I mentioned this in another thread but seriously, I think the reason the Wii U isn't lighting sales charts on fires is because the casuals aren't into it. And really good riddance to bad rubbish I say. 

Nintendo still made a profit with the GameCube and even bigger one with the N64. Let the casuals go, they were an unreliable, flakey market that wasn't interested in any serious game experiences outside a little Mario and Mario Kart here and there. That's why with even 100 million users, things like Xenoblade and Sin & Punishment could barely find an audience, and more core IP like Zelda and Metroid really didn't perform all that much better than the N64 or GCN days.

Screw this audience. Now they're all about 99 cent iOS games. That's what gaming is worth to them, so let them leave. They just want disposable, simple, cheap experiences. Nintendo Land isn't hooking with the casuals, Brian Training/Nintendogs/Wii Sports/Wii Fit are old news. Just Dance is the new thing and that'll probably go the way of Guitar Hero in about a year too. These fads come and go. 

Who cares if the Wii U only sells around the N64 level (I doubt it would ever go as low as the GCN) and is supported primarily by core Nintendo fans? We got great Nintendo games back then, and third parties don't give a crap about Nintendo either way, so not much difference there. If anything, Nintendo realizing the casual gamer is leaving them may lead to them doing things like actually paying attention to graphics and presentation (read: NEW music) in things like the 2D Mario games and maybe (gasp) trying to make a real breakout hit that isn't some mini-game collection and putting real marketing behind it (like a Monolith RPG).

I'm with you. I was saying it during the Wii's time in the sun and during the lead up to the Wii U and I've been saying it still. The soccer moms and the grandparents are not coming back. The Wii fad has ended. The Wii U can not be as successful as the Wii, it's just not going to happen. Hopefully Nintendo will survive and we will get Mario, Zelda and Metroid games without gimmicks this time.

I actually kind of agree although I still think a little bit if the casual market is needed to encourage 3rd parties to develop for the platform.

No, the reason the Wii U is not lighting the charts on fire is because there are too few games, or at least two few blockbusters. It's as simple as that. You have Mario U, and Zombie U, the latter of which has somewhat of a limited appeal. Not much else beyond that.

Wii's success on the so called "casual" is WAY WAY overstated, mostly by the bewildered core and gaming media who are still puzzled as to why this underpowered console became such a smash success and thus made up this "causal market" excuse to justify it.

These "casuals" are not some alien species that are impossible to figure out or market to. They are still gamers like you and me, and like any gamer, if the games come, games that appeal to them, so will they. The thing is at the moment Wii U does NOT have many games, and even fewer games that appeal to the mass market audience.

The casuals have not abandoned Nintendo. Maybe you haven't noticed that the Wii games that sold over a million units in 2012 were Just Dance 4, Just Dance 3, Mario Party 9, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Sports Resort, Zumba Fitness, NSMBWii, Zumba Fitness 2, the Skylanders games, Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, and Wii Fit Plus. Man, Just Dance and Zumba Fitness must really be catching on among hardcore Metroid and Zelda fans!

zelda sky sword sold horrible for a zelda game, it was like a 50% decline.

"Casual gaming" was always beneath Nintendo anyway.

Much like a great movie director reduced to doing reality TV or some crap.

The "jet ski" mini-game in Wii Sports Resort is garbage, we know Nintendo if pushed could make a really great Wave Race.  We know Nintendo can make a better 2D Mario than the recycled NSMB games that Nintendo's now desperately throwing out to market asap because they know hope these casuals will bite on them again (to limited success IMO). 

The sooner they get away from chasing the next fad and get it hammered into their minds that Ms. Wii Fit ain't coming back -- good.

All the better for the rest of us actual Nintendo fans who were there before the Wii and Brain Training.

We were sold this bill of goods that when Nintendo had a big user base it would benefit core games too like Metroid, Sin & Punishment, Xenoblade, Zelda, Monster Hunter, etc. and it hasn't done sh*t. These games all probably would've sold about the same on the N64 or GCN, maybe even more in some cases. 

The third party games these casuals support is stuff like Just Dance and Guitar Hero or licensed Lego games, which does nothing to convince developers to bring serious deep IP to Nintendo platforms anyway. Whatever. Screw 'em, like I said. 

The reason it took Nintendo FOREVER to do things like make a half way decent online network or increase the storage of the original Wii was because the casuals didn't care about such features and as such Nintendo didn't care to make an effort either. Good riddance to them, they held back Nintendo from making real progress in gaming for far too long. 

I think the sales so far prove that your wrong, the casual market really doesn't care to much about gaming, yet look at how its successer is doing, its only 50$ more then wii. if compare to basuc and launched with mario, has any wii game this gen had people line up for games like 360 and ps3 owners do an anticaption of a big release.

That's the spirit!