The real is reason, is Nintendo simply lacks confidence. They act smaller than they actually are, shoot low, and pretty much underestimates itself.
What I mean is, Nintendo had a full 1 yr head start and did absolutely nothing but ruin their product's rep. After the success of Wii, it was a fairly safe/logical move to maintain backwards compatibility. But what a company should aim for is further expansion. Nintendo should have aimed for a more, well rounded console that really attracted "U" or everybody. Yes, that means a big jump in power, like the 160 mil PS360 gamers expect. But like a broken guy, humiliated by the hot girl and never the same again (gamecube failure), Nintendo didn't even think about trying to steal even some of the, again, 160 million ps360 gamers who are eager for next gen home consoles. They got half right IMO with the gamepad. But you don't offer pizza (gamepad) without the cheese (power), never, ever sacrifice power if you are trying to regain 3rd party/core gamer support.
Let this be a big lesson to Ninty: "IF YOU DON'T BUILD IT, THEY WON'T COME".
Now if Ninty wants to continue this path of not giving a flip about power/3rd party EQUAL performing games, then they should aim lower than $350 launch console. They have to revert to $199-250 range to get momentum going early on.
