Yes it was. If Animal Crossing and Wii Music had sold as well as NSMBWii and Sports Resort, the Wii wouldn't have had a price cut.

No. It performed under most expectations, but it did not fail. Not in sales nor as the next entry to the popular franchise.

It is just proof that Nintendo cannot be lazy. One half-assed title could cost them everything.

I am ASTONISHED that the benchmark of a game not failing is that it has to sell over 4 million. If that is a case, then a title like Killzone 2 would be a failure of epic proportions, as is Halo Wars...
wait, maybe we shouldn't consider a title selling over 3.5 million a failure.

I would have to say also that I have concern for the likes of Final Fantasy XIII also. How close will this game be to being a serious failure?

The only reason the game is because it was suppose to be flagship title.
The Same way Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, LBP were supposed to be flagship titles.
Yet either help in system sales growth, or move really huge units.

All have not done what they were hyped and planned to do. So ya there are alot of failures this gen. If you compare everything to Wii Play, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, Halo 3, Modern Ware 2, and NSMBWii. Then everything is a failure.

That's not the benchmark of a game being a success. But it's certainly below the benchmark of a Nintendo flagship holiday title being a success. After mega hits like Galaxy and Brawl and super mega hits like Wii Fit and Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Wii Music failed to push systems or reach that "evergreen status" that had been propelling the Wii forward. And because of it the system suffered in 2009. This holiday season however, Nintendo released titles that certainly do pass the unique benchmark that only Nintendo holiday flagship titles have to aspire to. Sports Resort and NSMBWii are not only mega million sellers that will go on to triple, quadrouple or even quintuple Animal Crossing's sales, but they're titles that will keep the Wii selling well in to the year.

At this point and time, outside of maybe a game like Gran Turismo, where the system flagship title hasn't been fully released, I don't know why would would expect a new IP or sequel first time around to a new IP, is supposed to move a lot of systems?  So, yes, if you use titles that have done obscenely well, then smaller titles on a console, would be failures, which looks like madness to me.

Has a system ever had more evergreen titles than the Wii has had?  I can't understand why everyone would expect all releases to go evergreen on the Wii.

I don't see how 3,75m sales for recycled game could be a failure.

Because Nintendo expected it to? Because they pinned their holiday season (and the first half of 09) on this and Wii Music. And since the DS iteration has sold about 10 million units, they had plenty of reason to think it would do pretty damn well. The Wii's success has been largely attributed to those mega selling games. Nintendo tried to keep up momentum with two games that didn't live up to their expectations, and the Wii suffered in 09 because of it. That's a pretty good reason to say the game failed.