The only failure on Nintendo's part is the lack of major first party titles. If Pikmin 3 had not been delayed the system would be a much greater success by now. Also games like Wii Fit U and Mario Kart would have given the system millions more sales. This is the only failure so far, and it will be corrected in the coming months, where sales will pick up and all these doomsayers will be proven wrong yet again.

People put a lot of faith in Pikmin 3.  A fun series but has it ever really been a heavy hitter?

Both pikmin 1 and pikmin 2 sold over 1 million each, with pikmin 2 selling more than pikmin 1. I, personally, know a lot of people who are holding out on getting a Wii U until Pikmin 3 is out.

they should have never made the gamepad and instead released it on its own and used the 3ds as tge gamepad, would have meant much cheaper system and much better tablet

Indeed or just release a real Nintendo tablet as a thirth system to fill in the gap.

Well, as a launch in general they have done poorly. Dating back to e3 2011 they have done a poor job of hyping and communicating what the Wii U is. At launch they didn't have a must-have game, and the Basic Wii U was probably a waste. The OS was not up to par and they had a major software drought. The marketing was awful. The end result is that they have done about as well as MS did with the 360.

So I guess you could say they did OK with the head start. Like the 360 - which had an awful launch with defective systems, no must-have games, etc - the year head start has given Nintendo time to work out the bugs. They've fixed the OS and found what works and what doesn't for their system. They know that their current marketing is awful. They know that NintendoLand is not Wii Sports. They have their manufacturing in full swing which could allow for price cuts.

I liken the current Wii U situation to that of the Sega Genesis. Like the Sega, Wii U has struggled against previous-gen competition. But like Sega, Nintendo has time to react. Sega was able to launch Sonic and a great ad campaign as SNES was trying to find its legs. Nintendo needs to revamp its marketing and develop a killer app to sell the system. Nintendo needs to have this in place by 2014 or be forgotten by time.

Nintendo dropped the ball, because - coming after Wii - they had a shot at being a PS2-like market leader if they brought a product and excitement that could capture the whole industry. They failed at this miserably. But their head start - like any videogame industry head start - is still somewhat of a success because it has given them a 5 million or so install base above the competition and time to work out their mistakes.

Considering how quickly Wii support up and evaporated, the lack of games for the WiiU in its first seven months is pretty much unforgivable. I, along with many other people, quite reasonably assumed that Nintendo had moved off Wii to ensure that the WiiU would hit the ground running in terms of software support, making the most of the early start, but it was not to be.

WiiU software at launch was solid, if not fantastic, but certainly the lack of a real flagship title for either the core or casual was glaringly obvious. The never-ending drought that followed coupled with the total lack of any real effort to market the system was just baffling to me.

The first year is largely squandered but it isn't quite over. If they have most of what they have announced to market by the middle of next year, some consistent and good marketing and throw in a sneaky price drop and you have the makings of a compelling product. Do all of this and Nintendo might just be able to take advantage of likely supply shortages for the incoming consoles and perhaps then we can say the first year wasn't entirely wasted.

So the question that rises here is, if they weren't doing games for Wii the last two years of the console cycle, and they didn't have games ready for the next 7 months of the Wii U launch, then, what the hell are they doing?

This is what I can't figure out. They weren't making Wii games. They clearly weren't making Wii U games. The 3DS went through its drought... what the hell were they doing?

It's been brilliant!

They launched a year early to get the usual 'Nintendo is doomed' out of people systems prior to the start of the next generation. Sales will pick up as the games (finally) start coming and the usual holiday boost Nintendo gets and by 2014 we'll all be 'doomed' out and just talking about upcoming games.