Nintendo originally believed they would sell 100 million Wii Us

But the current President wasn't so sure.

[uth11]

are there a bunch sitting in a landfill like those ET carts?

[naruga]

are these people in their HQ even play or test the game software for their systems at all????

how the f@%^ a whole supposedly experienced company didnt see why Wii sold well and they wanted to repeat the same strategy with Wii U??? .....even a 10 year old can tell you why Wii sold well....it was clearly from hype ,gimmick curiosity and Nintendo s heavy name...the damn system had only 2 game worth playing--> the stolen from Playstation- Mon Hun 3 and Mario Galaxy..the rest were mediocre games at best even their Zelda (Skyward)...and he tells us that this company wanted to just repeat the same strategy, and people wouldnt understand their devious tactics....they deserved what they happened to them and must feel lucky that didint bankrupt after 2 consecutive failed consoles

also they didnt learn any lesson......{ “[a] similar challenge continues with NX”, he said. Which means the NX is different enough from the other consoles that Nintendo is worried about how to market it to the masses.}...they r indicating that also NX will be gimicky .....they want to test their luck for 3rd time ..good fail

[rjason12]

Dude as soon as you start throwing around the word gimmick, your argument has lost.

[TheGreatObserver]

^why? Motion control is a gimmick

[Cindy-rella]

I was wrong about the wii u as well. I thought it would sell 15 million . Why would any core gamer want to buy a wii u after the wii and lack of core games for wii. Reminds me of people who thought xbox one would be outselling ps4 when it doesnt sell well outside of the US and the UK. The xbox 360 also has the highest failure rate of any consumer product. Why would a lot of people rush out to buy the xbox one after the issues of the xbox 360

[Vegamyster]

@naruga

"the damn system had only 2 game worth playing--> the stolen from Playstation- Mon Hun 3 and Mario Galaxy"

Monster Hunter wasn't owned by Sony, are you saying Sony stole a good chunk of the N64's games because of the PS1? It's purely business by Capcom.

It also had Brawl, Xenoblades, NSMB, MK, DKC, Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid Prime 3, The Lost Story, Paper Mario, Sonic Colors, MadWorld, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the Wii party games ect, it was by no means a perfect system but it did have some good games on it, whether or not they fit your taste is a different story.

@Cindy-rella

"The xbox 360 also has the highest failure rate of any consumer product. Why would a lot of people rush out to buy the xbox one after the issues of the xbox 360 "

I doubt Microsoft was going to make the same mistake, they gave everyone with the original models three-year warranty's which ended up costing them 1+ billion last i recall.

[bouzebbal]

The problem with this console was the initial message that confused the most hardcore of us gamers. The gamepad, the wii name and the machine design almost a copy paste of the wii completely lost me.
It still has some amazing titles worth buying a wii u for

[Metallox]

"are these people in their HQ even play or test the game software for their systems at all????"

Hyperbole much?

Kimishima only quoted SOMEONE out of the many executives that thought that the Wii U would repeat Wii's success, we really don't know the thoughts from the other employees aside from this unkown guy and Kimishima, who was skeptical about the machine from the beginning.

Although I don't deny that a great majority probably thought the system would at least be a moderate success. It wasn't even that.

[miyamoto]

LOL!

[KentBenMei]

Wii was definitely a bad system with a lot of bad games but it had more than just two good games. Fire Emblem was great, for example. Last good one, actually.

[jcnba28]

Stopped reading after - "the damn system had only 2 game worth playing--> the stolen from Playstation- Mon Hun 3"

Salty sony fanboy alert! LOL!

[Nathan_Hale53]

@Cindy-rella
I bought a Wii U for the party games. WELL worth it alone for the 4 games I bought. Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8, possibly the best Kart game in the series, Smash, and Pokken Tournament.

[stuna1]

ET phoned home! Now he's hitting redial.

[Gotcha5]

uth11
I heard that Reggie is releasing a straight to dvd video on the excavation.

[KentBenMei]

The Atari are actually interesting today so the Wii U isn't worthy of being dumped alongside them.

[Muzikguy]

I don't see why anyone would've thought the WiiU would sell that many. Maybe they were thinking they were sitting on a goldmine because of the tablet controller and thinking about how popular tablets are. That's a very juvenile generalization if that was the case. People may be stupid at times, but eventually they'll see through you.

@naruga

That's spot on IMO and exactly how I feel about the whole situation as well. Nice to see other people think this way. I'm definitely worried about the NX and being a repeat failure. I think they need to stop trying to reinvent the hobby and just make it fun (without gimmicks, those don't last)

[crazychris4124]

Only 87 million to go

[LOL_WUT]

They'll be lucky to get anywhere near what the GameCube sold ;)

[Metallox]

No need of further luck. It's over. The machine is probably going to stop at 13.5-14 million units.

[GeraltOfRevia]

The Game Cube sold 21, they'll be lucky if the wii u reaches 15.

[danny818]

and to think Gamecube was the lowest console to sell for Nintendo lol

[Segata]

At least it sold more than Virtual Boy... -_-

[DemonChicken]

Have they even dropped the price for the wii u?

I won't support the nx if they continue with their region lock and censorship in games

[RosweeSon]

Which was on par with the original Xbox as ps2 smashed all that gen and finished off Sega's dreamcast 😢.

[Hero-Q8]

Best comment here lol

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Hold the phone! This thing is still at only 13 million? That was the sales numbers from the end of last year if I recall, lol

[Relientk77]

Lol not even close

[pcz]

all the unsold wiiu's will be repackaged as NX's.

[-Foxtrot]

Lol. Two of them strapped together

MORR POWA

[-Foxtrot]

They've probably made a fort inside their offices with the ones they haven't sold......a big "no girls allowed" sign sitting outside.

https://unsubject.files.wor...

[GrimmyReaper]

The sign probably says "No Third Party Allowed"
Maybe that's why the third party support is so god awful on WiiU

I hope Nintendo goes a bit more with the time with the NX, cause I wanna play Mario but ain't gonna buy just a WiiU for that

[MasterCornholio]

And thought Patchers predictions were bad.

WOW

Hopefully Nintendo learned a lot from the Wii U.

[GeraltOfRevia]

They didn't, everything we know about the NX indicates they're making the exact mistakes they made with it.

Nintendo is run by people who won't admit doing wrong no matter what happens, the wii u failed, the nx will fail and they'll still keep doing the same thing over and over again until they go bankrupt and even then they'll still think they did a good job.

[ReesesPuffs]

All of what we know about the NX? You mean absolutely nothing besides a supposed September reveal of the console? They've literally said next to nothing about the console besides it's a new experience so I don't know what you're talking about at all. Also Iwata back in 2014 halved his pay after poor fiscal sales of the Wii U. Goes to show how much you know about the company and their ideals.

[rjason12]

What in the hell are you talking about, the new president stated that the Wii U didn't succeed and that he never believed it would get far.

[Vegamyster]

"everything we know about the NX indicates they're making the exact mistakes they made with it."

Aside from rumors and very vague statements, what exactly do we know about it?

[Nathan_Hale53]

Don't get your plethora of likes, when nothing is known about the console, and everyone below you with a right mind stating facts gets dislikes.

[TheCommentator]

@ Reeses

I could look back at my mistakes and say they weren't a good idea either. That's easy. The hard part is making a prediction about the future come true, and Nintendo has failed at that ever since the N64. Don't mention the Wii as a success either, because even a broken clock is right twice a day. The Wii was an accident.

New experience = not traditional = failure

[Blu3_Berry]

Well first of all, the Wii U name is a terrible name. I don't understand why they choose that. Secondly, their marketing was bad. The Wii had great marketing with the popular motto "Wii Would Like To Play" and that was very memorable, but they had nothing similar like that with the WiiU. The Wii came out at the right time since it was something new when technology didn't innovate enough at the time.

They tried replicating the success with WiiU but all the casual went to smartphones and tablets. The WiiU was already outdated when released. So then they tried catering towards the hardcore fans but many of them moved on to other platforms. They did it to themselves.

[qwerty676]

Marketing, Name, and utter lack of third party support killed the system.

The first time I heard about wii u I was walking in walmart and saw it on the shelves and I was like "oh is that nintendos new console?" I had literally no idea it had launched lol

[Blu3_Berry]

That goes to show how bad Nintendo did their marketing on the WiiU. They are getting less and less new players to go to their systems while alienating their fans with lack of 3rd party support/weak system and I see them continuing in that downward spiral. I think the NX may do a bit better, but I am expecting maybe 20 million units sold at most. Just slightly above WiiU. Though I cannot judge until they show it off which I don't get why they are hesitating on it. We known about the new console for about 18 months now and we have not seen jack. It is way over due for any kind of news, no games, but we got nothing. Nothing but rumors, rumors and rumors and its getting annoying.

[Moonman]

most of those casuals didn't need another Wii.....many of them still play Wii Sports. But it's like a family board game of Monopoly. You don't need two unless it needs replacing. And Wii is like $89.99 so.......again why would they need HD Wii Sports?

[Deadpooled]

$89.99? In the UK I see even cheaper Wiis available for £40 with a ton of games and controllers/motion plus.

[Nathan_Hale53]

Nintendo makes the best party games. That is the reason why I own one.

[Errorist76]

Quite delusional..I know it's easy to say now but I could've told them it was going to be hard with that gamepad...and that NAME!

[CaptainObvious878]

I'm no consultant or researcher, but I predicted this well before the system even launched.

They weren't catering to the hardcore because it was another completely underpowered console and it had another gimmicky controller.

They're catering heavy towards the casuals backfired, because casuals don't care at all about games. After buying the wii and playing wii sports for a couple hours and letting it collect dust for years, they are certainly not going to rush out and buy a wii U.

This coupled with the fact they have their stupid smart phones and tablets, it was only the core nintendo fans that were going to buy the system.

I saw this coming a mile away, and so did anyone else with half a brain that knows even a tiny bit about gaming. You'd think Nintendo, with all the research they would have done, would have known that as well.

And now it seems the NX is going down the same path. The suites really just have no idea.

[Errorist76]

I don't agree about the NX though. Zelda alone is gonna make it sell more than the Wii U and I believe this time Nintendo got a Wii like trick up their sleeves.

[GeraltOfRevia]

Nintendo was and still is in denial about the console market, for some reason they think they're the only relevant company but in reality, they're the complete opposite.

[Mrveryodd]

ouch!!! well you cant blame them after all the wii sales .
Wont be too long before we can pick up a cheap wii u as the nx is anounced

[Pancit_Canton]

It could sell 100M, if they price that thing for $50.

[Segata]

eh then why didn't Dreamcast sell 100 million. Last year of it's life was 50 bucks.

[LOL_WUT]

Doesn't hurt to try ;)

[Artemidorus]

It came out at the wrong time

[Dan_scruggs]

Makes sense. They were coming off a system that sold 100 million. It's not that hard to believe. I'm pretty sure Sony thought the PS3 was gonna destroy the competition like the PS2 did but reality and expectations are usually two different things.

[JEECE]

Unfortunately, unlike Sony with the PS3, Nintendo didn't realize after launch that things weren't going well and act on that. Sony cut the price of the PS3 massively, brought out a slim version, made efforts to reach out to third parties like valve who were having trouble developing on the system, brought out great exclusives like Uncharted 2, etc, and by the end of the gen, ended up with one of the best selling consoles of all time, even though it wasn't as strong as the PS1 or PS2. Ironically, on the handheld side, it was the other way around; 3DS had no momentum at first and then Nintendo turned it around after about a year (price drop plus a slew of great games like Mario Kart), but Sony failed to do the same with Vita.

[Dan_scruggs]

You're absolutely right. Nintendo has proved that they can learn from mistakes. 3DS being the prime example. That's what makes sitting on the reveal of the NX such a drag. To find out if they truly have learned from their mistakes. Time will tell. If the new Zelda is anything to go by it proves (at lest to me) that Nintendo is slowly adapting to modern game play trends while remaining unique and innovative. Hopefully they will follow suit with their hardware as well. With any luck Star Fox Zero will mark the end of a long campaign by Nintendo to marry game play to hardware gimmicks that are a product of the the time and lack any forward thinking.

[JEECE]

I agree. Zelda looks like the most interesting thing they've done in awhile (and fingers crossed that the NX version looks a good bit better than the Wii U version). I really hope they are smart on price too with the NX. What with the whole Neo/Scorpio situation, there's a real possibility that when NX launches in 2017, you'll be able to get a standard PS4/XONE for under $250 (maybe even with a game or two). If the NX Zelda bundle is $350+, I'm not sure how well that's going to go.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Not at those prices. Curious why they never sold the damn thing for $199 without the gamepad.

[Auron]

You need the game pad to use the system. Especially first time setup.

[JEECE]

Couldn't this have been changed via firmware?

[rjason12]

Cause the whole point of the console was centered around the gamepad, almost every game used it for something (be it good or not)

[JEECE]

Seriously. If the console seems more like a toy (I don't mean that in a bad way), it needs to be priced accordingly. They probably could have sold a lot of Wii Us at that price at one point (Maybe 2014ish) to Xbox/PS4 users as a second console. But priced anywhere close to those two (and viewed as an alternative), it was going to lose out almost all the time.

[Segata]

When you boot the system for the first time you need the gamepad to register

[BrandanT]

I think the system would've cost a lot less without the gamepad. I guess it'll be a little less than a $150. (The gamepad was around $150. I figure it when I tried to order a new one from Nintendo)

[MetroidFREAK21]

They are more than a 10th of the way there! /s 😂

[Casepbx]

If the NX sells half the number of Wii U units I will be surprised.

[qwerty676]

LOL, I'd say they were a little off from their predictions.

[kevnb]

At least they are willing to take chances.

[kevnb]

The 3ds has done well though, people don't go on and on about the vita.

[wenaldy]

At least they are willing to take chances.

[Nathan_Hale53]

Lol, why you getting dislikes for the truth?

[NecoTehSergal]

Of course they did, that's because they sold the Wii U under the presumption that since they named it "Wii U" that the casual market would be able to easily distinguish that it's made by the same people who made Wii, and that they thought soccer moms would go and buy it to replace their Wii for the newer one.

The flaw in their approach is that they would question "Why do I need to replace my Wii with this new one?" and Nintendo won't have a good answer in return. "IT HAS A SCREEN ON THE CONTROLLER!" (The casual/majority demographic who bought the Wii won't care) - "It has stronger graphics than Wii!" (They again wouldn't care). There was absolutely no strategy or marketing or ability for them to retain their previous Wii-consumers excluding the Hardcore.

Wii U relied on the 'Wii' name and the gimmick that only appeased kids and hardcore nintendo fans, but not the majority of whom that actually bought the Wii, the 'I wanna get fit' person or 'Soccer mom buying it for their kid'. Who wouldn't know the difference between SNES and N64 or Gamecube or if Nintendo made any of those 3.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

The Wii only sold well because it was super cheap and had initial mass appeal due to the motion control fad. The Wii U launched too expensive, had no third party, poor online, limited 1st party (at first), poor marketing and had no fad/gimmick to coast off of. The Wii U has now done worse than the Gamecube and N64,

[Mithan]

They should become a software only company and make great games. In the end, that is what people want and more people would play their games.

[superchiller]

Agreed. No one wants to be forced to buy Nintendo's mediocre hardware just to play a handful of games, they really need to exit the gaming hardware business permanently, and focus on software only in the future.

[dantesparda]

Such stupid and moronic logic. Duh, we sold a 100 million last time, so we should sell another 100 million this time no matter what crap we sell them (after all the Wii was pretty crappy), herp derp!

[superchiller]

This just shows how out of touch Nintendo has been in terms of the gaming industry/community. They built the entire Wii U console completely around a poorly thought out gimmick, put almost no resources into the console itself, then expected it to be a huge success? Had they just sat down and analyzed how the gamepad gimmick actually degrades the gaming experience, by breaking the focus on the TV while playing, they would have realized that it wasn't a good choice to build the entire console around. Many people could have brought this to their attention, but they prefer to live in their own little bubble, and force unwanted gimmicks on potential customers. I suspect that the NX will follow the same pattern, and be Nintendo's last piece of gaming hardware.

[Nodoze]

To be fair the gamepad DOES have some cool uses. For Zelda for example to have a minimap and inventory accessible on the screen with a glance is very cool. Splatoon uses this well too. Other than that they really did not show off any good uses at all.

Tragically the one game that came to mind almost instantly and would have been a good fit was nowhere to be found....Metroid.

I really dont understand the software choices Nintendo makes. What they make is usually great, but when they make it and what they make available. Case in point why isn't the entire Gamecube catalog available on the Wii U?

[Nintendo4Lifex]

Mario Maker was super innovative with the pad. Fatal Frame V is alot of fun and is nore haunting because of the pad and add Zombie u in. Also toyko mirage use of it as a cell phone is quite unique and wouldnt have it any other way. Xenoblade it cut alot of downtimr because of the pad. O and Pokken, game and wario amd hyrule warriors all use it in unique split screen ways.

[Ashmedae]

I think the Wii U GamePad is great! There have been -> countless <- times where a friend of mine and I wanted to use the TV for something else while his 10 year old son was playing on the Wii U, using the same TV. Thanks to the gamepad, we were able to take over the TV and his son was able to keep playing without issue.

Moreover, haven't you ever played a video game where you took your eyes off from the TV screen to go look something up (I.E.: the location of an item on a map, how to perform a certain move, or how to beat a certain boss before going into the fight - using an online/hardcover guide)? Granted you don't use the gamepad for those exact things/reasons, but my point still stands - your focus isn't always on the TV/game regardless of the platform you're on.

Their gamepad is far from being a gimmick.

[PhoenixUp]

They'll be lucky if they even sell 1/5 of that total

[Gwiz]

Unlike the popular believe on YT me being a Nintendo hater (well i don't like the Wii generation) i really hope
they come to their senses with The NX.

[PlatinumGX]

Reality slapped the hell out of them.

[m2stech]

There once was a time when nintendo had core games, kids games, third party made games etc just like ps4 today but now they only have mario and kids games and forcing people to play mainly using weird controllers does not help

[susanto1228]

Gotcha suckers...investors.

[Fullmetalevolust]

It is not a purchase that I regret, not one bit. Xenoblade Chronicles X, Hyrule warriors (2 players is super fun), Mario party, Mario 3d and Maker, Bayonetta 1&2, Pikmin 3, Splatoon, Mario Kart 8, Wind waker HD, Pokken Tournament, games on the virtual console...I've had a really good time playing on my WiiU and continue to do so.
Poor marketing, poor branding, the list goes on. It could've had a different start.
Hoping the NX is backward compatible.

[noksucow73]

I really enjoy my WiiU. Sadly it's just a first party machine for me. That and Xenoblade Chronicles. It really need it's online structure revamped and Nintendo needs to be aggressive for 3rd party support.

[magiciandude]

They would've, if they released this instead of the Wii...

[zep]

Remove region lock nintendo

[Moonman]

Welp..........there goes that.....

There are a few games I wanted them to make for Wii U for it to at least sell Gamecube numbers. But they never came. Those games were two HD remakes: Super Mario Sunshine and Luigis Mansion. The third game was a NEW Metroid Prime!!! Now Zelda looks like a great swan song for Wii U it just came too late in the cycle. Splatoon and Super Mario Maker are fantastic new IP's. Wii U has awesome exclusives. But with NX coming, more games i'm sure jumped ship to NX a year ago.

Wii U will always be a FUN footnote in Nintendo's history. Years later the hate will die down and the actual good memories playing will take over. Gamecube got the most undeserved hate EVER in my book. lol

And the marketing team needed a simple commercial to relay the message...

"Wii would like to play"
"BUT we already have a Wii"
"THIS is a brand new console from Nintendo, it's called Wii U and it's a different system but all your Wii STUFF works with it"

lol

[DivineAssault]

HA!!! Seriously?!?! Bring the system specs on par with the others so theres 3rd party on it.. Then they can set higher expectations.. Oh and a better net service.. I love my Wii U but only the AAA exclusives.. I always buy nintendos hardware each gen.. Theyre way behind but those exclusives are top notch 90% of the time

[Moonman]

Indeed! I have been buying and enjoying Nintendo ever since I asked my parents to buy me a NES and a Game Boy. NX? For sure. But if they can at least get Take-2 to release games on NX, they will survive. I'm excited for Dragon Quest 11 on NX (if Square will release it in the west!)....

[kaiserxblue]

Of course they were confident this was gonna be another succesful Wii but reality hits hard doesn't it? The casual market turned their backs on them just like they did with the core market with the Wii.
Nevertheless I'm positvely sure that Nintendo had a wake up call with the Wii U's failure. I'm sure Nintendo will focus on the core market once again with the NX and the casual throught out mobile games. That's the way I see it.

[andrewsquall]

They think that about the XN too. Or was it NX..... ah whatever I'm sure the general public know what that is.

[SinkingSage]

HA

[DialgaMarine]

Maybe if they had created a console with some real 8th gen hardware, that didn't have trouble running even 7th gen multi plats, maybe things could've been different.

[Tzuno]

You need games to sell a console dear Nintendo :)))

[Ilwrath]

It would have done a lot better with a different name. They fucked themselves.

[mochachino]

Just befor Wii U's launch I was starving for a console with better graphics. My PS3 and 360 games were running at 20 FPS with aliasing everywhere. Game performance and graphics got so bad I was losing my interest in gaming. I was very excited for Wii U and hoping it would have some next gen graphics, then I found out it was comparable to 8 year old console graphics and Nintendo consoles died forever in my mind.

Can't wait for 3rd party Nintendo games.

[mcknight8279109]

The Wii was success because of the Wii fit. Mothers everywhere would get the wii for their kids and when they were away it was wii fit time. Then the commercials had all the kids laughing and playing family games and what not, and the advertising campaign was sooooo good. Then they drop the Wii U which has the same name lol. The target audience was a crowd that knows nothing about hardware lol. All the moms see is Wii all over again. I've heard this so many times; "Mom ooooh it's the Wii U can we get one? Mom: "No son, we already have a Wii and it works fine". The child then has no reasonable explanation to give his mom as to why she should buy the Wii U.You had the same looking ass super mario bros with a U at the end of the title lol. No mom is about to fall for that especially lower income families. The name by itself killed them. If they would have made it under a different name things would have been alright. All they have to do is come out with the Super Nintendo 2 and i promise they'll hit 100 million. It'll make people who have been out of gaming for decades jump back in to see what this new Super nintendo is about. The nostalgia factor would be waaaaaaaay too real. And in 2016 thats a good thing business wise. They need to name the NX the super nintendo 2 lol forget all the gimmicks just come out with a regular controller and go back to the N64 days with all the first party titles. They have the formula, but they wanna "innovate" and it's now starting to cost them.

[LordMaim]

...whoops.

[deafdani]

I love how everyone on this comments section say that they already knew the Wii U was going to be a massive flop since before it even launched.

Remember, guys: hindsight is 20/20. You don't actually know jack shit about the gaming business, much less when compared to the people at Nintendo. No matter how much you think they're just a bunch of old japanese dudes set into their obsolete views (which is true to an extent), they still know much more about this stuff than any of us armchair analysts do.

[Jag-T1000]

And that is why they aren't on top. They have nothing but old geezers calling the shots.

[MoveTheGlow]

Nintendo continues to be weird, and it's starting to hurt them. Iwata (RIP) was a designer and an engineer at heart, so they've put out some really freaking great games in the past 10 years, but they've approached their consoles the same way they approach their games - if that makes sense - and it doesn't work.

Making something really unique and refined, with every i dotted and t crossed, that stuff is wonderful for software. Hardware, though? That only goes so far. The more unique your platform, the tougher it is for anyone else to make games for it, or heck, any new hires for the company to make games for it! Imagine being a PC game designer and moving to Nintendo, having to account for this weird second screen and, seemingly contrary to the old rumors about Project Cafe, an architecture that just isn't lining up with everyone else. It would take forever to adapt! I think the new guy, who has spent a lot of time in Human Resources, gets this problem and understands the issue with the old system.

This tough-to-adapt structure might be why many of their games have grown stale - yes, Splatoon was awesome, and so was Mario Maker, but Mario Kart was a great version of just the same old game, Mario Party 10 was off its freaking rocker, the second-party titles were really lackluster outside of Bayonetta 2 - the new Mario Tennis, for instance, or the fact that we never even got a Mario Golf. The only Zelda exclusive to the system is a remaster without much of anything changed.

But will this change with NX? R&D and design started before management changed over, I'm not sure this will be in a different school of thought than the Wii era. Here's hoping I'm wrong about this, but man, I'm skeptical.

[XanderZane]

Nintendo did a terrible job marketing the Wii U. Did a worse job getting 3rd party developers to jump on board. They they had terrible E3 conferences on top of that. There was no way this console was going to sell 100 million units like the original Wii did.

[Angeljuice]

It doesn't look good if they feel they have to "explain the advantages of the NX".

The reason Wii sold so well was because its advantages didn't need explaining. People saw it and wanted one.
WiiU needed a hell of a lot of explaining (to the public, the devs, the publishers, the stores and of course the shareholders). It can't be a good sign if they don't believe people will just see an NX and want one.