Deliberately deceptive or just incompetent? Either way it won't look good.

QFT. Sony fans were told we couldn't handle the "facts" and "truths" in those thousands of threads that were posted over a two year period. Seems some people can't stand when the tables are turned. With all those VITA is doomed threads, Nintendo fan(boy )s were just asking for it when Wii u launched.

They have clearly lost all sense of direction in the market today, especially the West, and they clearly rushed out a console with a severe lack of basic appeal as a result of this.

what were these truths over that period i dont remember

oops... thanks

I'd assume they didn't adjust them last quarter because it would impact market confidence going into the Christmas sales season. There was enough negative news surrounding Nintendo without them adding to it. I get the feeling they know they'll need damage limitation and are preparing for Iwata to step aside at the end of their financial year (falling on his sword for missed targets), with someone replacing him as Nintendo Japan and Global President, while Iwata moves to Nintendo America to resume the role he took last year. Whoever takes the global role can then say that he'll adjust sales expectations more in line with market reality.

EDIT: To more directly answer the poll, I think it's a combination. I think the initial numbers were misguided by optimism--an optimistic assumption that the products Nintendo had prepared, despite being very different from the products that sold Wii/DS so well in a radically different market, would perform far more strongly than they were actually likely too. I also agree with others than the higher estimates were due to not wanting to undersell their products in terms of market confidence, but I think Nintendo stuck to their estimates (even when it became obvious they couldn't hit them) to avoid damaging market confidence during the crucial year end sales season, as I outlined above. 

Third party. When your first party isn't as strong you can still sell consoles based on third party titles. They are console sellers as well. Problem Nintendo has convincing people about their console is that when you go to Best Buy and check out the Wii U and then you see the PS4 and Xbox one displays its just not that impressive.

it wasnt like they were doing great prior to PS4 and xone on the shelves and thats really bad. THe new systems are just making a bad situation worse.

Truth. Its about to get worse as well.

They are simply delusional.