Was the Wii U a good console?

[Wman1996]

OlfinBedwere said:

In terms of overall system design it was truly awful, probably the worst-ever console from a major manufacturer.

In terms of game library however, it’s hard to deny that Nintendo and their associated developers bought their A-game. And the gamepad did highlight the utility of off-screen play.

Subjective, obviously. It has a lot of poor design choices but something like Atari 5200 and Atari Jaguar were worse. Granted, maybe you don't consider Atari major. Virtual Boy was a worse design, for sure. It's not really a home console, or really much of a handheld either. It's a tabletop contraption. 

But the fact that I had to reference two Atari consoles and the weird Virtual Boy in a way proves your point more.

I have to say, Wii U's backwards compatibility seems like an issue with the console's architecture. Nintendo put the Wii hardware into the design of Wii U so it would play natively. Thus, PowerPC was used again (as it had been in GCN and Wii). Wii U's CPU is so slow, even slower than 360 and PS3. And that has real-world implications. Some Wii U multiplats have more frame drops than older consoles like 360 and PS3. Wii U having more RAM and a better GPU than those consoles isn't really enough of a real-world boost most of the time.

Publishers only want to work with frustrating or weak hardware if there is a return on investment. PS2 was easily the hardest sixth generation console to develop for (that includes three other consoles) and yet look at how many games came to it. Wii U just wasn't worth the hassle for most.