Gamepad functionality? Because casuals are absolutely on board with the gamepad.

If anything Xbox Fitness is more innovative and appealing, with real workout programmes by famous trainers, that and being free for a year.

Wii Fit U comes with a small step counter that tracks the number of steps you take during the day, and also how many calories are spent, and the changes in altitude to calculate how much elevation you have covered during the day. The information can be transferred to the Wii U and used to complete challenges such as walk through various cities in the world or climb famous mountains.

It's pretty cool, but will people buy it? Time will tell.

I was not aware of that at all, for me it's mostly a personal principal though. My principals classify it as wrong, JL's principals probably don't. But then, as far as ethics go and marketing towards kids is a non-issue I will also resent the idea that anyone can oppose companies charging money for online services, DLC and produce hardware with a higher failure rate and mark that as unethical in a capitalist environment that has takes no issue with making young children into consumers. Heck; many smartphones and tablets have horrible failure rates across the line and people make a fortune repairing these fragile devices. I'm glad you wrote this though; these nuances are interesting and important in the big picture regardless of my feelings on the matter.

If JL really wants to have a go at some companies with questionable ethics regarding pricing, hardware and overall consumer treatment, I think he should place Google, Facebook and Apple way higher up on the priority list. It's somewhat a question of moral relativism then, which could be a problem, then again; a lot of JL's arguments are partially or entirely hinged upon personal opinions and views rather than clean, measureable metrics.

I've been thinking about what you said earlier about both me and JL possibly being wrong about what Nintendo intended with the Gamepad; that the selling point was primarily asymetric gameplay and not touch and that might very well be true. However; regardless of the original intention of the concept(s), I still think it will fail to reel in the "casual" audience that bought the Wii in droves. They might not be lost forever to some form of home console but I honestly believe that the Wii U and the Gamepad are not the bait to lure them back, not even close. I think that this audience is going to be a non-factor in the entire 8th gen, both for dedicated handhelds and home consoles and I think that Microsoft pushing their Kinect 2.0 as a mandatory part of the One is a massive mistake; they're offering a form of controls and interaction that would in most cases appeal to a customer base that wouldn't otherwise thrive on their overall platform environment, this is just another attempt at forcing market convergence and it will fail. It doesn't even make any kind of developmental, conceptual and philosophical sense, Nintendo are at the very least already known for being a bit out there with some of their hardware and solutions. I'm 100% sure that Kinect will not have any impact on traditional gaming, or perhaps even gaming at all and will largely be implemented as an interface addition. That will make it hard to defend long term, both the added cost and policy and adding of a piece of kit that really doesn't serve any real purpose for the platform on the whole. I honestly do not understand what they were thinking; their pedigree in software is top notch but they are showing a fairly big lack of understanding of hardware appeal and overall demographics with this move, in my opinion.

my runderstanding is that people don't know the wii u is a new console and feel its just outdated technology

Like I've said too many times in here already; Wii Fit U has no chance against the onslaught of the mobile/tablet. Look at these for instance;

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/the-10-best-fitness-apps-8750925.html

Garmin Fit

"This app uses the GPS tracker on your phone to track your speed, distance and elevation. It will also calculate how many calories you've burnt using your weight, height and age, and you can listen to your own music while you run." Price: 0.69£

Myfitnesspal

"Take the stress out of weight loss by tracking how many calories you've eaten without having to crunch the numbers yourself. Monitor what you eat using the barcode scanner or by searching the database of more than three million foods." Price: Free.

Strava cycling

"A GPS tracker with a difference: not only does this app measure your speed, distance and elevation as you cycle, it also allows you to compete with other cyclists who have ridden the same "segment" of road or trail. It also helps you to suss out the best nearby cycle routes." Price: Free.

These apps do all the things Wii Fit U does and even a lot more at a fraction of the price or even for free and they are available on a segment of the market that sold 930.000.000 devices last year that people bring with them everywhere, extensions and improvements of items as common as wallets, make-up, watches and shoes. There is not a single reason why people would want to pay 60$ for Wii Fit U (20$ on the promotional version), even more if you don't have balance board. How on earth will this help the Wii U at all on a market like today? When Wii Fit and Wii Fit + launched, the smartphone/tablet market was very small compared to today, fitness apps weren't an item at all and these games were sold on the definitive "it" console of the time. Today's convenience driven market will swallow Wii Fit U whole and this is yet another show of Nintendo being utterly out of touch with the market, Wii Fit was a brilliant idea when it launched, but they're thinking they can do the very same thing again under astronomically different circumstances and dramatically worsened conditions for them on the (potential) market. This isn't Mario; they can't just throw it out and expect it to sell great by default.

Please, stop with these short posts containing links and the unexplained lofty predictions, take your time and really show me how this Wii Fit U situation will work in any conceivable way. And while you're at it; tell us why the Wii U will continue to sell holiday numbers into and through Q1 of this year. You can't call seece and others' posts useless or meaningless if this is all you insist on offering in here.

^Is this supposed to be your "confrontational side" because I not at all intimidated. Your main concern should be John Lucas. Did my posts offend or hurt you emotionally in some way? If so, I could care less. Iwata must have pissed in your cornflakes to react in such a way.

LOL wtf. No that is mummel calling you out, I can't imagin why he would be emotionally hurt by your post, your post seems rather angry and out of the blue though!

Enjoy your ban though (Pretty sure that was intentional to get out of putting up a rational argument, well done )

Hmm... The only one who looks to be offended and hurt is you. Mummel took the time to actually come up with a well formed and valid argument to counter your assumptions. You're the only one who looks to be hurt here, made clear by this overly aggressive attitude of yours. 

Lol, he just wants you to stop making outragous predictions without anything backing them up. Don't just post one sentence saying WiiU will sell more than 3m units in Q1 2014 without any sort of explanation. Even Zero offers arguments when he makes his predictions, even if they make no sense. 

I'm telling to you to join the conversation. My "main concern" between and during the JL bouts is that you and a lot of other members are constantly droning on about my flawed logic and poor argumentation yet you never show me how and where. You also go on about "disagreeing with some of John Lucas' points" yet never explain what any of these are. I can perfectly well debate more people at once, I think the main issue here is that you are completely incapable of arguing yourself so you lean on others and avoid throwing any proper words from your own angle into the mix. You don't offend me, I just came home from a great day at work and and I'm in a good mood, random guys on the internet tend not to interfere with that.

I'm not trying to intimidate; I'm calling you out on double standards regarding your ongoing complaints about how others don't contribute and then you go and make hit & run one liners every now and then. It's starting to look increasingly silly of you to slam my posts and then never offer any reasoning as to why, the "lol, that's stupid and flawed" mentality belongs on youtube. I even gave you a very simple query; present and refute three points of mine, they should be easy enough to find since my posts are rife with them and then find one single point of John Lucas' that you disagree with and explain why. If I'm as a bad at debating and reasoning as you claim and your independent take on this thread is in any way present; this should take twenty minutes of your time at the most.

Iwata did not piss in my cornflakes, he's in Japan and I'm in Stockholm and, besides; I don't even eat cornflakes.

The emotional reaction here is entirely yours, clearly.