half a million is not bad at all and i think their marketing will be heavier on this game than the previous two... i think it will exceed the numbers of both pikmin games at least in japan

It will do bout a million in Japan, but no higher. This will do better sure but don't count on it being massive, esp in europe.

nintendo needs some european lovin'

The reason Wii U isn't selling good is the industry itself. There are a plethora of consoles out on the market already and people are just sick of buying new ones. We are also getting to the point where the graphics are getting "good enough," thus there is less and less incentive to invest in a new console. This is why the 360 and PS3 are still putting up decent numbers 6 and 7 years after their release. Then you've got the economy down the tubes, rising development costs, developers overmilking franchises, and the emergence of tablet/ indie gaming at budget prices or even free. Seriously, if people think Wii U sales are bad, just wait till its higher priced competition arrives. You aint seen nothing yet..

We are in the beginning phases of a major decline in console gaming and who knows when we hit the bottom.. Strap yourselves in cause it's gonna be one hell of a ride.

Good thread, BK.

I think there is some truth to your argument. I think all seventh and eighth generation systems (minus Vita) are pulling sales away from Wii U, and it's because they have more games and better games. And I think the next Xbox and PS4 will suffer the same fate, at least in the first few months.

But honestly, what could Nintendo have done differently? If it had front-loaded all of its best software, it would be exposed around E3. And if it had waited to launch until November 2013, it would lose its head start.

I think Nintendo launched with as much software as it could muster last November and hoped that the newness of the console and the allure of Mario would create enough momentum until March.

Hooray! someone that finally gets what I've been trying to say. They will appeal the core with the bare minimum and bare its fangs come E3. They cant show they're entire hand like Dreamcast did.

Handhelds generally affect home consoles none at all, they have their own cycles and markets and the two are surprisingly different. This is why the DS managed to sell amazingly despite the home console being saturated near the end of the 6th gen and also why handhelds have different launch cycles and times.

This is also why the Vita is failing, its trying to be a home console in pocket format, its trying to emulate a PS3, a tiny PS3 with an unjustified price tag that offers nothing like the experience a home console does and it is also fall less than a smartphone in many ways.

Handhelds have almost nothing to do with home consoles, different cycles, different software, different market. The Vita and the Wii U have one trait in common that is holding them back; they have ended up in the twilight zone between the two markets, simple as that.

So you're saying that the WiiU is trying to be a handheld in console format?

The DS and the 6th gen has vastly different kinds of games, different styles of input. What we're discussing here is that 3DS and WiiU have similar types of software (and even similar input), 3D zeldas, 2D marios with might start competing with each other. I mean 2 NSMB in the same year? Big mistake.

I'm saying that its trying to appeal to a more casual oriented customer and a "core" customer at once and is largely failing to reach both. The Vita is attempting to do the same thing by luring in home console customers and handheld customers and failing to reach both.

I'm not saying that handheld customers are casuals per se, allthough the majority of handheld games have more pick up & go games. The real casual market has moved away from both handhelds and home consoles and are playing social games and tablets/phones.

The N-Gage was way ahead of its time it seems... The irony for Nintendo now is that they seem to have helped open up and expand a market they can no longer access properly. The irony for Sony with the Vita and PS3 launches is that they apparently had learned nothing about the market from having two record braking consoles in a row.

I'm still pretty amazed that people think its selling that poorly. Look hardly any software for it has been released yet. As stated in the OP the Mario game was released but that might as well have been the port of the 3DS version that released a few months earlier. If the Wii U continues to sell "badly" after the following games have been released: Mario Kart U, Zelda U, Smash Bros U, Metroid U, Pikmin, Bayonetta, Luigi Mansion, etc. and after there has been a price cut of $50 which is likely to happen before new Xbox and playstation launches then we can talk about how badly it's selling. I'm just surprised that there are that many suckers who actually bought it now instead of waiting for something worthwhile to come out.

Edit: Not to mention it is the most expensive console on the market right now. When the new Xbox and playstation launch for $450+ each the Wii u will look much more appealing to the masses.