On basically every games website, forum, newspaper and tv segment covering videogames, were you hibernating in 2006/2007?

Yes I remember the "high jumper fail" PS3 gif that would get thrown around when the PS3 failed to top 100k in a NPD month. It was roasted relentlessly, lol. 

The scary thing is the Wii U is selling considerably worse than the PS3 was even back then. October 2013 for Wii U 50k < 60K .... lets be nice and assume that's 59k ... the PS3 sold 121k its first October (2007). 

And the PS3 was $499.99 at that time versus $299.99 for the Wii U (w/game bundled). 

OK one question. Slightly different subject.

Something I always wanted to know from an actual Japanese person living in Japan.
From where I see it in America, it seems that handhelds are the primary console over home consoles in Japan.
Americans erroneously tend to think of handhelds as junior consoles, secondary consoles with home consoles being senior consoles, primary consoles.
It goes back to when black & white Game Boy couldn't capture the arcades as good as the home consoles could.

I know that in Japan Microsoft is no factor in the videogame console world.
So there are only 2 actual competitors in the console market: Nintendo & Sony.

Being that handhelds seem to take priority over home consoles over there, why didn't the PlayStation Vita do better than it did?
Even if it isn't winning against the 3DS why isn't it even competitive, if there's anticipation for PlayStation products over there like you said?

If PS4 buzz is great like you say, how come there seems to be no buzz to Vita which accompanies the PS4?
I want to understand a little more how the Japanese market works.
John Lucas

Console business is finished in Japan anyway, I think it's kinda pointless to invest much energy talking about it.

Vita will sell more there than either the Wii U or PS4, and 3DS will continue to be dominant there until when ever Nintendo releases their next handheld (console hybrid?) which will be the final nail in the traditional console's coffin.

"Wii U is actually losing sales week on week" - I suppose, if you look at only two weeks total, you might think that.

Wii U sales decreased by a relatively small 13% between the week of the 2nd and the week of the 9th. All of this is due to a decrease in Japan, which doesn't typically see a particularly big holiday season. In America, Wii U sales are up 43% week on week. In Europe, it's up 40% week on week.

And if you look at the week-on-week before it, Wii U saw a 149% increase. So the two-week average increase is a 47% increase week on week (not a linear average, but the result if you assume the same week-on-week percentage increase in both weeks).

Much of that 149% increase was due to Japan, too. But in America, there was a 38% increase, and in Europe, it was a 17% increase.

So when it comes down to it, your initial claim was just plain wrong. And this invalidates your entire argument, since it's the crux, the foundation stone on which you base the entire argument that the Wii U is heading for total irrelevance.

Well said, spot on.

That said it will be a long cycle for the Wii U. 3DS is keeping Nintendo afloat right now. It really all depends wheter Wii U's 2014 lineup changes that but unlike the rollercoaster 2 years the Wii had, the Wii U will have to emulate the PS3 and grind its momentum slowly. It won't be nearly as succesful but they could turn this around definitely. 

PS4 and XBone, too early to tell. They'll definitely sell a loooot of consoles though that's for sure but launch window is not an indicator of anything. Look at PS3's first week in Europe for instance, quickly died out. Sure it doesn't have the insanely inflated price tag but hype is much bigger factor than it used to be. Ps4 sales will definitely not be spectacular after Christmas (probably solid), but it won't gain stead till the real next gen games release.

Primarilly down to where capcom chose to release the most monster hunter games, and because the massive PSP library not moving over to the Vita yet gives most sony-handheld owning japanese little reason to shift.

I still see on trains, people, young and old, using PSPs just as much as i see them using 3DSs, the Japanese associate mobile gaming more firmly with Nintendo than they do Sony, where as they associate home consoles more firmly with Sony than they do Nintendo.

Essentially the vast PSP library works against the Vita more than the success of the 3DS,
The concurrent support and support going forwards for the PS3 and its already large install base means that it's significantly more popular in Japan than both the Wii and WiiU, with a vast number of people excited for the new console.

That said, despite the relatively quiet performance of the Vita in Japan, it is still more popular here than the WiiU.

Some history for you, since you seem to like it.

In the past few generations, Nintendos focus on their home consoles has been geared more towards reflecting the performance of its sales in the japanese market, than anywhere else, even at times when things have been fairly good elsewhere, when consoles have fallen into dangerous areas in Nintendos native Japan they are quick to pull the plug.

While it may not make financial sense, it is simply the way of the Japanese, Nintendo are a Japanese country, japanese customers reception to their products for nintendo, outweighs that of outside performance.

Right now? even Japanese developers and publishers are looking towards moving away from Nintendo home consoles and to Sony home consoles while keeping a proverbial foot dipped in the handheld nintendo market, barely any will touch the WiiU, and the japanese influence over Nintendo and japanese developers and publishers moving away from their home platform plays a large part of the reasoning for Nintendo to investigate penitrating the much larger mobile marketplace.

You arent going to like hearing this, but the general tone here from other developers and publishers is the assumption that Nintendo will, by late 2016 be a business primarilly focused on handheld (3ds/mobile) and arcade, with little to no focus, commitment or funding going towards their, by that time, most likely stagnant home console market.

Nintendo will remain financially viable due to 3DS sales. This isn't the first time Nintendo launched a failed home console. The N64 and GameCube were consecutive commercial failures, yet Nintendo remained in business because of their handheld department, which has always been profitable. Even if we take the 3DS out of the equation, Nintendo sits on a huge pile of cash, I believe its around 10 billion dollars. So even if they somehow managed to screw their handhelds too, it would take years and years of consecutive failed products like the Wii U before they could go bankrupt.

Nintendo aren't irrelevant no matter how much people want them to be. I think they just struggle to find there place when it comes to home consoles.

Also, it's too early to tell what the end result will be

Confused is you. N64 and GC both made Nintendo plenty of money. Xbox was a commercial failure yet it sold slightly more than GC.

Nintendo has only had one fail product and that was the virtual boy.