technically I would say that it's 7th generation tech wise, Nintendo got away with holding back on graphics and such last gen because the Wii had innovative controls, the problem for them is that this time whilst the Wii U's tablet is innovation it's not as much as the Wii's motion controls where, which means that it's basically a last gen console trying to compete with current gen consoles, it's saving grace may well be it's price point which is far lower than it's rivals, ultimately I think whether or not it succeeds will come down to 2 things, the first is adoption of the current gen consoles, if people largely go for PS4/XBO then the Wii U could really flatline badly, the second is the games, if Nintendo can make great games to take advantage of the tablet and boost sales it can recover ground, it also needs them to really convince people to adopt it, some of the games coming out look promising in that respect.
myself I will probably get one eventually as I had a Wii, when will probably a while though as I want to get a PS4/XBO more right now, I am waiting/saving for those till (likely) late 2014 anyway though and instead in the short term I am focusing on PC gaming which is arguably better than current gen for some games anyway.
