Big Nintendo supporter for most of my life but I say this is ALL execution.
Nintendo failed in so many ways with the Wii U, it pretty much feels like it confirms my fears that Nintendo's upper management IS out of touch with the industry in more ways then just content for Western gamers. The concept behind the system is quite nice and could have worked easy, Nintendo however just half assed everything in regards to the system.
-Gamepad: The Gamepad is fine, the problem lies in that Nintendo did commit to it in a real sense. Before launch, red flags were thrown up when they seemed caught off guard and gave a half "maybe" answer to the potential usage of two Gamepads on one system. The info about them not selling the Gamepad separately added fuel to the fire. If Nintendo was serious about the Gamepad as a controller, playing with multiple Gamepads should have been the base line for the console, along with easy usage of being able to use the Gamepad to potentially grab video or picture of the games for the Miiverse and most would pay $75 or $100 a Gamepad sold separately if one could personalize profiles to have access to personal info stored via the Gamepad even when using a friend's Wii U. These type of features if available at launch would have made the system a much more appealing purchase for gamers.
- Marketing: One merely has to see how it was marketed in the US and I imagine around the world to see how they screwed up. It isn't just because they came in aiming for the family audience but it is that they aimed only at the family audience that the system and its launch line up suffered. Nintendo played into the hands of their detractors and are now suffering for it. A few more commercials displaying the 3rd party games early on, along with show casing features like Nintendo TVii, the social media aspects and how the Wii U is not JUST a new accessory for the Wii would have gone a long way.
- Software, absolute failure to be prepared. You can tell that Nintendo's stance on 18+ month development cycles for most of their titles was in full effect with the Wii U and by the time they realized it wouldn't work it was too late and only their most simplest software was ready. Maybe they were banking on 3rd parties helping but they should have seen this drought coming and had some sort of Plan B besides months of nothing new, then MH3U and Wario followed by months of nothing waiting on Pikmin. A legit major title that took advantage of the consoles features was needed at launch, Nintendo should have deduced by the trends of newer software that NintendoLand and NSMB U wasn't going to cut it.
I could go on about the Hardware specs but at this point, I think it is obvious that whoever was heading up this launch botched it worst then even the 3DS with seemingly financial based short cuts and poor decision based on past success they failed to replicate within the last few years of the Wii's life but thought would achieve different results with a new console. This maybe even worst then the N64 post launch drought since that system at least had a massive unique system seller available at launch.
