The way Nintendo is handling this, with the games they're planning on being announced at the next E3, is a risky move, but I think their attempt at creating hype mid-September with a media event, might get them out of that ditch.
Nintendo has always been the butt of jokes with the "hardcore" gamers even when Nintendo was successful (see: SEGA).
If it weren't for the expansion to the casual market with the Wii, Nintendo would've died as a hardware and software company (which is terrible but true imo). Hardcore gamers somehow saw this as betrayal when they themselves bought a PS2 (who didn't?), the weakest console.
Their problem has always been trying to find the older audience, but there's already been a negative stigma attached to them.
The gaming media (which is pretty pathetic right now) is adding fuel to the hate for several reasons.
For one, they would garner the views of angry Nintendo fanboys. Not only this, but Nintendo's influence in media (as said above) is much less than the others.
For another, it brings in the hardcore who are willing to watch how Nintendo will fail yet again. Whether it's because they purely hate Nintendo, or simply because they are curious about Nintendo.
The positive news is very stifled; rarely do you see positive news on anywhere but Nintendo fansites first thing. That's pretty bad.
In short, the Nintendo tradition (surprise = hype) leaves a lot of the media frustrated. Not only that, lack of news leads to possible rumors. Bad rep among the hardcore damages their products' image. The E3, while not as bad as people exaggerate (the hype was too intense), still left people with a bad taste in their mouth.
All of this combines into reason for the media to sling mud at Nintendo. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the bad anonymous sources were indeed media created bullshit.
I think you guys should be excited for September 13th instead of being anxious for the Wii U. If they can manage to get the hype back with the price + launch date released and maybe some specs or future products announced, it should be fun to watch as the media would backtrack more than likely.
