This reminds me that it has been a long time for a genius to make a thread about the main problem of the Vita and how Sony can save it.

If smartphones/tablets (or at least gaming on those devices) didn't exist I think Wii U would have done OK. Nothing spectacular, but alright.

It would've filled the need for novice/entry level gamers to have something to play on, and Nintendo would've gotten past the early hiccups in the gen.

But they lost the casuals to smartphones/tablets which have free games that are (by and large) even easier to play than Wii/Kinect games, more convinenant, more plentiful (thousands of choices), and are free.

Nintendo just can't compete with that, but they compounded the problem with piss poor marketing. But good marketing would be just like putting lipstick on a pig ... it's still a pig.

Nintendo never really even should have tried to make a successor to the Wii in hindsight. They should have just rebooted the Wii with HD capable graphics (same fidelity though) and spun off the brand into a 100% casual gaming/fitness brand for $99.99 (hardware), made it digital only with $19.99/game downloads.

Then they could have made a separate hardware line that was more of a real successor to the NES-SNES-N64-GameCube lineage and aimed at people who want to play deeper, more advanced games and care about things like higher end graphics, third party IPs, the more advanced Nintendo franchises like 3D Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc.

Trying to make a platform that could keep casuals interested in the face of huge competetion from smart devices and still have a system that isn't so casual that it turns off anyone interested in more deep gaming experiences was always kind of like mixing oil with water. They're just better left apart.

Let see facts for moment:

-When they first time showed Wii U, 90% of time it was gamepad, later they market only gamepad.

-They called new console Wii U, they had basically logo Wii with strange sign that looks like U.

-They launched console with NSMBU game that basically is HD port of Wii game.

Keep in mind that very good number of buyers of Nintendo products are parents that buy consoles for their kids and casuals, and big majority of them thought that Wii U is basically very priced gamepad addon for Wii that already have, even retailers were confuesed (look my previous post). Add to that high price of console espacily in comparison with PS3/Xbox360 on which same games worked and looked better than on Wii U, and weak launch titles. By time Nintendo figured out what is going around, they already had terible sales and all 3rd party abonden them.

Have any of you guys acutally played the system with casuals? I have casual gaming type friends that are over all the time. 

I explained the Wii U to them. Demoed it for them. We played Nintendo Land and Mario Kart 8 for a good 2 hours. So there's no way there could be any confusion.

They enjoyed it even.

Yet of like 8 or 9 different friends (casuals) I've done this with ... *zero* have gone on afterwards to purchase the system themselves, even though all but one of them own a Wii. 

There's a bigger problem here than just the marketing and name (though neither are great ... but what's so great about names like iPhone 6S or Surface 3 or Galaxy S5). 

3DS sounds a lot like DS, it looks like the same thing too, yet Nintendo has sold a reasonable 54 million of those and the marketing for the 3DS is just as bad, maybe even worse than the Wii U. 

I totally disagree, what you are saying is that not used and not appealing Wii U gamepad was biggest Wii Us problem, but I think that bad marketing and name, high price and weak launch titles were much bigger problems than gamepad itself.

Problem with casualy, espacily with parents who buys console for their kids, is that beacuse of marketing they didnt consider Wii U like new console at all, they thought that is a addon for Wii that they already have. High Wii U price certainly didn't help for them. That is a fact.

iPhone 6s is established name for better revision of that same product, Surface 3, Galaxy S5, PS4 or indicates that is new generation of product. U at Wii U name and branding indicate nothing, just made big confusion with Wii, simply Wii 2 would done much better.

3DS, sounds like DS but with 3D, also 3DS marketing was much better than Wii U marketing its not misunderstood in any sense.

3DS marketing is crap. It should be because it's done by the exact same ad agency that does the Wii U spots. I think I've liked like one 3DS commercial in its entire life cycle. 

To a person who is not a core gamer/gaming expert, which really is the new system here:

Despite having similar branding and marketing issues the 3DS still sold at least half way ok. 

The Wii U is a fun product, but that's all it is. Just "fun". Not "wow that's AMAZING" type of response that people first had with motion gaming and the whole "oh my gawd, grandma can't play video games, but look she's playing Wii Sports ... soooooo funny!" type appeal had worn off years ago. Today anyone can play thousands of games regardless of skill level/experience because of phones, so that whole thing about the Wii brand is no longer special or interesting.

I think people also kinda figured out that jogging around the block burns more calories than Wii Fit does, and like most fitness fads, that also burned out.  

This also applies to parents who buying consoles for their kids, and they are much bigger buyers of Nintendo consoles than casuals.

I don't think so, kids are just as likely to want a Playstation or XBox from my experience as a Nintendo console (probably moreso once they get into junior high school and everything becomes about being "cool"). Casuals are what drove the usual 20 million-ish Nintendo fanbase up to 100 million. 

Remove them, and the Wii U is basically right back to where Nintendo was with the GameCube. 

Same with 3DS, it's back down to where the GBA was more or less. 

This indicates either a hell of a coincidence or Nintendo just lost that audience pretty much. Which isn't a surprise, all those people playing smartphone games didn't just pop out of nowhere. 

3DS had much better marketing that isn't misunderstood and failed, and that is main point with Wii U with parents who buying consoles for their kids and casuals. For 3DS nobody thought that is addon for DS.

I already said that one of biggest problems too was bad launch titles, Nintendo Land (even great game and personally much better than Wii Sports), did not have nearly same apeling like Wii Sports. But that was just part of the one problem (Nintendo Land with HD port of NSMB and Zombi U were pretty bad launch titles), terrible marketing (and name) and high price were also crucial problems why Wii U failed.