Like it has been speculated several times during Wii's lifetime and more so during the last few years, when Wii sales started to drop abysmally, Nintendo is now being hit by the fact that casual gamers (the biggest chunk of the Wii's audience, by FAR) are not loyal at all to brand and they just buy seasonal or temporary stuff which is what's popular at the moment and what's aired on TV constantly, positive word of mouth being highlighted here.
However, WiiU isn't that "got to have it" thing anymore, and I doubt that the majority of Wii users were dedicated gamers who played games with passion. I'd wager that a high percentage, 75% or more, were casual buyers being carried off by the hype that was flooding the media during the Wii's best years. Nintendo made some terrible decisions which ended up burying the Wii suddenly and killing the Wii brand, and that is now being carried to their newest console.
Core Wii owners probably felt ignored and betrayed by the lack of support, localization denials and overall casual look of the console. Nintendo had to sacrifice their image to go towards an audience which was going to buy their console, but an audience that will not be coming back, because Nintendo is not in the headlines anymore. Negative press is now the norm for the WiiU, that coupled with new must buy things that were absent during Wii's early years, like android phones, iPhones, tablets and other gadgets are the reasons why Wii U isn't managing to attract casual buyers.
Consumers are also more tech savvy today than they were 6 years ago. They know what they want for their dollars and there's so much more coming out today, that perhaps a $300 gaming machine that has nothing of interest for a person that barely plays games, is not on their top priorities. The 8 and 32GB of storage capacity also make it look like a poor choice, when much older and cheaper pieces of hardware have way bigger drives, no matter if it's HDD or SSD, the common consumer won't care.
To put things into perspective, the console had a lot of potential to become really big, but lack of information and publicity by Nintendo made it look like this was a mere upgrade to the Wii. Nintendo practically remained silent until the launch, almost no one was aware outside the internet gaming community. No news made the headlines, no one knew how would the console play, there was no "must buy" piece of software or anything that could show the machine's potential and create curiosity among possible buyers. And although launch was successful because of the tech enthusiasts and Nintendo fans, majority of possible consumers weren't even aware of this. Casual gamers still content with their Wii's and core gamers probably owning one of the other two HD machines have both narrowed their sales target.
And now next gen systems are around the corner, while current gen 360 and PS3 are both still very attractive choices with much more coming out.
Wii U had a lot of potential with the off TV Play, Miiverse, Asymmetric GamePlay, touch controls, Dual screen capabilities, all the things Nintendo could have highlighted and reminded us of to build up hype, but it all went unnoticed and now a mist of negativity engulfs it, taking away the chances of them being seen. Support is not coming anytime soon and no one is talking about their console. Both essential to attract core and casual buyers respectively. This sudden change of strategy shown by Nintendo during last ND is something that had to be done many years ago. Being secretive about a new console, what the hell is that? I mean, you are trying to sell your products and yet deny your probable buyers to know what to expect? Now early adopters are probably going to be a bit more relaxed about the future of their console, yet upset about the lack of support. Iwata once again apologized, and that is now becoming the norm. Investors will be deeply upset and defrauded by the overshot expectations which will be undoubtedly cut in their upcoming Q3 briefing.
Can Nintendo turn things around? I doubt it, as they are still resorting to the same tired formula. Even if their games are masterpieces, they lack brand originality. No new established IP's for years already, and people are like been here, done that with all the upcoming Mario games. Nintendo needs to begin thinking about moving on, they can't always rely on the same mascot, no matter how successful it has been in the past. NSMBU (Which looks like a rushed final-hour decision endeavour) sales prove this, as do Nintendogs+Cats and the new Brain Training sales, which is why I'm expecting Wii Fit U sales to be miserable. They have to start taking high risks and resolving problems at a faster rate. Consumers have been ignoring their home consoles since 2011 and their new system is already zombified, so they must go all out soon, even before E3. I will always state that the launch of the console was rushed, Nintendo should have waited a year, to have proper exclusive support, not old ports that damage the systems reputation and incomplete or missing online experiences like the promised TVii, the Virtual Console, user accounts, and a slow and clunky OS. Console is even lacking 1st party support, so that is very telling. That or Nintendo should have decided to start handling out dev kits about 2 years ago and focus more on the console launch to have it fully and properly functional before it released.
I admit I'm very tired and assume that my post is flawed at various stances, so please correct me, as I'm well open for a nice discussion because I'm embracing this topic with passion. I love Nintendo, but I dislike their current ways and approaches.
Edit: Let me add that a price drop will be very damaging to the Nintendo brand as a whole and from an investors point of view, even if it may help improve sales. It would be showing that the Wii U's value is lower, and that Nintendo as a company is incapable of learning from past mistakes, even from those that happened less than 2 years ago. Early adopters will probably be moving away from Nintendo come next gen if a price drop is announced before next year arrives.
