@SolidDuck
Can't argue with that...The gamepad screen is a waste, just implement the option to use a tablet with it, if people so desperately want a separate screen for maps... And maps is all 99% of developers have used it for...It really offers nothing in the way of gameplay innovation & never really can, as far as I'm concerned.
Even as a map, you have to break your connection with a game, to look down at a bodgy looking controller screen in your lap.
Just bite the bullet & cost cut where needed, & getting rid of that expensive, useless screen is needed. I'm sure many will disagree, as they are the ones that already own the system & are that blindly loyal, they either think the inbuilt screen is the 2nd coming of Christ, or it will ONE DAY have great uses for games, then there are just some that paid full price for the machine, & don't want the price to drop that quick, as they feel it will undermine there purchase. Fact is though, that I own a Wii-U Premium, paid full $429Au price for it, but I realize, something has to be done about Nintendo's current state of affairs & fast...So lets get over it all & get machines moving from store shelves...The way to do that, lower the price, & advertise the shit out of it.

Actually redesign the gamepad to save money & put the price down on the console(the gamepad is a bit too big and yes I own a basic white Wii U).

@Adolph ..I totally disagree ...the gamepad is the core of the system and what makes it different from the two other systems ..do you really think by dropping the tablet controller people are gonna want to buy the system more no they wouldn't ....the pro controller is an option so if you don't like the tablet controller buy the pro controller ...also the wii u has only been out a year ...give it some time to develop games for the tablet controller ...zombie u used it well and lego undercover used it well also ... nintendo also said the tablet controller will be uses extensively in Zelda wii u ...also offscreen play is great also if you wanna watch netflix it works great I say keep the tablet controller I love it

the amount of rumors and doom that is posted on n4g is crazy. i'm just shocked that noone is talking about the game drought xbox one and ps4 are having for the next few months. instead there are 30 posts about nintendo. journalists must not have anything new to play and instead of pointing that out, they would rather make up rumors of new nintendo systems.

"...the gamepad is the core of the system and what makes it different from the two other systems ..do you really think by dropping the tablet controller people are gonna want to buy the system more no they wouldn't"

Yet it doesn't define itself as anything different, except a localized handheld if you need a sh1t & are that stupid & desperate as to want to take your controller to the toilet with you.
If it was allowing us to do things SOOO much different from the other 2 systems, I believe you would be right, & the screen needed...But, even the best implementation of the screen so far, has been pretty crappy, & does NOTHING to enhance the experience for GAMING.

And if Nintendo lowered the price substantially, advertised more hardcore, & attracted some 3rd party games that weren't kiddie oriented, then that would go a long way to helping sales too...
It ain't just one thing that has our Wii-U's future outlook, looking bleak...It is a combination of things, & pissing off the screen is just one step Nintendo NEEDS to take to correct the ship. They would be better off developing a brand new HD Wii-U version of Wii Sports, & packaging a pro controller, & Wii Nunchuk into with the system, & remarketing it with use with a standard controller, & the Wii's motion controller...they also need to establish with gamers, both casual & up, that the system works with Wii's games & peripherals....as that would help sales, especially with a really out there, spruced up version of Wii Sports, throw some extreme sports into it, like hand gliding, MMA, & a bunch of other sports that implement well into the motion based thing & it will certainly better chances of sales than some huge arse screen, that makes the controller grossly oversized & overpriced...
Even Nintendo knew how dumb the idea was, as they offer us NOWAY to buy a 2nd one, or even replacement from stores...
Does anyone know, what does happen if you break your Wii-U controller? Can you contact Nintendo to get a replacement?

The rumor of gaminrealm was without sources or serious informations. Me too, I could suppose that Sony has started the development of PS5....so what??

Well if the rumors have any truth to them, they would be nothing more then what they are targeting at this point for their next system. Basically a power vs timeframe and plugging in something they feel would do the job based off any knowledge they may have of upcoming tech.

4.6 Tflops and a holographic dvd both would indicate it's a while away. I don't see how this thing would be released before late 2016. If it was released, it would be a mistake.

In late 2016, 4.6 TFlops really won't be that much. If we are to believe Nvidia then some sort of Volta card, probably the top end, should have >20 TFlops in it. There has already been videocards in PC's with more raw power then 4.6 TFlops for a year or so. But you could also say the same about PS4/XB1 now. So this isn't a problem, but you'd hope for a bit more. If they could get that sort of power by late 2015, I think they'd be in business.

So while it sounds powerful compared to PS4/XB1, it would all depend on when they are planning to release it. 2015 Good. 2016 iffy. 2017-2018...too late.

Holographic DVD would be an expensive part to put in early on.

So to me I feel this is nothing more then a rumor. Any system with a holographic DVD player in it would have to pump out far more then >4.6 TFlops considering the timeframe where such a disc player wouldn't be $200 by itself. No one wants a system with a $200 disc drive that doesn't add anything, and it wouldn't. You don't need holographic DVD for 4k. That money would be better used on more power.

Bluray was all about 1080P, HDTV, and ending 4 DVD games. This is not the case now, and many people's bandwidth is getting up to a point where digital distribution simply isn't much of a headache for digital content and thus adds another reason why right now a new drive isn't needed. They also aren't Sony with movie studio holdings, and even with all those advantages, Sony paid a big price to push Bluray. $599 for PS3.

If they really were targeting a Holographic DVD player they should be aiming for 30-50 TFlops type performance, and probably a 2020 release.

If they want one sooner, then drop the Holographic DVD player and simply use bluray with something approaching that 4.6 TFlops and do it as soon as possible like 2015-2016.

Nintendo simply is not in a good position. They either need to bite the bullet and wait out this generation or put one out quickly that's superior to the PS4 when it's still early in the generation because if it's far enough along it would just trigger Sony and MS to put out their console a couple years earlier. But I don't think waiting is much of an option.

There are no good choices for Nintendo. They either sit there and bleed money or risk pissing off the Wii U buyers and release another console faster. It's obvious that those who bought the Wii U is far smaller number then those who aren't....yet buy games and consoles.

I like my Wii U. It's not powerful, but it's capable and while the gamepad isn't very comfortable to me, using the screen in games is great, especially in games like CoD where you could use the pro controller and keep the gamepad in your lap for calling down killstreaks as if they were one controller. But none of it does any good if you can't find matches.

They could do an ambassador program, which again isn't a good plan, but remember there is no good plan. The best thing for Nintendo is to get out of the ditch as fast as possible before they become irrelevant. In many minds they already are. Trying to sell this console at the rate they've been selling them for the next few years simply won't work.

Now the 4th quarter sales were up a good bit, but that probably won't continue much longer. Zelda bundles and a price drop helped. They have some good stuff up their sleeves, but they are going to need a helluva E3 and promise everything under the Sun and another price drop to maintain any semblance of 4Q'13 sales figures.

E3, Zelda, Super Smash Bros, X, Pokemon, Mario Kart and a true 3D Mario is what they have up their sleeve. The sad thing is that there is not going to be many 3rd party games to augment their 1st party offerings. Those that are, will mostly be the same as their competitors last gen offerings.

An ambassador program would allow them to move on quickly and not piss of their fans too much. It would cost them alot, but considering how few Wii U's have been sold they wouldn't be taking anywhere near the hit you would think they would. They don't need to ambassador 50 million consoles, but provision for up to 5.

For example. If they sold the Nintendo Fusion for $399 and allowed WIi U owners to pick one up for $99, they'd lose $300 per console from the program. Which if I round up to 5 million Wii U's, is really only $1.5 Billion or in the ballpark of what Microsoft took a charge for the RRoD for the 360. In other words, it's not impossible, and Nintendo was sitting on what...$50 billion in cash roughly a couple of years ago?

But remember folks not everyone will upgrade, so it really wouldn't even cost them that much. They can take a good portion of what they have and borrow it from the Wii U. The OS, the gamepad, etc. If they are sitting on millions of gamepads this could turn a bunch of sunk cost into something valuable which would discount production of any console that came after. Eventually those gamepads will come down in cost.

There are no good solutions. But the way many gamers and publishers are viewing the Wii U and how badly Nintendo has missed it's forecasts, the Wii U is pretty much screwed. I'm sure some great Nintendo games can come out for it, and I'll be buying many of those that do, but it's clear that they risk their brand name if they sit idly by. They could drop the Wii U's price to $150, and I'm sure sales would rise quite a bit, but overall they'd still be bleeding.

I'm not doom and gloom on Nintendo. They have great IP's and are sitting on a ton of cash. But the Wii U simply isn't going to compete with the PS4/XB1. The PS4 has already surpassed the Wii U and the XB1 isn't far behind.

Even with all this, there is still the X86 vs Power PC question. Nintendo would probably be better off with switching seeing that they are now the only ones with this additional quirk to game development. If one of the points to the new system is to show game devs they are serious about attracting their support, switching to X86 would be a way to show it.

But overall what we've seen is while the Wii U has more power then the 360/PS3 it's not enough to make much of a difference from the DEVS perspective. The 3rd party games are almost always going to be ports from the 360/PS3 which means in essence it'll be on that level, and the 360/PS3's days of receiving ports will probably start ending next year.

Games built from the ground up definitely showcase the Wii U's advantage over the 360/PS3, it's just not going to be utilized very often, and when they drop support for the 360/PS3, quite a few will be dropping the Wii U as well. More sales could shift that, but unless it starts selling a ton more, it won't. Even then they have an uphill battle because of the impression they've made on 3rd party devs.

From a fan's perspective, and those who buy Nintendo systems for 1st party games, buying mostly 1st party games from 2015-2019 wouldn't be so bad necessarily. Many people buy it for 1st party games. But for Nintendo, a system where you can only flog your own games for those years would be a disaster. It's going to be quite a few years before a gamepad can be made cheap enough to include in a low cost console.

But we know now with off the charts support for PS4 which seems to be exceeding the Wii's popularity...without a gimmick and XB1 with all it's problems of 180's and ESRAM, where it too is thrashing the Wii U, that the Wii U as a mainstream console is toast. We know the desire was there for new tech and it is a major thirst, and Wii U simply didn't resonate or tap into that thirst.

Sure the Wii sold out with lower production levels so it's impossible to say for certainty if PS4 or Wii had a stronger launch potential, but the PS4 with double or more the production rate is still sold out and had people lining up outside stores over two months after launch.

The people have chosen. The Wii U isn't what they want. At $149 they can push more units, which might help with developer support, but all this bashing by devs means that ship has sailed and even a herculean effort to sell more by dropping the price would go unnoticed by many devs. But hey they should ask them what it would take for them to increase support on the Wii U. At this point I think it's too late. Unless they can get to 20-30 million units QUICKLY, 3rd party will evaporate with the 360/PS3.

In the minds of the mainstream gamers and devs the Wii U simply doesn't have it. They should have a console ready to launch for when 360/PS3 support is gone.

They should fast track a new console early in this generation and ambassador their Wii U owners.

Until then pump out your franchises and try to give your Wii U adopters what they want, YOUR games.

Nintendo needs 3rd party support. It's power and number of units sold isn't going to attract them and for the most part gamers and devs minds have been made up. There is no way out except a new console.

the gamepad can be sold as a seperate accesory..so why not bundle a wiiU pro and sell it for $199..

How dare the US do that to such a king angel of a company like Nintendo, i'm standing wth them on this one!

I'm surprised that more companies didn't sue earlier. They lost billions because of his foolishness.

Wait if the US citizens were the ones actually paying for the tariffs where's our refunds!?

Oh, a lawsuit were Nintendo is the good guy...? I did not have this on my bingo card.