives.

5. Communicate to interal 1st Party dev teams that it's make or break, they have to create the best Marios and Zeldas of all time, no holds barred.

6. Try to position Wii U in the West as an inexpensive secondary console to the Xbox, one that has many, many exclusive games, something which Sony will not have. Orbis and Durango are most likely going to be mirror images of one another, gamers might not feel compelled to buy both, but perhaps they can be convinced to buy a Wii U it has not only Zelda but Dark Souls, Final Fantasy, and a few Western-style gems from Insomniac.

7. If Wii U sales and support are still low after a year, spend the remaining Warchest on releasing a new console in 2015 that matches and exceeds the competition in features and horsepower, the generation will still be young, and Nintendo can start again with a more competent machine and great launch titles (since many existing Wii U projects, like that Insomniac game, will be almost done and easily moved to the newer, more powerful hardware).

8. In the back of my mind always be thinking about a possible merger with SCE, if Microsoft continues to dominate in the West, gobbling up more and more marketshare and mindshare with every passing NPD cycle and basically becoming ubiquitous with gaming, it may be time to put old grudges aside and join with my enemy in a desperate fight for survival.

I don't think there is any way in heck they can drop the Wii U to $199. Maybe $280 or something.

I do think that it will be important to be at a significantly lower price once the others drop. Which will depend on their prices, obviously.

@Zero
They did it with the 3DS! Dropped $80. They could drop the Wii U to $229 or something which would be okay, but sub-200 price tag is a magical barrier, sales would probably double, especially if Nintendo shows a lot of BIG guns at E3. In my mind the situation is desperate, if losing money short term to ge the Wii U into people's homes to ensure the survival of the system I think it's worth it. Remember my first idea was just to discontinue the system and cut my losses, so this is less desperate than that. Think of all the R&D money they need to re-coop.

Oh you mean the $300 version? I was thinking the $350 version. And I think the 3DS drop was a pretty desperate move that, while probably ultimately a great thing, was kind of a fiasco in some ways. Nintendo's image will suffer immensely if they turn this into a habit.

When do you think a price drop should happen? I think even if they did it now it would be tough to gain much momentum, because in most people's eyes, the games aren't there. I guess that was true of the 3DS when it had the price drop as well, but it at least had Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land on the way.

Wellsy529 said:

7. Luigi stars in his own platformer

Announced in this morning's Nintendo Direct! You did it!

TheOldManFromZelda said:

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

Boy, you had QUITE the morning!

@deathly_hallows The difference there is that, at $250, the 3DS was being sold around $70 over cost. The Wii U, on the other hand, is currently being sold around cost or at a very slight loss. Dropping the price to $199 means they will lose $100 on each system sold, which isn't really something Nintendo can afford to do.

It's like the basic SKU only exists so they can say they're taking a loss on wii u. The deluxe at $300 would have been only a slightly bigger loss than the basic. After the 3DS I thought they were going to do that...but I guess what they really learned from the 3DS was that starting high and price dropping as you head into the holidays is a good plan. It's not like they could do anything about Wii U's launch games, wii u's launch software was planned since before 3DS's release. 3DS didn't really change anything. The lack of E3 hype would have halted a $400 price anyway.

All Nintendo really needs to do for me, is put info videos out on the upcoming
Bayonetta 2: All right, Kamiya is sick of all the questions he's getting on this one, but the answers have to come from somewhere, so Nintendo might as well throw in a little tidbit about that upcoming game every now and then to keep people talking about it and keep the "upcoming titles on Wii U" buzz going strong. What's with the foot-whips, can you equip them on hands, too? Will the set of weapons be all-new or a superset of what's in the previous game? Is Platinum seriously considering including the first game as a bonus or selling it separately as another Wii U sku? Will The Wonderful 101 take resources away from this or is Platinum really making sure that both games realize their full potential?

Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem: I mean, how does that even work? Two gigantic RPGs crossing over, rich backgrounds, fantasy-politics, magic, demons and angels, there's a lot to take in here, and expectations are going to be high. One could safely assume that both Intelligent Systems and Atlus will have their hands full. This isn't simply sticking this roster with that roster, slapping VERSUS in between and shoving it out onto store shelves. No wonder Mario Sticker Star was so minimal on text! I totally forgive them considering the magnitude and just the pitch (and pair of balls) they would have to have assembled to get Atlus to agree to this. More info is needed! What's on the table? An invasion through portals like in Awakening? An investigation of a dimensional phenomenon like Strange Journey? How much of the story can they reveal to us before the twists and turns start to take place?

...(sorry for the double post, apparently the BBCode was crapping all over itself in the last one for some reason if I added any text beyond two paragraphs.)
Xenoblade sequel: This looks like Monolith soft was planning it out the entire time. Oh, you liked Xenoblade, did you?Thought it was a mighty fine game, did'ja? Well it was just a test-build of what we were REALLY trying to do! (This is the part where your face just breaks into wondrous joy) NOW you can Xenoblade with your friends, in this wonderful upgrades of the gears of old, allowing you to cross all kinds of terrain, or just skip the terrain and start flying around and doing mid-air combat. Flying in a JRPG. FLYING IN A FREAKIN' JRPG! No more being glued to the ground and unable to hop over ankle-high rocks in the way.

…and any other RPGs that they want to enlighten us on.
Atlus in general: Is Persona 5 still in the works? Will it be Wii U or 3DS, as Atlus seems to like both equally? Will there be a re-release of Etrian Odyssey or Strange Journey for the Wii U? Of course, I wouldn't want them to bother right now if it would take development resources away from FExSMT, but I gotta know that they want to do more with the Wii U's potential for RPGs!
Other third party RPG developers: Are they in talks with NIS Perhaps for a Phantom Brave sequel? There aren't that many "power-gaming encouraged" RPGs out there. If they're not in talks, then are they considering making a 'power-gaming RPG' franchise of their own to compete?
Perhaps Nintendo should be in talks with SEGA for a new Phantasy Star [Not Online, or at least online with offline multi like the GCN games]? A new game with the charm and 80s-anime-esque look of Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millenium would be WAARVELOUS. It wouldn't even have to be a Phantasy Star by title, it could just be a new game with that charm.
Maybe HAL could dig back into its history and play around with the Arcana / Card Master concept a bit more. HAL are the masters of epic music in games, and they know how to set a digital mood, so maybe it's time they stepped back from Kirby after his 20th Anniversary, and played a bit more with their older ventures in RPGs.