....this has to be a joke thread

I have to agree with this. The Wii U had so many problems right off the bat that even the hype for open world Zelda and Mario could not save the console.

Nintendo botched the marketing with both the name and the presence of the console. Not enough ads, both TV and internet, and it catered too much towards children. Of course, Nintendo is more kid friendly than Sony or Microsoft, but with the Switch, they were able to provide a good balance in their marketing. With the Switch, they first marketed it towards young adults and then added children and families later on. If you looked back on their recent demographic data, most Switch owners are young, adult males. Now, with games like Mario Tennis, Super Mario Party, Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokemon, and Animal Crossing, which is notably more popular among women than men in Japan, among others, Nintendo can continue to expand the demographic of the Switch userbase.

As mentioned, the Wii U was difficult to work with for indies and third party developers. When sales declined significantly in its 2nd-3rd year, third parties no longer cared. Now with the Switch, we're seeing ports left and right, both from first- and third-party, partly thanks to an easier infrastructure to work with. Yes, it helps that the Switch is selling like gangbusters, but seeing more and more games come out for the Switch (almost reaching 1000, if it hasn't already), the library is getting more established and prestige, which intrigues new consumers.

And ultimately, while I like the Wii U, its not an attractive console (or one that made sense to consumers) compared to the Switch or even the Wii. I talked with a few consumers at various outlets recently, and they still either never heard about the Wii U or weren't sure if it was an extension of the Wii.

The games were great, but most of them came at a time the Wii U was obsolete. As great as Bayonetta 2, Splatoon, Pikmin 3, DKC: TF, Mario 3D World, Hyrule Warriors, Smash 4, Mario Kart 8, Xenoblade X, Fatal Frame V, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions were, they were too late. The only way Nintendo saved face was being able to release those games on Wii U no matter what happened to their bottom line, including Breath of the Wild. Could they have dropped the price? Maybe. But as we saw from their financial reports, they barely made much profit by sticking with the price. If they cut the price, would they have improved returns? Probably not. Improved sales may have not been worth it for them.

I mean, if you think Nintendo was pandering too much to their fans, why didn't they release a new Metroid or mainline Animal Crossing title? In fact, didn't they piss off the hardcore fans with E3 2015 alone?

Eh, I think the 2D sidescrollers are aimed at lapsed gamers who used to play hardcore games back during the NES/SNES era, but are now what I would consider casuals. Tropical Freeze was hard, but not as hard as DKCR. They softened it up a bit for the kids this time around. 

Maybe casual Wii owners liked the Wii enough to keep it and buy Just Dance every year. But for some reason they never bothered to pick up a Wii U. My best guess to explain this is that Just Dance players will play it on whatever platform is cheapest, since they only play 1-2 games a year. And Wii was the cheapest system to play it on at the time. And it had motion controls right out of the box. So for many Just Dance fans the Wii version was the best version (since it had motion controls), and the cheapest option. I mean, imagine you are a Soccer Mom wanting to play Just Dance. Your kids are always on the 360/PS3, and you don't want to shell out the money for a Kinect, or PS Move. Why not just use the Wii you already have, or pay the measly $99?

I agree completely that the Wii U failed to emulate the iPad. But they tried. That's why so many games had touch controls, shoehorned in. Nintendo thought the appeal of the iPad was the touch screen. It wasn't. The appeal of the iPad was the portability like you said. 

Going towards Open Worlds with Zelda/Mario is very much a hardcore gamer move IMO. And I can't find a single oldschool hardcore Nintendo fan that has ever complained about it for either franchise. Can you? 

Ding, ding, ding, ding, yes, motion controls right out of the box is the correct answer. I doubt the price is the main argument here, but motion controls are key.

I also doubt the motion gamers were only willing to buy one or two games a year. They basically had only Just Dance later in the lifecycle. Early on games like NSMBWii and Mario Kart Wii though sold record numbers. I mean Mario Kart Wii sold freaking 35 million copies. That's already more than 10 million more than Mario Kart DS, which was itself on wildly successful platform. Mario Kart 7 on 3DS barely reaches 15M, 20 million less than the Wii game. New Super Mario Bros Wii is only one million behind the DS game NSMB. Both are only beaten by the original Super Mario Bros. These record numbers are not possible, if you assume the gamers drawn in by the motion controls didn't buy other games - they obviously picked up Kart and NSMB. They were willing to purchase more than two games a year. Only Nintendo abandoned the motion gamers and the Wii, and so the sales were not fulfilled and the Wii-sales cut short by at least 20M. A freaking Nintendo move.

This is also the reason I not yet say the Switch will go past 100M. If Nintendo again pulls a Wii and drops support after 2019, than the Switch cannot fulfill it's potential. I don't even see Nintendo tapping into the full potential of the Switch by now. Motion gaming for instance is very possible on Switch and a new Switch Sports Resort would surely sell 20-30M. But Nintendo doesn't do it. Third parties try: Just Dance and Sports Party by Ubisoft, Go vacation by Namco and Hyper Sports R by Konami ... but attracting a new userbase means selling the console, you need to advertise console and game together - which is difficult for 3rd-parties. Nintendo has to draw in the userbase, and I don't see them doing it.

I agree