Getting the console out a year in advance worked out pretty nicely for the Xbox 360, and would probably have worked even better if not for the RRoD mess. The main difference was that the 360 had a stream of good cross-generation games during its first year, a couple of exclusives (including Project Gotham 3 and various titles by Rare) that ranged from decent to good, and then got its first real killer app (Gears of War) out in a timely manner before the PS3 and Wii showed up on the scene. The Wii U didn't do any of those things.

The Wii U failed because the hardware was horrible and it didn't appeal to any market in particular. Nintendo tried to reach both the hardcore and casual gamers with the system (hence "We" and "You") but it didn't please any crowd: The core gamers thought the system was underpowered and lacked games and the mass market didn't like the console because it was the complete opposite of the Wii (just look at the huge and bulky gamepad compared to the Wii remote) and didn't feature many high quality mass market games (compare the horrible and clichéd Nintendo Land to Wii Sports). Thus, the Wii U failed on both fronts and only hardcore Nintendo fans bought it.

While I don't agree with your sentiment per se, I agree with you by blaming the hardware and not the games.

I own a Wii U and its biggest mistake was moving away from the Wiimotes. It was a great and unique input that separated it from PlayStation and Xbox. So what did they do with Wii U? Moved back to a gamepad and just slapped a big stupid screen on it. I thought the Wii U's tablet controller would have been great as an optional accessory, I wish the Xbox and PlayStation had equivalents, but it was a ridiculous device as the standard gamepad. It also made the Wii U too expensive, the console with a Wiimote would have probably been $149 to $199 thus sold better.

Price matters, exclusives matters, 3rd party support matters and the console has to appeal to people. The Kinect was unnecessary and impractical with the X1, therefore it was removed. The Wii U was hurt by the tablet control but you had no option, the Wii U was built around an annoying controller.

Ka-pi96 said: Because they need to actually be good exclusives. The amount of exclusives worth playing on the Wii U... I can count on a single finger!

Again, I blame hardware and price over the games.

Hypothetically, lets say Wii U stuck with the Wiimotes so the console was more like $149-200. For that price it would have totally been worth having a Wii U for Mario Kart 8, Mario 3D World, Bayonetta 2, Splatoon, Smash Bros, Mario Maker and Zelda BOTW. I'm just mentioning the strongest titles, there is other notable content.

A lower price would have also meant a bigger userbase, which may have been better 3rd party support. But for what its worth those games didn't go to waste given they are or becoming popular Switch games.

So, you're saying it is not portability per se, but something interesting about the console which sells it? Interesting point.

That doesn't change fact is that Wii wasn't portable and succeed despite wasn't portable (which was your main point).

It can out pretty nice if console performing strong from launch and has momentum, but in case of Wii U effect was opposite.

Yeah my main point for the switch. When's the last time a traditional Nintendo home console sold on just games alone without the help of another factor like motion controls or portability? 

Exactly, totally agree here! People act like it's only the games but people do have to like the hardware as well. The Wii was purposely designed to be inviting to everyone: The size, the design language, the focus on ease of use. The Wiimote was a part of that. The Wii U was a mess with confusing control options, the giant gamepad and no Wii remotes included. But the gamepad would have been cool as an accessory - playing Mario Kart with five players for instance. Unfortunately, it hardly ever made a difference in any game. It just made the whole package confusing and more expensive.

We have only one Nintendo console that had motion controls and only one that has portability, dont act like Nintendo consoles are always like those two examples. Also, different hardware factor or concept is sword with two edges, for instance Wii U and Virtual Boy failed.

Well by your point over 99% of games on every platform is not worth playing.

Because by and large exclusives don't sell platforms, that's just something people say when playing console wars mostly.

Good games sell consoles, and a vast majority of the ones people buy and buy consoles for are third party multiplats.