I'll never forget. Nintendo seemed to drop that after 2013 when AAA third-party support died.
The initial framing at E3 events and other PR by Nintendo as Wii U for being more for "core gamers" is so laughable.
Due to the slow clock speed and less than ideal architecture, third-party Wii U games were almost never superior to Xbox 360 and PS3. In fact, some performed worse (Arkham City has more frame drops). This is sad because the Wii U's RAM and GPU are far superior to the 360 and PS3 (though not close to Xbox One or PS4).
In addition
-Online still sucked (just like it does on Switch). How are you focusing on core gamers (or any players for that matter) when you don't have a solid and easy to play with and socialize online service?
-The GamePad was forced. Most core gamers don't want a big tablet with a touchscreen forced on them. There should have been SKUs of the Wii U with no GamePad and the Pro Controller instead.
-Paltry storage. 8 GB is almost entirely useless, and 32 GB doesn't cut it either. Xbox 360 and PS3 had SKUS with 120 GB and up. Since the Wii U can support external hard drives, then why didn't Nintendo include an internal hard drive too?
And those are the key takeaways. Ironically enough, Wii probably has a lot more worthwhile games in its library for core gamers than Wii U.
Switch is pretty much the perfect combo for all types of players.
Lifetime Sales Predictions
Switch: 161 million (was 73 million, then 96 million, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million, then 151 million, then 156 million)
PS5: 115 million (was 105 million) Xbox Series S/X: 48 million (was 60 million, then 67 million, then 57 million)
PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)
3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)
"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima