I disagree, I think the mainstream media isn't excited about it because they don't know what it is, nor know of it's existence.

what does that have to do with anything?

nintendo expect to sell 5M by 31 of march 2013 and probably more than 13/14M by the end of this year... why do they care about this if PS4 and Xbox 720 do not sell nothing now? may you ask. well share holders and investors are there for something. no price cut will make it hard to achieve those expectations.

its like saying they launch early to sell incredibly poor but it does not matter because they only need to sell well after the competition is out...

no way in hell. just looking at 360 numbers i say this couldn't be possible. if it is then damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really? If they thought it was a Wii add-on then when they tried to buy it, they would have found out it was a new console when they went to the stores or looked online....then they would ask themselves why would they buy a $300 Wii U that has $60 retail games when they can buy an iPad mini for $329, which has thousands of free games available for download. I think that Wii U gamepad is a double-edged sword.

People know what it is by now, they don't don't see why they need to get it. (Cue epic dubstep commerical.)

yes, really, Consumers are still confused about the 3DS and the DS let alone the Wii U.  I was in Target looking at Wii U games and a woman was confused on which DS she needed.  There was the regular DS and it's multiple colors, 3DS regular with it's multiple colors, and the 3DSXL along with it's various price points.  Deciding to help the poor woman out, I went over and explained the differences to her and then helped her through the process.  She wanted a 3DS, but almost bought a DS instead.  I was in GS before that and some woman had no idea what the Wii U was and I told her about it, because she came up inquiring about it.  Also, people seeing it demoed in a store does not equate to them having any knowledge or inquiry about it.  It can be promo'd in a store and people still not show interest in it because of product similarity.  Your assuming firstly that people know about it, secondly, your also assuming people are inquiring about it and I'm saying the masses in general are not doing both of those.

i strongly disagree, people know, but not the masses nor the casuals.  I say Nintendo needs a lot of strategic marketing this year to differientiate and educate the masses.  

360 numbers dont refect 720 numbers. hehehehehehe

These numbers are obviously off considering VG always adjusts to media create or famitsu. Those numbers do not come until wednesday, so the Japanese centric consoles could be adjusted a lot. Europe and US is probably more accurate though.

People talking about what the Wii U "needs"... it hasn't been out for 2 months. It's pretty early to be calling for a huge price cut. It's not selling as badly as the Vita was (or is), and that still hasn't gotten any kind of price cut. Let's see how the Wii U is selling after it has some actual game releases outside of its launch line-up. We don't even know anything about its Holiday 2013 line-up.

Japanese sales are particularly irrelevant for Wii U. This past home console generation, Japan was a smaller market than the "rest of the world" according to VGChartz. Even for the Wii, Japan represented less than 10% of hardware sales. America and Europe are MUCH more important for home consoles, so that's where the Wii U has to sell well. It's gotta get its act together in Europe, but again, that might just be a matter of a few big releases like LEGO City and Wii Fit U.