Don't be dense, the Gamepad is better then you think.

no iv spent enough time gaming  on it to easily declare it the worst controller on a console.

The overall sales do not determine whether people are interested. The only thing that matters is how it is selling right now, because that shows what consumers really think. 

I'll use the PS3 as an example. Did It's early sales translate into It's overall success? Same thing for Wii U, It's sales in 2013 do not translate into the amount of interest it has this year.

I wouldn't say the Dreamcast was a massive failure, it was on the market 16 months (prior to being discontinued) in the West and notched up over 10m sales globally (in the World). More interestingly, Japan was the system's weakest territory despite being out a year earlier there. It was more other factors such as SEGAs existing dire financial situation, the arcade market crashing and there being no revenue tail from the Sega Saturn which led to Sega having to pull the plug when they did.

I think it's too early to call whether the Wii U is a failure or not yet. However, it's definitely not got a decent market at the price Nintendo wanted to sell it at. I really think they need to be targeting the budget market to get hardware sales moving.

True, but honestly it doesn't really matter. The WiiU is a failure in Nintendo's eye. The majority know's what Nintendo is up to and they're doing essentially everything that is typical of Nintendo. Zelda and Smash might bring sales up occasionally. But it will always be Second best.

Don't know what the general feel is here, but the pad is fantastic.

I love gamepad.

I don't think it's too early to call WiiU a failure.
WiiU isn't completely failing in the market but WiiU is a failure escpecially in Nintendo's eye because it's been seeing less than Mediocre success because Nintendo thought the WiiU will fly off of shelves like the Wii did.

Let's just say this, Nintendo isn't printing money anymore because of the WiiU they're bleeding money, because of that it's considered a failure.

They were bleeding money from the 3DS too though and people don't call that a failure now. It's certainly not meeting expectations. But "failure" is a pretty broad word. I wouldn't call the PS3 a failure for example as some would because it didn't sell as well as the previous systems.

Nintendo always does well in handheld Consoles, Nintendo hasn't always done well in the Home Console market. You can't really compare the 2 markets.

There's also much less competition in the Handheld console market. What happened Last Generation of Console wars was unique, I don't see that happening this generation. Nintendo has always been Second Best (since Sony) in the home console market and people understand why. Nintendo fans can make excuses all they want, but it's Nintendo's own fault as to why it's quite irrelevant in the gaming world.