10 Essential Strategies To Save Nintendo

As gamers we owe a lot to Nintendo, if it wasn't for this Japanese mega-corporation, the landscape of the gaming industry would surely look very different today. Without Nintendo's aggressive launch and marketing blitzkrieg of the original Nintendo Entertainment System, who else would have pulled the entire industry out of the downward spiral it was in in the mid-eighties? No one could match the games library, the ease-of-use, the desirability of their early consoles - soon names like Mario and Link became part of the common lexicon, resonating through pop culture even among non-gamers. Quite possibly the most important company in the history of the industry, with an almost unbelievable combined hardware sales record heading towards 700 million units, Nintendo has earned its place in the gaming hall of fame many times over. And it is purely because of this hugely significant heritage that we, as gamers, are concerned about the current state of affairs over at Nintendo headquarters - only the most overzealous Nintendo acolytes would deny that the firm is sailing through troubled waters right now. The once infallible giant is stumbling in spectacular fashion, specifically on the all-important hardware front, and it's not looking pretty. Before we panic, remember that Nintendo has been doing this a lot longer than most of the competition. On the gaming time scale, Microsoft and Sony are but a fleeting moment compared to the House Of Mario, and it would be foolish to count them out just yet. We all know that the Wii U is cutting deep into profits (and consumer confidence), and even the highly regarded handheld component of the Nintendo stable isn't performing as expected, so we can be sure that Nintendo will be brainstorming around the clock to come up with ways to redirect the ship before it runs aground. If they aren't up at night worrying about how to turn things around, they definitely should be. Don't be mistaken, Nintendo is hardly on its death bed, but things need to change if that's to remain the case. So, without diving headlong into a pit of sludgy fanboy bickering, lets take a thoughtful look at just what can be done to put Nintendo back on the path to greatness to match their magnificent legacy...