Behold, the center of the universe.

Really!?

With all that great games that they released and with all that games that still need to release (including Zelda U normally)!?

Wii U will be dead when Nintendo stop releasing games on Wii U, and Zelda U most likely will come on Wii U in holiday season 2016.

It's called an opinion.

E for effort

Id define a core-gamer as a mainstream or niche gamer who doesnt play (or focus on) casual games. Extra points for:

• Anybody who reads reviews or visits sites like this
• Anyone who buys consoles and games with their own money
• Anybody who knows a decent amount of gaming history from whichever era they jumped in.
• Anyone who doesnt trash genres or publishers they dont like for the hell of it.
• Anyone who puts tons of hours into a game (probably more  than one)

Id define casual games as games with little to no depth or challenge: prime examples are most Facebook games or stereotypical mobile games. A casual game is also a game thats very easy to beat on its easiest difficulty. Another way of describing a casual game is a game an infant could easily beat because it requires little to no thought or strategy.

Id call a game like the Walking Dead casual (as much as I love it) , I'd call a game like Alien Isolation hardcore. That said games scale with difficlty, I'd call Mario Kart 8 hardcore because while anyone can play it it takes real skill to play it well. Same applies to a game like Battlefield 4 (online modes).

I do consider myself to be one type of core gamer, the mainstream core gamer. Emphasis on mainstream, this is very important (to sales) and I'll expand on this below. I started out with PC centric (niche) titles like Simcity, Dungeon Siege, Doom and Escape from Monkey Island before gravitating to mainstream "console-port" games like Prince of Persia, Battlefront, Grand Theft Auto, Far Cry and Need for Speed. These are my top 12 games (according to playtime) on Raptr. I'd call all of them (besides the Walking Dead, Ass Creed and maybe FFXIII) hardcore games. Please dont downplay them and act as if they are all buggy and uninspred.

• Dragon Age: Inquisition (PC)
• Mass Effect 3(PC)
• Mass Effect 2(PC)
• The Witcher 2(PC)
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (PC)
• Final Fantasy XIIII (PC)
• Battlefield 4 Battlefield 4 (PC)
• Far Cry 3(PC)
• Alien: Isolation (PC)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)
• Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)
• The Walking Dead(PC)

Only two of them are on the Wii U, even though at least half of them are from the same era. None of the sequels or followups will ever be on the Wii U. So when I say the Wii U isnt a hardcore sytem, this is what I meant. Maybe the correct term is the  Wii U isnt a "mainstream core" system, which is what I suggested to Anfebious when I said it may be a "Nintendo-core system". 

If you pay attention to the PC core games I mentioned, a PC or Console with only those games would sell quite badly as well. These games exist today primarily as crowd funded games to satisfy a dedicated and vocal niche, basically the same kind of customer that loves the Wii U. Dedicated and Vocal but totally niche regardless as evidenced by sales of hardware as well as games that dont cater to their taste (e.g Third Party gamers, including the non-broken ones).

To anyone who isnt a fan of Nintendo games or platfomers in general the Wii U is a very boring platform. The Wii had much more variety in this regard. Just one example, it had more faaar more JRPGS (Xenoblade, The Last Story, Tales of Symphonia, Pandoras Castle, another I cant remember but published by Xceed). Id argue that the Wii had more racers and fighters as well.

Currently the Wii U is bare bones to anyone who isnt "Nintendo-core" and unlike the competition its future doesnt inspire confidence. I KNOW the PS4 will have tons of fighters, tons of racers, tons of RPGs, tons of Action games and tons of shooters in its lifetime.  I cant say the same for the Wii U. You dont have to play any Sony exclusive to have a good time on the PS4, the same applies to the XBox. The Wii U without exclusives is a useless piece of plastic.

You can employ the Quality != Quantity scapegoat but most consumers do not put Nintendo on a pedestal and have no problem taking 5 games rated above 85 over 1 game rated above 90. To make matters the Wii U only has 3 games above 90 anyway theres not a huge gulf in quality as some would lke to pretend, PS4 should match or exceed it by this time next year. In fact throw personal preference in and a game can easily lose or gain 10 points based on the individual and their preferences.

I hope you get my point.

That's most people's opinion.  Hence the sales.

What genres did Wii not have tho?

I love my Wii U it is a great living room entertainment device that gets as much use for YouTube, Netflix and the like and acts as the remote control. I have enjoyed the heck out of many of the games I have played on it, but that being said, my steammachine is where I spend most of my time these days. I will probably get the next nintendo system as well.

The Wii U will not win this generation in terms of sales, but it is still my favourite console. I don't have to pay to play on-line, it respects my consumer rights, and has great first party games.

I remember the glory days of the Wii and the plethora of titles we had access to, these are not those days. There may come a time where Nintendo the company will come crashing down, but this is not that day. Nintendo made great strides in this incarnation of it's console integrating HD and more connectivity features. It kept the game play focus and broad age appeal of the last generation. On the whole I call that a success, even if it was not a great commercial success (tip of the hat to Sony this time around for the commercial win).

doesn't that mean no console is made for core gamers? every console misses key games in key genres. missing whole genres is outright wrong.

what video game are we talking about? first, you seem to have the wrong impression that motion controls = casual =/= core, right? you can dislike motion controls all you want but dismissing it like this doesn't make any sense. nintendo never had a tablet, let alone a $100 one (yes, I know you're talking about the gamepad, I'm ironizing because of how inaccurate it is to say it's a $100 tablet). Nintendo didn't alienate third parties, actually, some third parties alienated nintendo AND it's consumers.

p.s: I remember the ps3 did force people to pay for an expensive blu ray player and it did alienate 3rd parties due to cell's architeture. Do you think ps3 is for the core gamers?