Because it's a franchise in which no one but Nintendo fans have any interest (or often, even know exists). People interested in Pikmin are Nintendo fans who are more than likely going to buy Nintendo's console anyway.

I think that's what Nintendo lands for, get the casuals who liked wii sports to play each of the 12 events and whan they see a picture of pikmin (or ny other NL event) on a box, they pick it up hoping it'll be similar to what they played in NL

I know, right?
I mean, seriously, Nintendo, I've been having to dust it every few days or it begins to overheat.. Or maybe my house is just that dirty...

I've gotta say, I couldn't be happier with my Wii U and the games that came out alongside it. I've been playing the heck out of Nintendoland (NOT just a Wii Sports wannabe, as anybody who has played it for more than 15 minutes knows), NSMBU (getting all coins and challenges), Sonic Racing (WONDERFUL game that I was hesitant about at first, being a "hardcore" gamer and all, lol), Nano Assault Neo, Ninja Gaiden (best version of the game, easily), Zombie U (SCARY), Trine 2 (fun little game)... holy cow! I haven't even gotten around to Assassin's Creed III (wasn't released THAT long ago on other consoles... a month, tops?) or Mighty Switch Force!!

If you couldn't tell, I'm just pumped about this console and I love it to death... and I classify myself as a pretty devout gamer! I'm in my mid twenties, I enjoy my 360 as much as the next guy, I wanted to believe the hype and reject the Wii U, but... I feel like Nintendo is back for those of us who turned our noses up at the Wii as a kid's toy! I was back and forth on getting a Wii U for so long, but I'm glad I took the plunge. It sounds strange, and hopefully I'm surrounded by fellow gamers here when I say this, but the Wii U has kind of reminded me what gaming is about: having FUN. The 360/PS3 era has instilled in us this need to constantly flex our epeens (achievements and trophies), only play FPS games, and lord our "hardcoreness" over anyone who doesn't own a Microsoft or Sony console (bits exaggerated for the sake of argument, I know). Technical specs are everything, and the next Gears, CoD, Halo, or Uncharted is all that matters (not arguing they weren't good games, please take note). Boy, those were dark days for me. I felt like I HAD to play those games just to keep going with the flow, and I got so sick of them. I would go upward of a year without buying a single new game for myself- I just wasn't inspired to game anymore.

The Wii U feels fresh to me. The games are fun, and I find myself actually trying to complete everything in them, even without the carrot of achievements or trophies. On my 360, even if I like a game, I often find myself just racing to beat the darned thing so that it can go away. That's terrible, and I"m glad I'm not feeling like that anymore. And if having Black Ops 2 and Assassin's Creed III on the Wii U only a couple weeks after the 360/PS3/PC is a sign of weak 3rd party support, I do recommend you reevaluate your mental faculties. That just doesn't make sense from a purely factual/statistical standpoint.

Great launch. Great system for anyone who gives it more than a cursory glance and derisive sneer. Lots of dynamic potential in a market dominated by more of the same, same, same.

You considered the Wii a kid's toy and ignored all the great games for it, but now consider Nintendo "back" after releasing another NSMB game and Nintendoland? I'm a little confused. Glad to see you are enjoying your new console though.

EDIT: Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but something tells me if we look up your IP address you will be someone already registered here

Yep, exactly as I said! I don't understand your last bit, though?

Sure ya don't. Anyways, so let me get this straight. You got tired of buying hardcore games like ACIII, COD, Ninja Gaiden, etc., but now that they are available on the Wii U they somehow seem fresh and exciting?

...I really don't understand what you meant by "Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but something tells me if we look up your IP address you will be someone already registered here." Why so snarky?

If you want to get into this, then let's do it.

1.) I already have Black Ops II on my PC, runs like a dream. No need to buy for Wii U, so you're attributing something to me that is actually not a title I mentioned buying for this console.
2.) Ninja Gaiden was absolutely terrible on the 360 and PS3. Did you play it on those consoles? I did. It was horrible. So my answer is a resounding YES- it IS "fresh and exciting" on the Wii U!! A thousand times, YES!
3.) Assassin's Creed III, as I also mentioned in my post, is a game I "haven't even gotten to," quoting myself. If you would notice how my list of games preceding AC III, games that I immediately bought and do OWN and PLAY,is Nintendoland, NSMBU, a Sonic kart racer, an indie puzzle game (Trine 2), a twin-stick arcade shooter, and Zombie U. Perhaps the only only hardcore game you could possibly pick out of that list if Zombie U, and even then I'm sure some would disagree. Again, is that list of games that I BOUGHT and OWN somehow not different enough from a typical "hardcore" roster on a 360/PS3 for you? I don't see Darksiders on there. I don't see Blops2. I don't see Arkham City. Forgive my French, but what the flippin' flapjacks are you looking at?

If I hadn't transfered my Wii console to the Wii U console I bought, mine would be collecting dust too. Finished ZombiU (very light on single-player content, hardly merits a replay), didn't finish NSMBU (same 'ol, same 'ol... yawn), got tired of frustration in BLOPSII multi-player-- selling that off too. I always end up back at the doorstep of retro gaming, kicking myself for having left it alone in the first place. Now I'm playing NeoGeo games... on the Virtual Console... accessible via Wii... as a channel within the Wii U. A black slate of $400 just sitting there, being used for what I had before to begin with. Figures.

It's almost like it's a newly launched console like every other one ever.

Sorry for the accusations, it's just a lot of times people make phony accounts to make it look like more people agree with their opinion. In any case, since you missed out on the Wii, you have A LOT of catching up to do, as their were a ton of great games than you can now play on the Wii U. My apologies, and welcome to the site

If that's the case then...
NEW F-ZERO!!! REJOICE!
Seriously though, that's probably one of the reasons Nintendo did it. To be honest, I couldn't be happier. Brand value is increased (by miniscule amounts, but still increased) and we got what is almost inarguably the best minigame collection ever made.

On another note, it's kind of weird how the Wii U has grown on me. At first I just dismissed it, but now that I have one I've been having a blast. I can easily see the concerns stated by others (very legitimate concerns, I might add), but they don't really apply to me. Still, it really wouldn't hurt for Nintendo to at least give specific launch dates for games within the launch window. There's stuff on the near horizon that I want with Wonderful 101, Warioware and Pikmin 3, and I'd like a release date since they're not far off. There's lots of games my money wants to go to next year, it'd be nice to know how to space my purchasing decisions out.

agreed. HD is expensive and Nintendo could use all the free ("free") advertising it can get for Pikmin etc. Part of me misses Wii Sports Resort's ranking system or whatever but I'll admit it was probably the laziest ranking and difficulty related system they could have made. I keep falling for all the Nintendo fanservice. The one-two punch of Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Story music is almost too much.

Frankly, I'm quite disappointed with what Miyamoto said: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/11/miyamoto_puzzled_as_...

In another piece of news he was saying something about the "Coin Block on Mario's Head" thing and how he didn't like it, but it somehow relates to F-Zero. To me, it's like he doesn't want to create something new, or he wants to stick with what he has (I might go on about this later).

@rallydefault
You don't see Batman, Darksiders, or COD? Those games did come out for Wii U...

To be fair the video I linked to had Iwata in a Nintendo Direct with a picture clearly showing that the Wii VC/WiiWare is available but won't work on the GamePad.... followed by a slide which shows "Wii U VC" and a picture of the GamePad without a cross over it. If that's not a big enough "hint" then I don't know what is. I'm not sure what else you really need to know.

This thread has me in the habit of taking a Swifer to my Wii U everyday, thanks for the OCD guys!!!

I am 100% sure that a VC will come in some form to Wii U. I'd like to know some details about it though. I don't want to buy the system, and then when the VC hits it is a big dissapointment. And judging by how Nintendo handled the VC the past 2 or 3 years, that could definately happen. Had Nintnedo revealed their plans for the VC earlier I probably would have got one of launch. And at the moment, nothing else about the Wii U interests me enough to spend $350 on it.

@brooks83
I'm not sure what extra details you'd need to know about it. It'll allow you to play an ever expending list of classic games on the Wii U via the GamePad. If it doesn't let you transfer that'd suck but if you want a Wii U VC I'm not sure that would be enough to convince you not to get it.

I think what you actually want is for the service to exist before you get a Wii U. Which is fair enough, it's something that I want to see also. If it was there at launch it would have been a much more compelling purchase. More details though? I'm not sure how that could sway anyone's opinion of it either way.

I didn't buy a Wii U 'cause none of the games really interested me all that much, and I seemed to be the only one that thought the launch seemed kinda like the 3DS one. One or two gems in there but nothing worth buying a new console over.