To say that the Nintendo Wii U sales have been sluggish would be an understatement. The Wii U is way behind on sales compared to the original Wii, and it’s even trailing the GameCube, which many considered a failure in terms of sales and market penetration.

And what is Nintendo doing about this? Absolutely nothing, it seems. They are making no effort to promote the Wii U nor its upcoming games. They are not advertising the console nor attempting to build any hype from upcoming games. Besides Pikmin 3, there are no upcoming games to look forward to. Zelda: Wind Waker is 6 months away, which doesn’t really help Nintendo right now.

And the market has reacted to Nintendo’s incompetence. Since Wii U’s release, Nintendo stock is down 20%. Not that the stock was doing any good, but it’s even worse now.

We can’t just be blind fanboys all the time, proclaim that everything is fine. Everything is not fine. Nintendo is making massive screw-ups with the Wii U to a point where we’re wondering what’s going on at Nintendo HQ in Japan. Are they completely in the dark as to what’s going on?

Wii U sales have been so bad that retailers are already clearing inventory of Wii U units. Which means they’re so eager to get rid of the consoles that they’re willing to take a loss on each unit sold. That’s a very bad sign for any electronics device, especially a games console. There simply isn’t enough demand out there, and Nintendo isn’t doing anything to create demand.

Nobody wants the Wii U to succeed more than we do. But at times like these, we have to put our fanboy hats aside and look at things objectively. The the fact is that Nintendo is making one blunder after another, and if they continue this way, the Wii U will likely be the last Nintendo home console. If Microsoft or Sony were making the same blunders with their consoles, we would be laughing and mocking them right now.

It seems Nintendo’s management is simply waiting and riding this one out, as if magically, things will turn around by themselves. They won’t. There really isn’t any reason to buy a Wii U console today. It’s priced too high for mass market, and hardcore gamers — even hardcore Nintendo fans — don’t really have that many games to look forward to. Pikmin 3 and Zelda Wind Waker will surely help, but not right now.

Nintendo revealed that they plan to announce several Wii U games at E3, including Mario Kart and a new 3D Mario game. They should reveal those games now and generate some hype and anticipation. E3 will be dominated by the new hardware from Microsoft and Sony, and Nintendo news will likely slip by most gamers.

This is hard for Nintendo fans to hear, but every month that goes by without action from Nintendo is just another nail in the coffin for the Wii U. Wii U owners might have patience, but retailers certainly don’t — they’re already trying to get rid of the console. And the average gamer still isn’t convinced as to why buy a Wii U. They might just spend their money on the next-gen systems from the other guys.

Perhaps it’s time for Mr. Iwata to step aside and let someone else steer the ship. We’re certainly not the first to suggest this.

http://wiiudaily.com/2013/03/when-will-nintendo-wake-up-to-the-wii-u-issues/

I actually think that the whole gaming media is kinda mocking and laughing at them as it is?

It needs a pricecut and those Nintendo games need to arrive fast.

Whilst a price cut would boost sales, I don't think there's much they can do to speed up the development rates of the games which would produce a sub-par product.

They are doing stuff about it, as can be seen by the Nintendo Direct. But they need to do more. However, we likely won't see what until E3.

To assume nintendo is doing nothing is stupid. Yes, Nintendo made the same mistake again with the Wii U Launch. But games don't magically sprout overnight, Nintendo made a critical error with hd development just like so many developers last gen (or current gen). Even though im kinda pissed off, about the drought, at least the games have come this month. This article wasn't needed.

Im beginning to think Nintendo's first partys are struggling with HD development.

Just wait till the new consoles arrive. If the wii U can't compete with Ps3 of the 360, it'll end up in the same breaths te SEgA Saturn soon after the ps4 and microsofts new consoles arrive.

There were gam,es promised for launch window that didn't get released. Still no major fresh Nintendo titles. 2D Mario would have been great if it were not for crappy NSMB2 on 3DS.

There honestly isn't much Nintendo can do. There is no doubt that Nintendo has the resources and money, but they have never made games for HD consoles before and it takes a lot longer to make such games. Nintendo's studios are probably busting their balls to get these games out but it's going to take a lot longer to develop than Wii and 3DS games. Plus they are probably also updating their engines for development on the Wii U platform.

This is the reason why you need good 3rd party support because they can give them gamers stuff to play while your 1st party can take its time to make quality software and push the hardware to its limit. Unfortunately Nintendo doesn't have that support.

Firstly I think people tend to forget how short a time the Wii U has been out. It's only been two months now since the sales fell off the edge and although that's an age in internet land that's not a long time in corporate world.

What I"m getting at is that Nintendo can't simply flip a switch and make everything better. Even if such a switch exists, plans need to be made and that takes time. Even if they are going to instigate something as 'simple' as a price cut that is more than simply calling Gamestop and Walmart and saying, "Hey guys, $250 starting tomorrow morning." They at the very least need to make plans how to placate the early adopters. With the 3DS that was with the ambassador program but seeing and the Virtual Console isn't up and running yet, they can't even do that.

Something as 'simple' as increasing advertising actually takes time and to be honest an advertising push in the last couple of months probably wouldn't have achieved much as there was nothing new to advertise since the system launch.

I don't doubt Nintendo is making plans to improve things and hopefully those plans will become clear in the lead up to and during E3. I think if the really want momentum to turn around the push is going to have to be multifaceted. A price cut perhaps, newly announced games, release dates for anticipated games, wider availability of services like Nintendo TV, a new pack or two and then a big advertising push to get them momentum going into the second half of the year, a relaunch of sorts, if you will.

If Nintendo fails to take at least some of these steps and E3 rolls around with only a whimper then, and only then, will I start to worry.