They did have a better idea. The Wii 2--that is, the Wii in HD with improved motion controls.
Why? Sure, the casuals wouldn't come back in the same kind of numbers as with the Wii, but they won't come at all for the Wii U, and neither will most of the core. A tablet controller isn't going to make people suddenly turn away from the performance of a PS4 or 720 and the promise of a much more vibrant third-party library.
I actually grilled my niece, a genuine, in-the-wild casual, about the Wii and Wii U today. I asked her about her Wii and she told me she loved it, she liked Zumba, but she hadn't touched it in a long time because she hadn't had any friends over. She had zero, and I mean ZERO, interest in the Wii U. "I don't really know what it is" was followed by "I don't really want another video game system" and "I'd rather have more memory for my iPhone". Not making that up. (The Microsoft Surface got a simple "ew")
As I see it, the gamepad is going to do nothing to win customers away from other devices. It's going to make true-blue Nintendo fans happy, certainly, but many of them would have been happy if Nintendo handed them a half-gnawed ear of corn connected by a string to a waffle, as long as it had a picture of Mario printed on it somewhere. No, stop it, I'm kidding, you know what I mean. Confirmed Nintendo fans would have signed up regardless.
The Wii U is going to do fine because the people who like Nintendo software are going to buy it. But that's about it, unless they have a hidden ace up their sleeve. The Wii 2 would have at least been able to live off the ebbing tide of the casual market.
