Seriously? It's extremely self-explanatory. You claim ZombiU is a strong seller based on its sales, while claiming Pikmin 3 is not a strong seller because it is a sequel in a niche series. But Pikmin 3 outsold ZombiU, proving itself to be a stronger seller.

Yeah the truth is the competetion between Sony and MS alone for that audience is so heated, that they took whatever scraps Nintendo had with that audience-base a long time ago. The last time Nintendo really had an exclusive that resonated hugely with that type of audience was GoldenEye, I remember even my Playstation-loving friends who didn't give a crap about Mario would reluctantly admit GoldenEye was "pretty awesome" and some of them even bought an N64 just for GoldenEye. 

Nintendo can't win with this crowd. Seriously try going to a store and convincing people who are buying a PS4 or X1 to buy a Wii U instead. You will get laughed out of the store. 

They want what they want, and what they want sure as heck isn't what Nintendo is bringing to the table these days. 

Even kids I find especially younger boys look at a Wii U like you're asking them to eat broccoli. They don't want that. They don't want the "mom approved console", they want the XBox or Playstation like their older brother is playing, they want "Calladooty" more than even that comic book collecting 30-year-old who lives in mom's basement. 

Nintendo isnt going after them anyway...

Now relativity matters. But not relativity to budget or expectations. Only arbitrary relativity based on the publisher.

I find it far too suspicious that you conveniently consider the games you bought to be big sellers while the games you weren't interested in are weak sellers even when they outsold the former. ZombiU was a financial failure and it has been outsold by at least ten other Wii U games, and is probably overtracked to boot. It is not remotely a good example of a strong seller.

I don't think Zombi U really is a big seller, it just benefitted from being the big exclusive launch title that retailers ordered a lot of in anticipation of sales that never materialized. 

My Best Buy is still trying to clear out a fat stack of Zombi U inventory that's been rotting on their storeshelves since 2012, even at $14.99 people aren't biting on it. 

Which is a bit of a shame because it actually is a fairly decent game that probably uses the Wii U controller better than any game Nintendo has put out to date.

Wii U audience is just an enigma. They won't buy Zombi U. They won't buy Donkey Kong Country. Hell, even things like Just Dance and Wii Fit, which you figure then must sell OK on the system don't sell great either. 

Nintendo must be exasperated, it must feel like trying to feed a kid who doesn't like chicken, beef, vegeatables, bread, lettuce, tomatoes, pasta, etc. 

Wii Sports is pretty much the definition of "lightning in a bottle" for this business. 

It's not repeatable. 

I'd like to know what Ubisoft were actually expecting to happen.

This is without a doubt, the single biggest case of "sending out to die" on WiiU yet. Even bigger than say Mass Effect 3 was (which pains me to say, because I like Ubisoft a whole lot more than EA).

This is likely the stupidest business decision they've ever made, when they should've either cancelled the game or hired three extra guys to get it out in time. Who's supposed to still buy this for full price with less content half a year late? Sure even if it was out at the same time as the other version it still wouldn't have sold much, but surely better than now and canceling would have saved them money. Then what do they do? They make a bad situation even worse by alienating whatever fanbase and goodwill they had left after being untrustworthy in the past by making stupid statements that serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever.

Also, I'm baffled how there's actually people here trying to pin this on Nintendo and it's installed base.

Against all odds, I'm still interested in this game. I've retired my PS3 since some time ago, I won't be getting any games for that system anymore, so if I get this game it will be on WiiU. There's of course absolutely no reason to get it now, so it'll have to wait until it's €10 before I'd consider the purchase.

Ubisoft was once my 'favorite' 3rd party publisher (if there is such a thing, they've all been dubious since the beginning of time) across all platforms, but they haven't done themselves much good this year. Maybe they should stop wasting their time on 'Anno Online' and give me a new DRM free Anno game, to win me back some confidence.

Agreed. TLoU R, TR DE and GTA V are full priced game. Yet they sold very well.

Let me ask you ... and lets not even limit the discussion to Nintendo. 

Nintendo had success with Wii Sports. 

Rovio made Angry Birds. 

The company that made Candy Crush. 

Have any of these companies in the long term been able to consistently make "blockbuster" hits for the casual audience on a regular basis? 

The answer is: NO. The casual market operates by very different rules, I think this board has a lot of trouble understanding it because they keep applying "regular console" logic to the casual market thinking casuals look at their gaming habits in the same way. 

To a core player "Destiny, From the Makers of Halo" is a big deal. But the casual gamer doesn't care that you made Wii Sports or Angry Birds X years ago. They move on to something new/different, almost always from a completely different company the next time. 

Nintendo's mistake was thinking the casual market was the type of girl who wants to settle down and get married, when she's the girl who wants to party at a nightclub every night and has no intention of settling down. It's a fundamental misread on their part of that market ... and Apple easily has taken it away from them with a more attractive ecosystem of thousands of casual-ware given away for free or for a $1 a pop in a much more attractive hardware to the casual. 

Nintendo never stood a chance. 

They want them because its more money, but they arent doing much to attract them. Bayonetta wont do anything for most Sony and MS fans. The U controller design has nothing to do with getting non Nintendo gamers to their platform. The early multiplats were third party developers hoping to cash in on the launch. If Nintendo really did go after the those gamers, then they would have fought harder to keep the big third party games and not make games like Captain Toad, Pikmin 3, Yoshis Wooly World and Splatoon.