That's what I thought when the PSP, 360, PS3 and Vita released. Boy was I wrong. There's nothing over yet.
I'm not going to compare home consoles to handhelds because that is silly and there has never been any correlation, but consider the following:
Both the 360 and PS3 were considered "slow starters" in terms of sales when the NPD numbers were released for their first January and February on the market, yet:
January 2006 - 250,000 (360)
January 2007 - 244,000 (PS3)
January 2013 - 57,000 (WiiU)
February 2006 - 161,000 (360)
February 2007 - 127,000 (PS3)
February 2013 - 64,000 (WiiU)
There is just a
tiny difference there in disaster severity.
And that doesn't even factor in the other issues the WiiU has that they didn't. Abysmal 3rd party support, lack of upcoming engine support, unclear release timeframe for major upcoming releases, impending competition from consoles that will clearly, to the masses, be superior on a technical level, developers erupting into laughter about it, etc...
But go ahead, keep thinking this is your standard slow-start and the console is just going through typical growing pains. At least that thought is much more rational than the one coming from people who think the WiiU's situation can be compared to the 3DS' slow start...