Good point.

No offense but to me some of nintendos actions looks like a headless chicken. Then dont know what to do. Once they go one side (getting third party support) and then they go another side (chasing casuals). IMO nintendos is still out of focus. They need to set a concrete goal.

I think it could still sell pretty well, but not at $300. If there is no big game that uses the gamepad the should release a version without it for $200. Even a new Wii-U sports game with some brilliant modes could sell well at $250 incl. the game.

When ever there's a convo about casual and core gamers it feels like they're different species in reality they're all shades of grey.

There are probably many who mainly enjoy casual games but want some variety and like the odd game that doesn't fit into the casual bracket. There are a lot of ps3 owners who never owned more than a few games, and I see them very much as casual gamers, but those few games are games like gta. I'm sure that many of the former console owning smartphone/facebook gamers think back to the great times they had with a real console. Maybe they enjoyed a game like mario galaxy between wii sports sessions.

" Why doesn't the Wii read the Mario Kart 8 disc?!!"

I can see it all now. They should have released custom made Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach custom pro controllers.

As much as I want them to, I have this irksome suspicion that Zelda U will have mandatory use of the gamepad.  Aonuma has this thing about using incorperating new hardware into everything.

In Japan you can already buy the Wii U with Wii Sports Club + Wiimote bundled:

Quite frankly it hasn't done sh*t for Wii U sales there. 2006/7 is over, looooooong since over. People have moved on. 

Yes i think so too, they must have multiple games in development that need the gamepad. Didn't know MK8 even used the gamepad, wasn't there a 'pro' controller introduced for the game?

Everybody used to love to do the Macarena and the Spice Girls were the no.1 act in the music business once upon a time too. 

Sports Club was promoted too, I saw more commercials for it last holiday season (the Agassi Wii U family spot) several times, which is more than any other Nintendo commercial. 

Casuals are a different type of audience, they don't want to play the same game over and over again, just re-iterated upon. Something is fun for a few years, and then they move on to the new "hot" thing. Guitar Hero was the hottest thing just a few years ago too ... now the only place you can find Guitar Hero is at the bottom of a discount bin. Wii Sports/Fit is no different. Kinect Sports also didn't do jack for the XBox One. Just Dance will be the next one that's irrelevant soon too.