Who'd have thought that the successor to the Wii would be bombing everywhere? The US numbers are bad, the Japanese numbers are bad and the European numbers can probably be counted on the fingers of one foot.
It'll pick up at some point, but I don't think anyone expected it to limp out of the gate like this.
They need only 3 things to give it a real boost.
1. Kill off the Wii. The damn thing is still selling into the 100K. I know they are still making millions on it (which is probably why it isn't dead yet), but it's doing harm to the WiiU with people still thinking it's just a controller for the Wii.
2. Games. I think that Lego City and Monster hunter will push some Wii U's (the former more than the latter), but they need something big. Something that will make people forget their Wii's and move on.
3. Price drop. Nintendo, you have 14 billion dollars, and still profit off the Wii, DS, and 3DS, plus software. Bite the god damned bullet and sale the WiiU at (more of) a loss. $199.99 for basic and $249.99 for premium. Look what dropping the 3DS price did for it. Plus, I want ambassador privileges like with my 3DS
Are Nintendo/Sony making profit on the Wii U/3DS/Vita?
Out of those 3, only the 3DS is making profit and it's only been making it since last September IIRC. The Wii U and Vita are both selling at loss.