Should Nintendo have delayed Wii U?

[NoirSon]

I'm going to say hell yes and sort of.

With the 'Hell yes', I'm not saying it should have been delayed a year, but obviously Nintendo wasn't ready when they did release the hardware and frankly probably would have been better off with a Spring 2013 release if they and other developers weren't getting the system enough to produce games at stable rate to fill the launch window. Heck, they could have used that time to improve the hardware a bit more, since it should have been obvious developers and media folk that disliked Nintendo from the jump would use any weakness in the system to knock it. And as we saw with the Wii that hurts the system in the long run even if it saves Nintendo money. Or at least make more improvements to get a better marketing strategy and features like the Nintendo TVii, faster load times, the Virtual Console or dual gamepad play set up from the jump rather then waiting for patches and updates.

The 'sort of' comes from the fact that if Nintendo was going to release the system in the state they did, I find it hard to believe that it wasn't ready 3 or 5 months before they released it in November. They honestly should have released the Wii U that summer, maybe convert a few of late release Wii games like something like Pandora's Tower or the port of Fatal Frame 2 they were working on, over to the Wii U since the lack of original software should have been obvious. Even using former Japanese exclusive software like Xenoblade or Last Story as digital software bait could have been done during a early release period to get people to jump aboard a early Wii U release. Unless the system was done made within 18 months (although knowing Iwata's era on hardware development that may have been the case) there should be no excuse as to why they didn't just drop the Wii U earlier then it was, as to have more time to build a audience or take in fans that would want the various late ports they used during the launch window.

So, Nintendo IMO messed up by treating this like it was a normal hardware launch, they should have either been more aggressive with a Summer 2012 release of the system or a little more conservative with a Spring 2013 where they could have worked to improve the system's launch titles or more time to sell developers/publishers understanding of its benefits to improve loyalty. By thinking in standard launch terms and frame without thought to the actual software needed to drive console sales, they sent their system out into the world with a hole through its gut and told it to run.