That's kind of annoying, in a way. I (and many, many others) have been saying that since Day One. Now that the Wii U is mostly dead, they admit it, after lying about it for years. I fully understand why they would but still ... it's kind of grating.

This is the price of chasing gimmicks, of trying to force people to like certain things rather than adding touches that people will like.

The positive thing is that we now know for sure that Nintendo understands why the gamepad failed. We can only hope this lesson was learned by the right people for the NX.

I think in this case he is wrong, having the map on the gamepad is quite useful.

As someone who is currently learning to develop games let me tell you:
There is nothing harder than admitting that the idea you liked so much and put so much work into, maybe, JUST MAYBE, isnt that awesome after all.
And thats just one newbie in teams of 4-5 other newbies. I cant even imagine how that feels when pretty much the whole company likes the idea and needs to take a look at it again after customer feedback. They truly thought it was a good idea and hoped to see us as hyped as they were.
Which I was!
I liked the first trailer in 2011, the concepts shown were pretty cool, its just a shame that most of them never truly saw the light of day.
Heck, other developers thought it was a good idea too: Sony & Microsoft had their own versions with crossplay & smartglass ready just one year later, the idea of asynchronus multiplayer led to games like evolve.
In the end it wasnt used right or enough, especially at launch. Apart from a small handful of games that used it excessively like ZombiU, Rayman Legends which was pushed back into oblivion and Nintendoland there was only very simplified use of the gamepad.

Having games like Mario Maker at launch or a track editor in Mario Kart 8 could have helped, but in the end communication and marketing of the gampad, or rather the lack thereof led to the current situation.

Aonuma confirming that the Wii U's concept is fundamentally flawed?

Gotta agree here. XCX, ACIV, and the Arkham games on the WiiU had a really great feature where you could take the minimap and HUD off the TV screen and put it on the gamepad. Really cleans up the UI on the TV, gives you a better look at the map. My only disappointment with BotW is that they aren't employing this design principle.

Honestly, ACIV did it the best IMO.

Really? xD
Having a map so huge this time, I think the gamepad justifies itself just for that. I can´t understand Nintendo´s logic on this. When they should use the gamepad they don´t, and when there isn´t any reason to force the player to use the gamepad, as in Starfox, which totally kills the experience, then they do it.
It makes no sense to me.

i think the zelda wii u remasters had some of the best uses of the gamepad haha
i loved having the map right just by looking down and i was a big fan of the instant swapping.

RIP second screen! Hardly nobody liked you.

May you never come back.*

*Except for handhelds, you're okay there.

He is right, the gamepad is the main reason why the Wii-U failed. I did not even want to buy a Wii-U in the first place because of the heavy and oversized tablet with outdated resistive technology. And now I hate it and refuse to use it at all. Thanks god Zelda supports the pro controller.