What caught up with Nintendo was their decision to stop releasing compelling software and instead focus on self-indulgent wankfests like Metroid: Other M, or sequels to games that the market wasn't really demanding, like Mario Galaxy 2 (by contrast, the sequels to Wii Sports and Wii Fit were hugely popular). It's been what, five years since Nintendo unveiled the Wii? And how many interesting motion-controlled games have they released since then? How many games have they released that took advantage of M+? It's pretty obvious from interviews and the actual software release schedule that the internal developers are simply bored of making Wii games, and management lacks the cajones to make them do their jobs. So instead, they're making a Gamecube HD (which is what the WiiU is really about) so that the developers can make the games they want to make...just like they did during the Gamecube and N64 eras. I expect sales to follow a similar pattern.
I dare say the typical Wii owner is quite content to have 6 games on Wii, and these customers won't be loyal to any particular box, just buying into whatever experience they want from whoever's offering it.
I don't understand that correlation. Declining Wii sales just means that market has become saturated (and it's still far from saturated, with many millions of Wii's still being sold). It says nothing about the current level of interest Wii owners have in their device, nor whether or not they had expectations of the platform that haven't been met. I know plenty of typical mum's who bought and played Wii for it's novelty and active gaming. These people weren't buying with an eye on the future, but buying into what Wii offered here-and-now. In that respect Wii served it's purpose, much as a board-game might.
You need to present me with some decent evidence that Joe Wii-Owner bought Wii on a promise if you're to convince me otherwise. I can accept a lot of existing Ninty fans feeling let-down, but I don't think the majority of Wii owners are anything like that affected. Just as millions of people bought PS2 to play only Singstar and didn't care one jot about other games that were available for the platform, millions have bought Wii to play WiiSports and other party games and don't care to expand the system much with more software. however many millions is anyone's guess, but my gut feeling looking at the Wii demographics places the vast majority of Wii owners as not at all fussed at a lack of new content for their box. They're happy to leave it hardly used under the TV and do other things.
That's another unfair comparison. You can't say PS360 have legs beyond Wii where they are selling slower. It may be that they sell the same amount, or less, just over a longer period. The explanation is then that Wii is no less value than PS360, and buyers don't have any less regard for it, instead it launched cheaper to overcome the price barrier and had higher demand so that it sold through its total appeal faster. There's nothing to say that had Wii had higher specs it'd have done better, as it sold on its novel interface and not specs. If Wii had PS360 specs, it's quite possible core gamers still wouldn't have bought into it if they don't care for the control scheme, and Wii isn't a great fit for FIFA or normal COD and the like.
That's true, and I have highlighted that point before when comparing Wii's numbers.
And by sidestepping that market, Nintendo had a rich pasture free for themselves, whereas Sony and MS were fighting over the same customers as last gen.
Why not look at it from the perspective of what if Nintendo had launched a conventional HD console for the core gamers? That's effectively the complaint here, that Nintendo's hardware was too rubbish to support the existing core gamer market and so Nintendo have lost out, yet had they gone that route, Nintendo would likely be extremely struggling this gen. Even a PS360 class box with Wii waggle wouldn't be enough as the controller doesn't work with some core game experiences, so I wouldn't expect a WiiHD to be selling even as well as Wii is now, while at the same time being far less profitable.
