The Wii U has a better library of games now than the 3DS did when it "took off"

Mario Kart 7, Mario 3D Land, Nintendogs + cats, Pilotwings Resort, Super Street Fighter IV, Zelda: OoT 3D, Star Fox 64 3D, Dead Or Alive 3D

versus

New Super Mario Bros. U, New Super Luigi U, Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, Nintendo Land, The Wonderful 101, LEGO City, Zelda: WWHD, Wii Party U, Wii Sports Club, Zombi U, Sonic Lost World, Rayman Legends, and a new DKC in a few weeks.

Shouldn't sales be exploding like the 3DS? Truth is you can't compare Nintendo handhelds to consoles, Nintendo handhelds always sell far more (especially when there's no mega-popular controller gimmick anchoring the console).

If ur going to count ZombiU, Sonic Lost World, Rayman Legends and Lego City for Wii U, u should add Resident Evil Mercenaries, Sonic Generations, Rayman 3D, Lego Star Wars for 3DS. Also Monster Hunter 3G was huge In Japan and the first time that game was released on handhelds where the series thrives.

Also 3DS went from $250 to $170 or roughly 1/3 of the price cut off. Wii U would have had a price cut to $250 for the Deluxe model to match that. So really the line ups to this point of time are roughly equal and 3DS had a much larger price reduction.

Im not saying ur wrong, just that ur missing a few key points.

With the hype surrounding the PS4 it's not really relevant to be comparing sales between it and the Wii U at the moment. When the hype dies down and the PS4 gets into the difficult slog of its first summer it may be more relevant to compare the two.

Xbox One is a more fitting comparison and, whilst the Wii U is still being outsold, it doesn't look quite so bad.

The key thing really is that the Wii U has been consistently up YOY by ~25-30%. The numbers still aren't great, but they are travelling in the right direction.

That said, Nintendo are clearly in Panic Mode right now, and until we see a Direct to get an idea of when games are going to hit (as of today, we know 2 release dates; DKTF and MK8) we can't begin to guess what the sales curve may look like this year.

It could well be that X or Yarn Yoshi or SMT x FE or Wii Sports Club or even a previously unannounced game (like a Luigis Mansion 2 HD) could be due out in March/April that could completely shift expectations. Without more information we just don't know.

I also got the distinct impression at the end of last month that a Direct was due but got cancelled last minute. With the way in which devs were acting coy about announcements and putting trailers together and talking about press conferences (a bit hyperbolic considering it was just the Indie Connection Sale), I think something was planned but got pulled back, and until we see a Direct we can't even guess what Nintendo were up to.

Fair enough, but you can then also had many other pretty decent multiplats for the Wii U. Point is there basically no acceleration in the Wii U relative to it getting better games. 

Iwata called last holiday season the worst one Nintendo's ever had in the Western markets with him as president. Something is wrong here beyond just "they just need to release Smash Bros dooood". 

This. I wish they'd hurry up and panic again this year though.

And? You do know people were saying the ps3 was dead and will be discontinued with bigger numbers than the wii U, right?

There really isn't much Nintendo can do overnight though.   Games take time to develop and they fucked themselves by not having the software that could actually move consoles out earlier.     The 3DS in 2013 had 14 games in the top 100 sellers. The Wii had 8.  The Wii U only had 6 and one of those was Super Luigi U which was really a DLC pack.    Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Lego City Undercover, Sonic Lost World, Game and Wario.  All games that were not even able to crack the top 100 that Nintendo used alot of resources and time on.    Sonic Lost World's entire game should have been like the Yoshi and Zelda DLC.  An entire Sonic game based around Sonic going to different Nintendo worlds, in a Sonic Style game.  Would have sold like hotcakes.   Pikmin 3 I can almost let go, but it really should have come out later in the generation.   Wonderful 101 should have either had Mii's or Nintendo charecters.  The game itself is already a niche title, but made it a completly new IP and it never stood a chance.     Nintendo can no doubt turn it around but they need to bring the heat.  Metroid Prime 4 with a heavy emphasis on online play.   Zelda with a heavy emphasis on non-linear and less disney style graphics.   A True new Wii Sports that incorporates the Gamepad.   The Wii Sports Club Golf is brilliant.  It's a simple addition but adds alot to the game.   People still love WIi Sports, make a real new one.

The ratio remains. That's what the thread is about.

You'd think the fans would be a little more sympathetic. Not really seeing to many Ninty is doomed threads from MS fans, that's for sure. MS is easily... in the best position financially of the 3 also. I'm over the WiiU threads, so are they. There have been several "stop the doom threads". It's getting boring.

You don't really see many Xbox fans in the sales threads anymore anyway, I supposed they know that the X1 isn't doing so hot right now itself, so they don't want to discuss sales.

I don't think Nintendo will panic because of what their rivals are doing: they've stepped away from tackling the games business the way other format holders do. Nintendo will have been panicking and soul searching because of their own mistakes, which are almost entirely responsible for the situation they find themselves in. There's been a complete failure to read the market, a failure to anticipate the extent to which smart devices have altered the landscape, pursued a half-house home console market strategy (alternate console design while chasing third party parity) that sacrifices the strengths of the Wii without gaining the strengths of the PS/Xbox brands, over-priced their hardware from day one, not done enough to provide key features from launch, undersold and underdeveloped network services like Virtual Console, and not done enough to ensure their first party release schedule makes sense commercially. Niche products like Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, Game & Wario didn't need to be ready in the first year of Wii U's life: Kart, Smash, 3D Mario and Zelda need to be there, especially in the absence of new ideas like Wii Sports.

Sony have got a lot right for PS4, but Nintendo got even more wrong with their transition from Wii and DS to Wii U and 3DS. It's their own mistakes Nintendo should panic about, and there are indications that Nintendo have taken that on board. Unified R&D, unified OS across hardware, the games platform becoming a digital network as opposed to individual hardware, incorporating Wii U architecture into their next generation: all steps designed to ease software releases and avoid the damaging droughts of the past, while turning their home console and portable console businesses into a unified ecosystem, and not running them as separate businesses. Greater network integration and digital services, so that consumers buy into an ecosystem, creating greater incentive to buy both home and portable offerings from Nintendo across generations: an account based, and not hardware based, relationship, to retain customers. Discounts and flexible pricing for consumers that purchase large amounts of software, encouraging strong tie ratios. Utilising smart devices and merchandising to reach customers who've never used Nintendo hardware, or stopped using it, so these consumers become or remain familiar with Nintendo's products: a far greater licensing out of IP for promotion than Nintendo have bothered with in the past. More flexible pricing across developed and emerging console markets, allowing Nintendo to reach consumers in India, Brazil and China traditionally priced out of buying Nintendo hardware. Finally, establishing the new "Quality of Life" business, to run alongside the more unified and integrated gaming business, which will provide Nintendo with a separate revenue stream, and in the long-run, may drive consumers onto their gaming platform.

That's a long-term reaction to mistakes made over the last few years. Nintendo have obviously already panicked, sat down, thought hard, and come up with a long-term plan. In the near-term, Wii U is Nintendo's top priority. Offering software that provides single player experiences that fully utilise and justify the gamepad, providing games that utilise NFC, to work more closely on collaborations with third parties to revive older Nintendo games and IP, better, clearer marketing and improved digital services, these are all Nintendo's plan for Wii U. That's not going to turn it into a market-leader, but the better proposition Wii U is, the more likely they'll retain loyal customers going forward into their new direction.

Nintendo have panicked, changed direction and their plan going forward. That won't save Wii U, and it wasn't done in response to PS4, but it may be what makes Nintendo much more competitive in the future. Nintendo should be, and obviously will be, concerned that Wii U sales are dipping again, but they've readjusted expectations in line with reality. They need to see this out, make Wii U as good as it can be, and throw everything behind their new direction.