Do you agree with this point of view?

[Shinobi-san]

Its not difficult to understand where Nintendo went wrong with the Wii U.

Nintendo tried to create a console that appeals to both the core gamer crowd (PS3/360 gamers) as well as the casual crowd(wii gamers). To get the core gamer crowd they went for specific types of launch games like ZombiU and ports for well known 3rd party games like NFS, AC:3 and Batman. To get the interest of the casual gamer (which is always risky) they bundled the gamepad.

They failed on both fronts.

The games they had at launch as well as through out the last two years did not appeal enough to the core gamer crowd to entice them to switch to another console. Another console which appears to be more current gen than next gen. I think I am a good example here as a PC/PS3/360 guy...the stategy of Nintendo was to get guys like me on board but they failed to do that.

As for the casuals...well they just dont seem to be impressed by the gamepad. In fact i dont really think anyone is...The Wii remote was immediately enjoyable and would easily impress anybody walking into a shop watching someone play wii Sports. It looked fun, felt fun and was fun. An easy sell imo. They failed to recreate this with the gamepad. It was always going to be risky and well that risk didnt pay off and it never will.

At the end of the day it comes down to one thing: Nintendo executed their plan for industry dominance horribly. I think the idea behind it was sound: Create a system that both casual and core gamers would buy. While trying to appeal to both they failed at appealing to anyone (besides the Nintendo faithful obviously!).

What could they have done better? That's a tough question to answer actually. A question I probably dont have the answer to. If Nintendo was hell bent on appealing to both then I would say to Nintendo that they should have done more research into both markets. What will appeal to casual gamers? What are the core gamers excited about? The casuals will always be hard to figure out because its either a hit or a miss with them. But the core would be pretty easy...they like next gen looking games! They like beastly specs! Crazy promises and the hype to go with it! That kinda things. So yeah one market is unpredictable to please and the other just takes a lot of investment to please (good hardware with big AAA titles to show it off).

IMO building the perfect console is really difficult. In this day and age its tough to build something that everybody wants. Rather stick to what you get at but be the best in whatever it is. I think Sony realized this and are trying to make it happen. "The best place to play", its all in their slogan really. Nintendo needed to look at the Wii and ask them what was good about it? The answer would have been motion controls, games for everyone etc. They should have focused on those things and just done it much better.