Why is the Wii U failing?

Why can’t the Wii U win this generation of consoles?  Every Nintendo article we read lately is focused purely on the problems for the Wii U.  It really could be better for Nintendo…

I don’t know about you, but this last year was the year I finally discovered indie games. Before, I would just browse through the titles when I was bored or on my way to download a demo (where have demos gone is a topic for another day). Now, indie games are where the action is.

Certainly this has been a long time coming. Arcade games like Journey and Walking Dead stole the spotlight from AAA titles two years ago, which may have signaled this shift to from explosive franchise games to more humble innovative games. This last year may have been the breaking point. Don’t get me wrong, The Last of Us was the best game in 2013 (and a must play at any time) and Ni No Kuni, Bioshock Infinite, Super Mario 3d World, and Tomb Raider were all pretty great. BUT, if pressed, the experiences I was most taken by were Sword and Swocery, Device 6, Gone Home, and the Stanley Parable. Looking at the horizon for 2014, is there any AAA title you’re excited about? Dark Souls 2? Castlevania LOS2? These may be great but we probably know what we can expect from these today. More exciting are the endless possibilities the indie titles might offer. Looking at this list, I can’t wait to see what’s coming.
Which brings me to my point: Why isn’t the Wii-U ruling this world? The next generation of games is going retro and huge graphics, large worlds, and a million-player multiplier is not nearly as important as just providing an innovative, interesting experience. Think of how much lower a bar that is to jump over: to pay $60 for a game, you want a stack of positive reviews to justify paying the money, but I’ll toss $7 down to try Proteus if a read on Kotaku or Gamasutra that it’s interesting (it is!).

If huge graphics and processing are not the name of the game anymore, then Nintendo can definitely compete with Playstation and Xbox, especially since a Wii-U can let me play these games on the controller while someone else watches the TV. This new market seems perfectly suited for the Wii-U, but they do not seem to realize it yet.

Maybe that’s just me, but it sure seems like there’s a window here perfectly suited for the Wii-U, if they could just put down the Mario and Zelda remakes and bring out some low-key indie titles.