I worked in a GameStop when the Wii and then WiiU dropped. The Wii had one fucking massive ad campaign. Info packets, demo units, etc. We had it all.
The WiiU initially showed up as a SKU under the Wii as an accessory, and then for the longest time, we couldn’t get a straight answer as to whether it was its own thing or if it was like a SegaCD or 32x, or if it was just a new controller or what. When we got answers, it was already well into the preorder timeline and numbers were terrible, at least at my store.