Are you impressed or not impressed with Wii U sales?

[HappySqurriel]

Mazty said:

The 3DS had massive price issues to begin with...
The Wii however had the "cool gadget" factor going for it. Nowadays that belongs to smartphones and tablets. The people who bought the wii for that reason have it now as a dust gatherer and certainly aren't looking for an upgrade. The wii u does not appeal to the casual market that invested so heavily in the wii, nor to the gamer audience as it offers the same games and a few casual titles. On top of this there is the marketting issue that people are not clear what it is  - many think it's just a new pad rather then a new console. 
If Steambox doesn't run windows, and is a mini-itx format, it could very easily cost $550 and be damn powerful as well. The advantage they'd have is bulk buying components if they aren't using customised parts. 

People bought the Wii to play local multiplayer games with family and friends, something that no one is really offering except for Nintendo ...

We know little about the Steambox yet, but the suggestion is that a company like Asus will manufacture it to sell the hardware at a profit; and, although the hardware will likely be powerful, I doubt it will be in the same price range as other consoles.

My point still stands though, Nintendo has an excellent idea of what Sony and Microsoft can produce and sell for less than $450 without going bankrupt and believes the Wii U is good enough to compete against them; and, while Nintendo could be wrong about what the market will support, I doubt Nintendo would be wrong about what Sony and Microsoft can produce. Nintendo probably is prepared to fight against consoles that are 2 to 4 times as powerful as the Wii U and come with their own advanced UI device.