Yes NIntendo are panicking. Really though, consumers have shown their apathy and Nintendo just have to keep releasing games and keep dropping the price of the console. They need better marketing too. When the console starts selling in decent numbers then the console price will stabilise.
It's like anything if you make 50,000 of a ugly toaster or car or another product that consumers aren't too keen on you have to keep dropping the price until people start buying it if you have lots of stock of the product. Ultimately if it doesn't sell you are not motivated to commit funds to manufacture more stock which you will sell at a loss.
I can think of lots of ideas to re-vitalise the wii u but they all involve re-designing the gamepad and to a lesser extent the main console but none of this is possible until they sell the existing inventory which is likely to last well into 2014. My guess is there will be a new wii u sku for christmas.
