In principle, This. I would say the biggest mistake Nintendo made is not being aggressive enough during lauch era in favor of giving third parties breathing room to establish a identity on the console they were not committed to doing. If Wii U Sports, or Mario Kart were launched with console or at least somewhere close with some adequate marketing things would be looking better for Wii U

I see things quite the opposite - they took what made Wii successful and massively downplayed it for the Gamepad. Instead of going for SuperWii with Wiimote2, to continue Wii legacy, and better innards + GamePro, to remedy the problem of 3rd parties on Wii, they went for another gamble...and so far it seems they've lost.

Perhaps they can still bounce back, but I think they need to realize that Wii's success was not due to Mario, Zelda and their other core franchises, but mainly due to WiiSports, and that they desperately need something like that if they want to attract back majority of audience that actually made Wii what it was.

The Wii U does indeed expand on the Wii. It's not like Nintendo has ditched motion control and that you can no longer use the Wii mote. They attempted to expand on the Wii by making what they called a 'deeper, wider experience'. They did this be introducing asymmetric play to the mix.

The concept itself is great, and that type of gameplay is extremely fun, maybe even more fun than motion controls were when that came out. What it is not however, is immediately and intuitively understood. If you try to explain the draw of it, people have a hard time understanding what it means. I think Nintendo would have been much better off if they had Nintendo land as the (or one of) show case titles in store demo kiosks rather than Rayman Legends.

I don't think the bolded is solely a mistake in attracting the "core" gamer. The gamepad should have been the the device the bridged the mainstream with the core gamers... afterall, smartphones and tablets are the devices mainstream consumers use now to the point where publishers are devoting a significant chunk of resources to these devices.

The mistake Nintendo made was not demonstrating the innovation the tablet controller can bring to games and consumers. They still haven't and nothing I saw at E3 really demonstrated anything particularly original either. Consumers not realising WiiU is a seperate console is a symptom of Nintendo's inability to market and showcase the innovations behind the device.

Yup, Wii was a casual magnet.....so keeping the name and positioning it for the core.......the thing has a identity crisis.

They should of just called it what it is, Wii 2. It's 2.0 in the OS, which proves it is the Wii 2. This whole U thing is just goofy.

well for me, in my opinion, its made to compete with xbox 360 and ps3, and people(most gamers, publishers) are ready to move on because its been almost a decade of those two HD consoles, at the same time Nintendo is going through the HD growing pains associated with it.

I know that ubisoft ceo has gone around saying that the current gen went on too long already. I think he is right on many levels.

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/250281/ubisoft-current-generation-is-too-long

Plus in my case its not worth paying for something that is only $50 cheaper than a ps4. no way in hell, even IF it had good games. for what it has now and will have soon its worth $200 to me at most. some would disagree and thats fine, im not going to try to change your mind.

The problem is nintendo got caught behind and now they are trying to catch up to 8 years ago.

You are spot on. To me this is a big factor. With wii there were three distinct groups. The casuals, the second console and the core.

What was the wii's biggest selling point? The Answer: SIMPLICITY. Journalist lapped up the simplicity of it and hightlighted the fact that ANYONE can use it. Queue the causals.

The wii U in contrast comes across to many, as you more or less pointed out, as complicated. A complete turnaround from the wii. There goes millions of potential casual buyers at a stroke. Even if the wii remote works with the wii u the tablet is a turn off to many casuals who wanted more of the same ease of use.

It wasn't games that got people buying the wii, it was it's innovation of simplicity. From 25m gamecubes sold in it's lifetime to 50m wiis sold in a blink of the eye says it all.

Another big selling point the wii offered was it's role as a second console. It still remains to be seen if the wii u can repeat this role or even get close.

The OP and others have made some good points, although I don't think the name is an issue, at least a major one.

I don't think anyone is that ignorant. At least not anyone who is even potentially in the market to purchase a console.

The biggest problem is clearly a lack of any big games along with massive delays on the few pickings that we had from the supposed "launch window." It is almost like the N64 all over again.

Calling it "Wii ..." wasn't a bad idea. Calling it "Wii U" was as it didn't create any sense of, "oh this is a new console with all kids of different capabilities."

I still think if they wanted to keep "Wii" in the branding, then it should have been "Wii 2".