Marketing is fine. I saw plenty of ads around launch and there are in-store demo units.
The Wii brand just isn't as strong as it was before.

Let's see! $300 million in revenue. In about 1 month.. in a market saturated by 360s playstations and 3D handhelds.



I'm going to start a list of names of DOOMERS to publish in two years. Nintendo offers something no one can ..fully integrated tablet controls and wireless HD streaming. Oh ye of little faith... Build bad ass tech and they will come.

why can't nintendo promote wii u like this???

By all rights, there's nothing wrong with the launch of the console. Given the environment it launched, in, it couldn't have done much better, but it still did well. Advertisements might have helped, but the sort of people that's most likely to attract can be snapped up anytime; they're not the ones Nintendo needs as early adopters.

With that said, the Tie ratio is concerning. More, it's clear now that they're not going to hit their predicted numbers; just how did they think they'd sell 24 million games by April?

The sales problem is explained by one simple question: Why?

Why own one?
Why spend the extra money for an hd box?
Why rush out to buy one when there's no risk that you won't be able to buy one a week down the road when you decide you gotta gotta have one?
Why buy one when the games are lack lustre at best?


There's just no hype...no rah rah I gotta own this...

There's a real thing that I believe people are not considering here. We saw exponential growth last generation with sales on the WII. A lot of people don't even play with the WII they bought, why would they buy another?

If you take brand loyalty out of the mix, why would you pay over $100 more for an hd box?

A ton of us on this site bought one because we just have to own one of everything but when I put myself in the mindset of your average joe looking to buy a new console...I see WiiU as something i'm not going to be able to play online with my friends, I see a console with few new games, I see a console with potentially confusing technology, I see a console I can't trade games between friends or rent from stores.

Nintendo was BRILLIANT with the WII...absolutely mind blowingly BRILLIANT. They brought tens of millions of new customers to the console market. People need to stop expecting that THOSE customers are going to act in the same manner as the existing console customers which tend to be a little more hardcore and a little more bent towards buying a new console just because.

Maybe i'm a little off but I just don't see a whole lot of reasons for people to own a WiiU...yet.:)

my opinion most gamers own a 360 or ps3 now and are not looking forward to the wii 2 or wii u, the wii never established it self with COD crowd which is the biggest crowd that buys and play games, and are just not interested in the wii u, sure the wii sold great but really it only sold cause of the motion tech. i have been a gamer since the nintendo days and i always cared about graphics, i can't imagin a gamer that only owns a wii and seeing ps3 and 360 games looking a generation better and feeling very disappointed in his wii.

the only reason people buy an Xbox or PS3 is because they are cheap. Most than 40% of the sales of both consoles came after a significant price reduction. When the next generation comes then we can have an idea if the Wii U will sell well or not.

It's a soft launch.. Won't sell like gangbusters until price drop and more exclusives...  It's non-issue right now.

The WiiU is strange and different. Just like the Wii was. What it needs is software to entice the masses to understand and enjoy it. More than it currently has since obviously what exists is _not_ good enough, period. The Wii had this. I did not like the Wii, motion gaming is almost completely not my thing, but it had compelling software that lots of people enjoyed. Until the WiiU has this it will continue to be lackluster.

Those who want to cite that fact that the WiiU has had a better launch window than any other before should note that this is _not_ hard to do. There are now more gamers alive now than there were when the Wii or any other console that has ever existed. When you look at the WiiU launch, in terms of inflation, it is much less impressive. And as it currently stands, it is being kicked in the pants by consoles that are many years its senior.

Suffice to say, until the day when the WiiU finally gets Nintendo mainstay software we can't truly tell what's in store for the console. Like the 3DS, it could flag for a period of time then skyrocket to mass sales or like the GameCube it could be relegated to an also ran.

these system have been out for 7 years and there still 179.99-249.99, the wii u just came out, its a new system with a sequel to a  mario game that sold 20 million last gen, at 299-349$ it should sell fine, but its not.