I really do not know why Nintendo thought it would be a great idea to have 1/3 cost of the console be towards the controller. There is no one but Nintendo to blame for the  state of the WIi U. I still love mine but ugh.

@Scisca:

What your point was previously, correct me if I am wrong, that the Wii U has no games for the "gamer" demographic. Well, it does...less so for the closed minded gamer demographic but there are games for the gamer demographic. There is Pikmin, Wonderful 101, 3D World, ZombiU, Rayman Legends and a decent number of ports. What do you want exactly? yes, some of these games are skewed towards the "everyone" demographic but a gamer who is too "hardcore" to play games marketed by everyone is more flawed as a gamer than the console/Nintendo is. I believe that there are plenty of people out there who would enjoy the wii u but similar to the wii, ignorance is running rampant and hype is dominating the market so many quality products get overlooked (this obviously isn't exclusive to nintendo hardware).

Secondly, you can't discredit ports as unimportant, look at the sales for PS4/One ports as you have. Gamers arent receptive to ports on Wii U though...and whose fault is that? Its the fault of the gamers, as stated above. Yes, some of these ports are inferior, but whose fault is that? Well either gamers or the companies making them. They dont see a market because gamers arent receptive (negative feedback loop). The companies make worse games, so people don't buy them, so companies have more reasoning to not make good games etc. Third parties have never truly supported the Wii U and felt through the market though. Instead they add to the thought that 3rd party games are inferior and decimate their sales potential for the entirety of the console generation and beyond. The blame can be tossed around but who doesn't it fall on? Nintendo. Why should nintendo get blamed for this? They are pumping out a lot of great games, they are doing their part. People have constantly blamed Nintendo for the faults of 3rd parties but when has it ever been Nintendo's job to help 3rd parties make good games when they are perfectly capable of doing that themselves.

My point is that the games are there, the gamers are there but the Wii U still doesn't sell. You attribute it to a lack of game variety but I believe that is false. I think its a combination of the stigma surrounding Nintendo and the superior, elitist, "cool" mindset of gamers. This closeminded-ness is what drives gamers to buy the same Call of Duty games year after year, the same madden games etc. What can be done to fix this? Well not very much. What can Nintendo do to compensate? Sell their souls and start making shitty "cool" games? Im not quite sure what you are hoping Nintendo does. There are some people who just don't like Nintendo and that is totally fine but to say that they aren't doing their part backing the Wii U with games is BS. Nintendo has repeatedly pumped out the best first party lineup of games, year after year. Even in a slow year like this one they still mananged to pump out the long awaited Pikmin 3, one of the best mario games ever, a beautiful HD remake of one of the best 3D Zeldas and they funded one of the most underappreciated games of the year in Wonderful 101 and that is just on the Wii U. Wii U will continue being the black sheep of the console market while gamers complain about microtransactions and online passes or whatever the next money sucking cash grab is while simultaneously pleasuring themselves to 8GB RAM and explosions. Gamers need to get their heads out of their asses and start educating themselves (once again, not just vouching for Nintendo games but all the games that try to maintain their decency but get buried in the smoke and mirrors of the "AAAA" games market). What can Nintendo do without losing what makes them great?

@Max: I suppose I was wrong on that one, I dont understand how that figure makes any sense but alas...I still standby my statement that the Wii U is currently far from exorbitantly overpriced though.

Nintendo have got themselves into a sticky situation, HD game development is expensive!! they need consoles on the market otherwise they will never sell enough copies to cover the huge cost of HD development. They are set to lose alot more then they would if the handheld market was slowing down. Least handheld games don't cost an arm and a leg to make.

The pad probably adds a significant amount, but another issue may be the ability to cost down the system.  Cost cutting requires big investment.  With the system selling as slow as it is, investing in cost downs may lead to more losses.

Christ it's a good thing they release their titles digitally. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to even get them to their consumers. Shops wouldn't even stock them!

Yes my point is that there are no games for the gamer demographic when you are a gamer, not a Nintendo fan. You say: Pikmin, Wonderful 101, 3D World, ZombiU, Rayman Legends, all I can say is... Really? These are the games for gamers? All cartoony (Zombi U is the only exception out of ALL games Wii U has), nothing to excite someone who isn't in Love with Mario or other cartoony characters. Just Zombi U. You ask what I want? I want numerous exclusive core games on Wii U. A mature Zelda, a Metroid Prime, another FPS game, a TPP action adventure, X, SMTxFE and yet another RPG, a mature racing game. I want a lineup like that every single year. Say what you want, but games with realistic graphics just excite me more when I look at screens and think about them while not having them yet. It's just easier to get hype about such a game.

@ports. Gamers don't care about ports and it's obvious and only logical! You have to be extremely naive to expect a different outcome. This is totally Nintendo's fault and not the gamers' fault. They have created the situation in which buying the Wii U port is just the worst choice out of all platforms. The console is just a little bit more powerful than PS360, so the games are just direct ports (this is Nintendo's fault, they made it too weak). A direct port from a console I already own isn't worth paying $300 for a console, especially since it lacks trophies, has next to no players online, etc. It's just so poor, yet comes at an extra price. No way. On the other hand just watch the incredible videos of AC4 on PS4. The game is breathtaking and so much better than the PS3 or Wii U version. So what, do you expect people to pay $300 and play the same AC4 they can play on PS360, or pay $400 and play a much improved version? The blame is all on Nintendo, cause they've created this sick situation, gamers and 3rd parties are just adapting to the mess Nintendo caused.

Say what you want, but being just a regular gamer my bread and butter are normal games with rather more realistic graphics. Uncharted, Infamous, Remember Me, FarCry, Mass Effect, Dead Space, Assassin's Creed, Crysis, Witcher, TES, Gears of War, God of War, etc. You know, not just cartoony games. I love to play a cartoony, more childish game every once in a while, in fact I've just finished Tearaway a few days ago and think it's incredible. But after that I return to more realistic "serious" games and am buying Persona 4 Golden and The Walking Dead tomorrow. Cause cartoony games are good to play for a change. The problem is, they are all that Wii U has! And they just don't excite people and won't make gamers buy a console. They don't look that appealing. Nintendo has to accept that and return to making games that appeal to gamers, so they can draw them in and give them a chance to buy this cartoony Mario later on. But so far, it's only cartoony and cartoony games. Bleh. Wii U is weak by todays standards, but it can generate beautiful realistic graphics. Or at least it should be able to, it's not like anyone has ever tried :/ Nintendo has to be the one.

If you don't word it properly how is it worder??? Wrong.

The best part is someone denying the gamepad to have a significant cost... If Ninty is selling the console at 300 dollars for loss... If the Pad isn't expensive to make how can their weak HW cost so much to make?

No, baby. Don't do me like that. Don't take this away from me. I need them 40k! Every little bit counts!

Yep, the gamepad is expensive... $79.25 just for base parts according to this estimate.  At retail that is likely adding $100+.

http://www.destructoid.com/cnn-estimates-the-cost-of-wii-u-s-parts-to-be-228-249435.phtml

Slow sales aren't going to be helping them cut costs either.  Ninty significantly overestimated their sales this year, so they could be sitting on expensive inventory, and have poor economies of scale to cost reduce.