I don't know. Pre-orders could be better in Japan, but they could be worse. Honestly, it all depends on whether the Japanese are willing to accept a new console to replace the PS3. I mean, they only ever seem to have one sucessful console at a time anymore.

I'm not surprised by this.

My gut feeling during all the E3 presentations about the Wii U was always "WTF are they doing?!?!?!?!? O_o" Needless to say, my gut feeling about the Wii when I started hearing about it (months after launch) was a lot different.

I believe they will.  And unless Sony does something miraculous with the PS4, WiiU will handily dominate the console space in Japan for the 8th generation, IMO.

I would have much preferred a Super Wii.

It's going to have Mario and Monster Hunter. Anything else big at launch? It wouldn't surprise me to see modest numbers until Pikmin arrives.

On topic. It's Japan line up is killer, so it might do OK there.

The question is simply where the big developers move their stuff.

But having Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest (even if online dragon quest) is going to be a big help in hooking Japanese attention early on, making a more compelling argument than in Wii's case, where Japanese developers (like everyone else) assumed PS3 was going to be king-god of the generation long before it was apparent that that was not going to happen.

That has always been the big question about Wii U.

Will western third parties support it ? or they will ignore it when PS4/X720 launches ?

Another interresting question is if the economic climate was the deciding factor in the downfall of the Vita, and if that is the case, could it affect the HD sucessors in a similar way?

I think there are still stock issues in North America. Here in Canada the Wii U is nowhere to be found and cannot be purchased online nor have I seen any in stores at Best Buy, Future Shop and so on. Japan will sell much better in my opinion. They really have a strong launch line-up: Monster Hunter, Dragon Quest and Mario compared to North America which only comprises of Mario (Zombie U debatable). Furthermore, Nintendo only started in late September manufacturing the Wii U's so I think Wii U will sell its 3.5 million shipment by year-end. However, its after the Christmas season that scares me the most as Pikmin has been delayed and we are really in the blind spot here on what is to come. Maybe Nintendo has something up their sleeves and we don't know yet but they better show that pretty soon.

Am I overthinking it? :s