Something being rated mature does not exclude it from being aimed at younger audiences, companies are well aware of the fascination that young teenage boys have with shooting,sex and violence in general and are taking advantage of that.

I apologize for only buying one copy of the game. Even worse, it's digital, so it doesn't show up in your charts.

Exactly, they are taking advantage of the wave of support of a demographic they tried to ignore based on regulations. Activision doesnt have many more cash cows, so they better milk GTA while people like Megabloks are interested. The same goes for GTA. I cannot blame them if the kids parents cant put the leash on them. Every videogame store has to warn parents of ESRB ratings as the publisher is no longer liable for the content therein. Its on the store who distributes it now.

Maybe but I believe there's a bigger fanbase for these types of games on sony consoles than microsoft consoles.  Bayo1 and DMC sold better on ps3.   God of war 3 and ascension selling at least 2m each.  Ninja gaiden 2 selling almost on par with 360 even after a late port and cutted features such as blood.  So the question will always be how much would they have sold if the game were released on par with 360.  I'm not saying bayo 1 would have sold millions but maybe would have sold better than it did and that question will remain unanswered.

Seriously?  A game that came out 5 months earlier and one that came out a month later?  Modern Warfare 2 on 360 sold 90k in the US the week Bayonetta came out.  Mario Kart sold 14k, all Wii U software minus Bayonetta sold 98.5k.  Then there was Darksiders the same week, Army of Two the week after,  Mass Effect 2 two weeks later, Bioshock 2 and Dante's Inferno 2 weeks after that. 

Now most of those individually aren't the size of Smash in the US, but it is averaging around one game a week that is bigger than Bayonetta including one on launch week.  In comparison, Bayonetta 2 had no real competition on the Wii U on launch week or three weeks after that.  It also won't be until Bayonetta 2's 18th week that the Wii U gets a third notable release.  By that time the 360 had games like BF Bad Company 2, FFXIII, Just Cause 2, and Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Then of course if we are counting Mario Kart we add games like Halo, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Madden, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead, Forza, Dragon Age, etc and the comparison just gets ridiculous.

let's pin it all on Nintendo for it's lacklusture sales even though it wouldn't have happened if not for them.

Bayo 1 didn't do that well at all even on both the 360 and PS3, especially with the PS3 being the worst port, the game itself is niche and that's all there is to it, all of Platinum's games have sold poorly when you compare them to most big hitting popular games let alone sales in general and yet they keep on trucking.

I think you're confusing me with other blind Nintendo backers.  I don't think there's any real market for cross platform games right now on Nintendo. And don't see Bayonetta 2 as an example of cross platform gaming. No offense to anyone but applying Bayonetta 2 to other cross platform games doesn't jive since it is an exclusive. There always has been and always will be a profitable market for high calibur exclusive content with Nintendo. Bayonetta 2 is an example of the type of game that can do well on a Nintendo Platform. It's a niche title but those who like it like it alot and would buy a system for it. The game is going to have great legs and comparing vgchartz to vgchartz it will end up embarresing bayonetta 1 on xbox 360 and likely beating the ps3 version.

So in any event. What Bayonetta 2 is proving to me is that there is a market for M rated games on wiiu but they have to be exclusive. Jeepers even the lower quality Zombi U might end up as a million seller litetime and with digital in.

So please don't put words in my mouth. I'm not ignorant and I certainly don't think Nintendo has created a profitable environment for cross platform ports.  One day Nintendo may desire these games on their console but they would need to prove their desire to have these titles by fully selling out to what 3rd parties would want. All the online features, power on par with competitors, and easy to develop for. When Nintendo does that then we can say Nintendo truely wants redundant content. But right now their actions tell us that they couldn't care less about it.

It's always a shame, but it's unfortunately hamstrung by the install base.

To make matters worse, these types of results can hurt both franchise and console viability.

How do you read that I'm pinning it on Nintendo?

You actually confirm my statement in your second paragraph, in which you are absolutely correct on everything. Bayonetta is a niche title that struggled to sell as a multiplat. To expect it will all of a sudden succeed as an exclusive was silly.

It would have struggled had it released on all 3 consoles simultaneously, exclusivity doomed it from the start.

I think it is succeeding though. When you work directly with the console maker as your publishers you cut out the middle man so you've basically got 30% more money to go around.  And by doing it as a wiiu title rather than ps4 you save a lot of money in development costs. A "AAA" wiiu game needs less sales to be a success than a ps4 "AAA" game. Ios games which make 5 million in revenue are considered a success and many 3ds titles with 250k in sales are successfull.