I've heard a lot of people say Nintendo's fanbase keeps shrinking.

What can Nintendo do to reverse this?

Do you think something like Splatoon could help? Kids ARE growing up playing shooters, and it looks to be a family-friendly shooter, so parents can buy it for their kids without worrying about them being exposed to violence and swearing.

I don't think it's shrinking, but just being dwarfed by everything else. Nintendo just needs to keep doing what it's doing and doesn't have to be everything to everybody.

Depends what you mean by their fanbase really. It's probably wrong to assume that's some consistent group of people that's been slowly shrinking. It's always in flux. Anyone they've "lost" can very likely be won back easily enough so there's no real reason to worry. They just really need another successful console.

Yeh Nintendo has it rough. In my youth every 5th kid had a NES and everyone else wished for it. Kids these days dont even know what Nintendo is.

There only so far nostalgic parents buying the weird wii U for their kids can take them.

Nintendo's fan base naturally became splintered with the rise of other consoles. I think Nintendo needs to keep doing what they're doing. They seem to be listening to the fanbase they do have and are trying new things to reinvigorate and bring back some of whom they've lost.

I don't think they can win back people unless they want to come back. If Nintendo released a PS4 power level console I don't think that would bring back PS4/Xbone users from their respective hardware unless they want to return to the fun style games that Nintendo brings to their audience.

Stop designing systems in a way that only makes them palatable to first party development, and therefore only a handful of games a year compared to other platforms?

I mean, I used to be a big Nintendo guy myself. My first systems were the NES and SNES and those are still some of my favorite gaming memories. But over the years Nintendo has repeatedly dropped the ball when it comes to being a system that appeals to the masses because they insist on gimmicky control schemes and systems that are underpowered. If Nintendo had a powerful system that 3rd party developers felt comfortable porting to, along with their 1st party stuff that is generally quite good, they would be in a much better place than they find themselves currently. Hell, with the medicore lineups Microsoft and Sony are offering they might even be leading the pack.

Is it shrinking? I don't think that is accurate, but I think it just ebbs and flows. Kids grow up, kids move on, and some come back as adults and some don't...and new kids come. The weird thing is that NES and SNES occurred in a time when the video games industry was still small. NES sold about 61 million over a twenty years period. Thus teh figures about their sales are tricky, they didn't reach that 61 million in five years, so it not really comparable to today numbers. And, Sorry, but SNES sold even less, about 50 Million over twelve years.

So straight up Nintendo was important, but its reach was not as large as people think. There were not as many fans to start with, so even if you consider 2.5 kids per system/household you are not talking huge numbers. That's a little of why PS1 and PS2 are so huge, those system sold over 100 million and did it rather fast, so they really were reaching far more people.

Nintendo I would say has stayed popular, but at a similar size as it enjoyed in 1998.

Lot of people believe in bigfoot, you have numbers? Maybe you just know a lot of haters.

I don't think Nintendo is in a bad spot right now. They're making a ton of money with Amiibos and they still dominate the handheld market. Whoever said kids nowadays don't know who Nintendo is hasn't been around kids very much. There are still tons of kids out there just as obsessed with Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart as we were when we were kids. The younger audience isn't the issue, it's Nintendo's struggle to find its place with teenagers and young adults that are giving off the impression that they're in a bad spot. They are the one's vocal about their lack of faith in Nintendo and posting with a who-cares attitude on message boards.