Such a shame just how thick-headed and stubborn Nintendo is that it takes something like this to make them see some sense.

It's one of the reasons that I've love for Disney to buy Nintendo: they'd actually get the most out of their franchises, rather than letting Nintendo squander them.

I just hope that Nintendo realises how awful overall the Wii U really is compared to even previous generation consoles.

The Android tablet stuff was fake.

The Nintendo 3DS outsold anything PlayStation or Xbox last year in the US, Japan or the UK. Smartphones and tablets may be a long-term problem but the short-term catastrophe is the woefully marketed and ill-thought out Wii U.

anselhelm
It's one of the reasons that I've love for Disney to buy Nintendo: they'd actually get the most out of their franchises, rather than letting Nintendo squander them.

I differ on that view, as I see Disney a lot like Nintendo. They have a lot of IP, but I don't see Disney overly using their past IP's. We aren't seeing any new Cinderella movies, more Lady&Tramps, barely any Mickey, Goofy or other original characters coming out into new movies and games. Seems like it's been a long time since anything Alladin came out too. They take their most popular franchises and sell the heck out of them, but once they've lost some appeal they get put on the back burner to make room for their new projects.

I'm sure Nintendo will come out with another Star Fox game or Metroid at some point, but it won't become an annual franchise, even if Disney bought them out.

Nintendo has already said in the past they were looking at smartphones for small Nintendo experiences. I've a feeling that's still what they're talking about, but people are now taking their low sales forecasts and company being pressured, and turning what they're saying into “They're going to start moving to smartphones completely” type stuff.
I'm fairly certain they're still only going to focus on small experiences on smartphones to pique interest in their full blown games and hardware.

Sadly, I feel it's only a matter of time before Nintendo goes the way of Sega and is reduced to making games for other companies' consoles. Shame because Nintendo really do make unique games that are more creative and think outside of the box. I loved my N64 to bits, but the big N has been on the slide in the home console stakes since the Gamecube IMO.

Ermmmm….

Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/01/20/nintendos-woes-dont-mean-game-over-for-its-consoles/

“The spread of smart devices does not spell the end of game consoles. It’s not that simple,” President Satoru Iwata said at a news conference Friday. The key is to figure out a way to use smartphones to make people aware of Nintendo’s games, and encourage them to try out the console version of the games, Mr. Iwata said.

“It doesn’t mean that we should put Mario on smartphones,” he said.

anselhelm
I just hope that Nintendo realises how awful overall the Wii U really is compared to even previous generation consoles.

Its a great console and has generated this misconception around it. Yes I've got one plays great Nintendo games for the kids and COD etc when I fancy a bit of gaming.

So sad to hear Nintendo struggling competitively. I have so many good memories when I was a kid playing their games.