Hmm, well relative to the competition it's not a bomb, it's just that the entire market tanked.
It'll be really interesting to see if their NX strategy will be appealing in Japan. The 3DS did okay but I'm guessing the dedicated portable market in Japan will be going away next. Having a multiple-form factor ecosystem makes a handheld slightly more appealing, but will it be enough?
The problem is, if it's a handheld controller with a screen, that you can dock or connect to a wireless hub and use it as a home console, it will be a compromise between power and mobility.
Either it won't have enough battery life or its graphics and power will be compromised significantly?
Nintendo doesn't have the hardware expertise of Sony or the software expertise of Microsoft, it has the Marketing chops of neither or many other organizational horses that it can ride on besides gaming.
This puts Nintendo at a disadvantage.
When I look at Microsoft Surface, on gaming laptops, I think it's a clear that it becomes a very hard balance when you're trying to make something that both wants to be powerful and small. High capacity batteries are expensive and heavy, and many of the best smartphone and tablets makers screw this up yearly.
And then there is the low price that Nintendo products need to be priced at to make them family friendly.
IMO the Wii U controller is amazing. It's the coolest idea ever, channeling the spirit of the dreamcast. But the product could easily have been way more powerful, had a much bigger battery, a much faster Flash storage based interface, a good cloud storage solution, and a totally revamped online model that doesn't kill the potential of online (social, friends, e-sport, spectator, events, creation, sharing, browsing, organizing).
In my opinion Nintendo hasn't really been itself since Nintendo 64. The games they released at that time where both technologically sound and advanced and amazing games in their own right. With Gamecube, Wii and Wii U they threw in the towel and said graphics don't matter.
But there is a lot more to powerful hardware than just graphics. Size, scope, feature sets, presentation.
That is why, in my own selfish interest that I wish Nintendo would go third-party. A Zelda on PS4 and XBox One could do justice to what OOT disrupted in the gaming industry in 1998. Smash Bros on steam could make the franchise reach completely different heights.
I'll miss Nintendo hardware and their ecosystem, but between that and the market dying in Japan, I just think it's crazy. I always cared more for their classic home console games rather than their mobile games.
Nobody makes games like Nintendo, but many can outdo Nintendo in hardware. Not because they don't have good ideas or can't execute on innovation. It's because of volume and moving inventory. They don't have a chance against Sony/Nintendo.