It is currently selling less than 360 and Ps3 so I would say that it has competition.

There is plenty of reason to buy the Wii U right now. First it is a known variable. We know the price of the system which is low and going to likely be lower by next Christmas.

We know it will play second hand games, it is backward compatible with Wii games and that you can transfer over your virtual console purchases as well. Those are all positives.

We also know it works with WiiMotes as well so you don't have to invest in all new controllers.

There are 100 million potential upgrade customers out there that can still use what they have with what they just bought while also moving on to an even better experience.

There are indeed 150 million XBox360/PS3 customers out there but many of their machines are getting quite old. When pondering to purchase their next console they have to throw away their entire previous purchase. None of the controllers work. None of their games or virtual purchases will work. They can hope it continues to work as it ages and face the complete loss of their investment if the equipment fails or they can just face the loss of their prior investment when they upgrade. They don't even know what the pricing or ship dates will be yet however everyone is suspecting it will be much like the pricing on the current generation when it was new. That means $400-500 for the console and $50-60 per controller plus games that want $60 out the door and increasingly rely on additional purchases via DLC.

I suspect the next generation PS4 and XBox are going to be constrained this Christmas. The announced prices have already shown that for all the claimed gaming enhancements they will bring they cannot command any more dollars in terms of gaming prices.

I want everyone reading to think hard about that. If something is an upgrade but it cannot command an upgraded price, then how much of an upgrade can it really be if the market won't pay more for it?

We've seen this played out already with DVD players and Blue-Ray players. The market will bare some additional cost but the reality is that most people cannot see enough of a difference or do not care enough about the difference to add much additional cost.

You go to Redbox for example and the DVD is $1.20 and the Blue-ray $1.50. You look at movies you own and the difference might be a third with the DVD often $10 and the Blue-ray $15. For streaming the difference is often $1 with most places charging $3.99 for DVD quality and $4.99 for HD quality.

Sony so far has said that with all this amazing additional power the additional purchasing price is.....$0. That is how much value the market will pay for what they PS4 will do over current gen consoles.

I have no doubt games will get bought and sold but the reality is that many folks won't see the difference and for the few that can notice say a game running at 1080P vs 720P, they clearly won't pay any more for it.

On the flip side you have the competition from tablets and smartphones which will now be running their screens at resolutions from 720P to 1080P. Many apps and games on them cost no more than a few dollars.

Again does it matter if those games aren't the best? It doesn't. McDonald's doesn't sell the highest quality hamburgers. Toyota doesn't sell the highest quality cars.

The market wants a good enough product and a great price.

Nintendo has done that with the Wii U and it hasn't been fast out the gate because no one is so incredibly dissatisfied with their current experience be it Wii/Xbox360 or PS3. Studies have shown these consoles are spending as much or more time streaming video or playing quick and cheap mini-games as they are playing the latest shooters or graphical masterpiece.

Nintendo does have to deal with the competition's FUD though. Clearly that is what the Sony announcement was about and I do believe it has frozen some purchases. There are clearly people out there waiting to purchase until they see what the competition provides but if they are stuck waiting up to a year to purchase they might just reconsider Nintendo. They might also reconsider when they can add to the value of their purchase so easily via all the older controllers, games and accessories that are out there when they are tallying up the hundreds of dollars they will need to make the jump.

For atleast half if not more of the Wiiu's lifecylce their main competitors will be 360 and Ps3.

So if there weren't PS4 and NextBox, WiiU wouldn't compete with PS360 for the next 7 years ?

The wiiu will improve once Sony and Microsoft limit support for 360 and PS3 and much exclusives over to the new systems. Wiiu will dominate ps3 and 360 at this time. They should be able to massively undercut the price of ps4 and 720 as to not being going head to head with those consoles.

Consoles are in competition with other consoles, regardless of generation. As long as they are selling, they are competition.

el_gallo - "There is plenty of reason to buy the Wii U right now. First it is a known variable. We know the price of the system which is low and going to likely be lower by next Christmas."

Isn't that a reason to wait?  And if you consider the most expensive console on the market to have a low price just imagine how attractive the competition (PS360) is with their large back catalog of cheep used games.

You could well be right, I was trying to think of anyting the Wii U has to offer that could improve the sales. As it stands, it is in a pretty difficult position. It seems to be inadvertantly competing with both PS360, when it should have gone for the next-gen market. This is probably due to it getting the same games as PS360 from 3rd parties.

The best thing for them to do is to take advantage of not many people knowing what the Wii U is, and act like they are launching it against the PS4 as a cheaper alternative.

It will be a reason to wait which is why most sales, no matter the platform, occur in that quarter. As for the other consoles and their large catalog of cheap games, the point is that the next consoles have not been shown to be backward compatible. That means you will either be nursing along hardward that is several years old in order to take advantage of that catalog or be repurchasing hardware at additional cost.

Also it might be considered the most expensive but there are certainly other bundles out there that have it beat in price or at least matched. The PS3/Move bundle and also the God of Ascension bundles match the Wii U in price. However the original Wii is also available for much cheaper than either of those consoles and unlike the PS360 combo, the games and equipment from it will still be of use when a person can afford to upgrade. If your neighbor buys a new console, you can't play against him and you can't play with him until someone drops another (hopefully only) $60+ on a second controller. WiiU doesn't have that problem at all.

the WiiU has competition, the WiiU is ultimately for entertainment and it wants your time and money. so it competes with every other form on entertainment out there. whether its watching movies, taking a walk in the park, playing some sports, having sex with your wife or hanging out with your friends. the WiiU is competing for your time. so yes, it does have competition