It looks like Nintendo is going to cut their losses and ditch the Wii U.
Time for me to be a naysaying killjoy.
As previously stated, the Nintendo's consoles being slow has
always been an issue. At least since the mid 90s. For the sake of dispelling any disillusionment my fellow forum goers might have, let's compare the Wii U's performance to the N64's, GameCube's and Wii's when they were at this exact point in their life cycle. Month four of year three:
Nintendo 64's major first party (Nintendo Published) releases by April, 1998:
1996:
- Super Mario 64
- Mario Kart 64
- Killer Instinct Gold (arguable for if it's a "major" release, since really it was just the 1996 equivalent to an HD port)
1997:
- Star Fox 64
- Goldeneye 007
- Diddy Kong Racing (again, arguable. Back in the day most people where weren't wide eyed children saw this as a MK clone)
- Yoshi's Story
1998:
- 1080 Snowboarding (Not a major Nintendo franchise, but it was very well revived)
Not a whole lot on there as far as major Nintendo franchises go, huh? I will be fair and honest and let you know that I only listed releases from Nintendo's primarily franchises and from Rare, who were considered one of Nintendo's best assets back in the day. I left off all of the forgotten and/or poorly received games that didn't get much attention and flew under the radar for the general gaming community at the time. These titles include Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, Blast Crops and Tetrisphere, among others.
The GameCube's major first party (Nintendo Published) releases by April, 2003:
2001:
- Luigi's Mansion
- Pikmin
- Super Smash Brothers Melee
2002:
- Animal Crossing
- Metroid Prime
- Star Fox Adventures (Regardless of what you might think of this game, it was a major hyped release at the time)
- Mario Sunshine
2003:
- 1080 Avalanche
Getting deja vu? In hindsight, the GCN also had the same probably as the N64. A few fantastic games a year but not a whole lot else. Interestingly enough, new F-Zero games came out not long 1080 games did on both the N64 and the GCN. Guess this means we need a new 1080 before we get a new F-Zero. Anyway, on topic. Once again, I only listed new entries in Nintendo's major franchises and didn't list minor releases like Eternal Darkness, Disney's Magic Mirror and Cubivore.
The Wii's major fist party (Nintendo Publishes) releases by April, 2008:
2006:
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
2007:
- Warioware: Smooth Moves (not a major release by any means, but it is a new entry in the Warioware series)
- Super Paper Mario
- Metroid Prime 3
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (unfortunately, this came out after the GBA Fire Emblem hype bubble popped, so it was mostly ignored)
2008:
- Endless Ocean
Once again, a few great games a year and absolutely nothing else. Even then, Warioware and Fire Emblem are stretching it as far as "major releases" go. Again, I left minor franchises and off this list such as Mario Strikers Charged and Excite Truck.
So, what have we learned from this? Nintendo's release schedule for their consoles has sucked for the past twenty years. The only reason why we didn't start taking notice until now is because most of us were kids when these consoles (especially the N64 and GCN) were considered current. Thus, we didn't notice the release schedule was slow. I certainly didn't. Probably because I was really bad at games back then, so games lasted longer (it took me an entire summer to beat Wind Waker when I was a kid, now I can plow through it in a weekend if I have the time). Plus I didn't have the internet to track release dates on. The only way I discovered if a new game was coming out is if I read about it in Nintendo Power.
Anyway, I think the reason why Nintendo's sales are falling harder than ever now is because they don't have really have kids buying their stuff anymore. Not to sound like a grumpy old man, but kids don't play Nintendo anymore. Most of them play tablet games and Call of Duty. When you get down to it, the only people who still buy Nintendo products are us, adults who grew up on Nintendo consoles. So yeah, food for thought.