The only thing that hurt WiiU IMO is the hype of nextgen graphics. I'm not a believer in nextgen graphics being all that and a bag of chips. So I guess WiiU would have at very least not been scorned for graphics. But all of those third party launch titles we saw would have disappeared.. I for one really enjoyed them. 3-4 million head start ain't shabby either. I wonder this a lot but I'm on the fence.

Personally I think it should have released in 2011, but yea.. we saw that Nintendo was unable to provide a constant stream of releases with a 2012 release, so from a software development perspective that would not have worked out at all

No the launch date was fine, poor management of studios to ensure their high profile games were delivered on time seems the biggest issue to me. You really cannot read much into the sales figures until all next gen consoles are released as a lot of people will not commit to buy till they're all on the market. The doom for the Wii U could only be justified after the 2013 holidays imo.

Nope.

They needed the year start as this holiday will be hard pressed for game buyer's as it is with two new consoles coming out. If Wii U delayed it would probably have fared worse. This way some bought it and will buy one of the other consoles this holiday as well to complement each other.

Now, Nintendo will have a year on market... be more than 2x the userbase of either its competitors (by the end of the holiday season), have far larger library, worked its launch kinks out, and potentially be ready for its first price cut or at least massive bundling options.

Nintendo made the smart choice by launching when it did, even with the software woes and OS limitations.

nope.

But they should have managed there dev resources better, a game drought in the first 6 month of a console launch is unacceptable in my books.

Given the Wii was practically abandoned as soon as 2011 started, almost two years before the Wii U, I´m baffled the system (especially its OS) seems so rushed, and everything that surrounds the system, from the initial confusing presentation at E3 2011 to the horrible marketing, is like it´s made by a completely different company from the one that made the Wii.

Anyway, OP..despite everything..no.

No, they released the console at the right time. What they should have done was have more solid content for the system during its first year. It is too uneven. In a sense, I feel they squandered their year lead. Either way, people will gobble up their first party stuff when they drop.

No, they could'nt afford to wait a other year with Wii totaly dead and launch WiiU alongside PS4/X720. They also could'nt afford to skip the holiday season, so delaying it a couple of month would'nt do either.

What they SHOULD have done, is NOT understaff their development teams working on their launch window games.

No. WiiU - Sorry, I just consider WiiU a mistake. Period. But if it HAD to come out, it NEEDED to be on the market in 2010 to be relevant. I don't care what generation you want to call it, to the lay consumer, WiiU is the same as PS3/360 just more expensive with less memory and a hell of a lot less games. The gamepad is just NOT 'next gen', it's feels like an accessory for a current gen console. Which would have been okay in 2010. It's DOA in 2013.

Re: Games - everyone is on the money. Wii was already straved of games since 2011 so there's no excuse for WiiU not having games ready. Nintendo should have been ramping staffing levels up (or buying out studios) for years.

No. They have an advantage in sales that may be important. The  few months of drought may suck, but as proven many times in the past gamers tend to forget FAST, so all that will stay are the sales^^