We've failed to establish Wii U as a worthy successor to Wii

Thanks to the absurdly short limit on thread titles, I should now clarify that this is a quote from Satoru "Please Understand" Iwata. Link.

The Wii U has struggled so far, selling 3.91 million units globally since launch, below Nintendo's expectations for the platform. Part of the difficulty of getting the platform off the ground comes down to Nintendo's inability to release games and services that demonstrate the Wii U's novelty relative to the original Wii, president Satoru Iwata has said.

"Except for its backward compatibility with existing Wii software and accessories, we have so far failed to make propositions worthy of Wii U's position as a successor to the Wii system, frankly, I blame S0lid." Iwata said during Nintendo's second quarter financial results briefing.

Wii Sports Club for Wii U and Wii Fit U, sequels to "defining" Wii games, are now available in Japan. These titles should help spur sales in Japan and abroad, but success won't come overnight, Iwata cautioned.

"I remarked a while ago that it is difficult to change our prospects with just one title. Our objective for Wii U for the upcoming year-end sales season will be to dramatically change the environment surrounding Wii U with multiple key titles that can appeal to a wide range of consumers," he said.

The "key title" and "central pillar" for Wii U this holiday season, Iwata said, is Super Mario 3D World, which will be released on November 22. Other games that Nintendo has high hopes for are Wii Party U (ideal to play at New Year's holiday gatherings, Iwata said) and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

Nintendo will also release Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in December, before high-profile games like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. arrive in 2014.

Honestly, the Wii U is just boring me at this point. It's been restricted to just being kept in a corner and used as a legal way to play older games, and even that is wearing very thin. I played Super Castlevania 4 for about an hour today, turned it off, and settled for watching scary movies the rest of the night instead. I honestly have a hard time seeing a future for this platform now, and I just don't see Mario 3D World righting this ship by itself.

Meanwhile, the 3DS continues to move on as if it is being operated by an entirely different company.

I disagree, the Wii U is doing exactly what the Wii should have done: not sell at all.

I see what you did there.

Well hey, at least they are willing to admit it. I don't remember Sony doing that at the beginning of the previous gen.

Meanwhile, with these new WiiU bundles on the horizon, I'm honestly considering picking one up. Between the new Mario titles, Windwaker (the only Zelda game I do

n't own), the new Donkey Kong, Pikmin 3 and some solid titles out next year...I think there's enough there to justify a purchase. Possibly.

Console launches always suck. Take out the 3rd party games for Xbox and PS4 and you have a bare launch. Nintendo just doesn't have that 3rd party support so the Wii U's launch is particularly sucky.

Man, Solid, you've hit the big-leagues. Now even Iwata's blaming you!

The Nintendo Wii U needs games, but also advertisement. I have not seen any about it ever.

Wait.....what??

@Randolph: lol that's hilarious.

This meme will never die.

Nintendo has lost its touch with its consumers and audience. The hardware in the Wii U is crap. This isn't 2006, people expect better.

Unfortunately that seems to be the consensus now, I was hoping it would bounce back, but it looks like it'll essentially be another Gamecube, at this point, sans the hype around the CAPCOM FIVE. (you know, when Capcom was still well regarded, that was a big deal)

I slipped in the solid joke because I wanted to see how many people read the quoted bits in these. :)

I was really hoping the cloth physics one would catch on too.

A worthy successor to the Wii? Why not a worthy machine to carry the name Nintendo? They hit pay dirt with the Wii. They should have let it be. Hoping to maintain Solid sales by including Wii in the name of their next gen console was borderline insanulous. The market they are targeting is clearly baffled by the machine. Those in the know seem to be bored of Ninty staples and waiting for the inevitable price slash and Zelda. Or skipping it entirely. Like I plan to*.

Give it time. We just need the right opportunity to use it.

This system has foot in the grave at this point and will be heading for the great white yonder soon enough to go down in history with similar systems like the Jaguar, 3DO and other complete failures.

I don't know how Nintendo can make the greatest handheld replete with a robust library of awesome games and then fart out this abomination of a system. I feel sorry for anyone getting this thing as a holiday gift.

No way in hell is that ever going to happen if it keeps gathering good exclusives. It'll probably end up as the Gamecube.

Or if it continues to fail commercially, the SEGA Saturn. The Saturn has a plenthora of excellent games and a huge library of unique exclusives. But it failed commercially and needed years for people to come to an understanding of its incredibly underrated library.

Curious. I'm finally starting to think the WiiU looks promising.

The Wii was a takeoff success due to it's becoming a fad with non-gamers. There was no way they were going to repeat that. People don't go back to old fads where technology is concerned. We're not going to go back to VHS tapes either, it's just not how tech fads work. They had the breakout success with a fickle market that only wanted to play WiiSports and WiiFit and now those people already have that if they ever want to revisit it.

But I never really thought the WiiU was doing badly per se. It's a Nintendo console so it's building a library, like all Nintendo consoles do. The pack-in Mario and Luigi U games are smart choices, and I think Mario 3D World looks fun. There's almost enough games I'd actually be interested in trying at this point. I'd like a big game that pushed me over the line of wanting to want one and into wanting to buy one though. A Kirby title that really took advantage of the touch screen maybe or some breakout unexpected game that I can't play anywhere else. Thing is, I figure it's a case of when, notif.

I didn't want the 3DS at first either. But it worked hard, built a library of "gotta try that!" games, and now it's on it's way to being one of my favorite handhelds right behind its predecessor the DS.

The WiiU is doing badly commercially because of a multitude of reasons, mainly tho because Nintendo's reputation is in crumbles and the looming shadow of the PS4 & Xbox One.

I agree with the rest of what you wrote, and the games that are going to push me to buy one will be Bayonetta 2 and Monolith's X RPG. Those two are going to be absolutely incredible if they manage to improve upon Bayonetta 1 and Xenoblade Chronicles.

True enough, but I honestly try to stay optimistic about these things. Bayonetta definitely has the potential to be the game that triggers my GOTTA PLAY IT reflex. The first one was so crazy and "out there", I'd really be interested in more of that.

If I really had to put on my pessimist pants and grouse about the WiiU, I'd say the only downside I see to it is that they really haven't capitalized on the Game Pad controller enough. Seems less like the next big thing and more like a missed opportunity most of the time. But again, I don't own one so perhaps there is more to it than I realize. I do like the idea of it though, and unless the box product is drastically different than the kiosks in the GameStop, it's surprisingly comfortable to hold and use.

They'll get there though. Nintendo is the little engine that could. And I loved my GameCube, so if it ends up being just another one of those, I'm kinda OK with that. It was never going to be my favorite platform because I like my PC and Xbox and Playstation exclusive titles more than I like Mario and Zelda. But a fun alternative to yet another Shooter on a different platform is a fine niche to fill.

Nintendo's console failure and handheld success are related. After the 3DS stumbled out of the gate Nintendo switched its focus to handhelds (a big, reliable earner for Nintendo the past few generations) and that focus has stayed there even after the release of the Wii U.

The WiiU might get games but its to late and this launch of WiiU will be written down as clear case of how to screw up a launch that even is 1 year ahead of the other consoles.

Nintendo could have smashed this into the parking lot and scored a homerun, but because they fail to see that games are important they now have the biggest failure and the clear loser of the next gen.

@Randolph: Well, Iwata blames S0lid, so that's that *shakes a fist toward S0lid.*

I'm not sure who mentioned the wasted touchscreen, but I felt much the same way for the first few years with my DS. Much of the time it was a case where I felt like the used the touch functionality when they could have just left it alone, but sometimes it was a case them missing an opportunity the touch screen was perfectly fit for. In either case, they straightened it out for the most part a couple of years in.

I just want to see what they can come up with once the devs learn to not over- or under- utilize the touch screen function.