Nintendo handhelds have generally outperformed their home consoles. The 3DS had more breathing room to adjust its price. Development is quicker on the 3DS than the Wii U. The price cut was less than five months and the Mario games about 8 months post launch in the west. We're already six months into the Wii U's life, and it likely won't be getting better for at least a couple months.
Even the week directly before the 3DS price cut saw sales 70% higher than what the Wii U did last week. A few weeks prior and it was doing around four times as much as the Wii U. I'm not sure everyone grasps just how low the Wii U's sales are. People like to point to the 3DS and PS3 for slow starts, but neither of them saw sales this low, and it is likely to get worse in the coming weeks. So far it has trailed the Gamecube for six straight months in the US, and has fallen behind in Japan as well.
A lot of people seem to talk of wishful thinking, but surely expecting a miraculous recovery as well as the failure of its competition is the real wishful thinking. It would seem the wish was already granted otherwise.
With all that said, I don't necessarily think the Wii U will be a failure. However many people seem to brush away the current sales reality while acting like a recovery is already set in stone.
