The sad part is customers will make this same mistake. 3DS sales were hindered by casual consumers not realizing it was a new device. They didn't want to pay more just to play the same games in 3D. Of course, it's a completely new device with completely new games.

If a reporter, at E3 can make this (admittedly stupid) mistake, so will thousands of others who will refuse to pay a lot of money for a fancy controller for their Wii.

Well at least they liked it. Someone should contact Nintendo to do some damage control before this confusion gets out of hand. Really should have called it Wii 2.

BBC uses Halo logo for UNSC, CNN fudges up here... For real?! It's 2012, gaming is global, get with the times...

Consumers cannot be that stupid.
No.....there's just no way.

yes, yes they can -_-

oh cnn how dumb can you be

Yup. It is literally mind boggling that Nintendo stuck with the name Wii U. 

Now 3DS was a bit worse because they had confused things themselves. You had DS, DS Lite, DS XL and DS i. Then they were surprised that your uniformed consumer thought 3DS was simply a new model with 3d? Insanity. 

With Wii U they have created the confusion themselves as well. Simply adding a letter to the end of a name isn't a clear indicator of progress. This is exaserbated by the fact that the console itself looks almost identical to the Wii from a distance. So your average consumer simply sees a different controller, which is what Nintendo themselves are massively pushing. So assumes the controller is the new thing and the console is the same. Simply brand it Wii 2 and alter the look of the console itself a little bit.  

Once again Nintendo has overestimated the intelligence of the average consumer and how clued in they are about gaming. As we both pointed out if CNN with a reporter at E3 can make this mistake then what are the odds Joe Bloggs walks into a shop and makes the same mistake?

EDIT: Oh god and I just realised through a LARGE part of the Nintendo Conference people were shown using the Wiimote with the Wii U. It was talked about how some games would support both of them for play etc. Also using the Wii balance board. It is even more understandable how the casual consumer is confused. You see a game being played with the pad where that person is managing the level while others are actually playing how you would expect on wiimotes. 

I used to respect you CNN, then you go and drop a bollock like this. *waves fist in an angry manner*

Last year was acceptable, this year is just ignorant.

well even me must admit that this is bad... CNN is so confused or maybe paid off by other companies