Why couldn't this thread wait until AFTER Christmas sales rolled in? You know, start this on Jan 1st or something, because no system can have anything about their future determined this early on.
Also, I don't see how New Super Mario Bros U having a 60% attach rate is bad at all.
Why say "saving" Nintendo? Even if they don't do very well with the Wii U, they wont need any saving.

Japan better hop on the Wii U train for Nintendo sake.

The whole system looks to be practically designed for Japan.

Nintendo gimped the hardware to make sure it has a small casing and probably spent the majority of their R&D dollars getting PS3/360 level power into a 30-35 watt power cap.

Again electricity costs are a big deal in Japan with the earthquake a few years and the nuclear power issue and all that.

The controller/off TV play stuff again tailored for the Japanese market where most households only have one main TV.

Can you imagine Dragon Quest XI being made for both Wii U and 3DS and linking them as MH3 and Smash Brothers?

If that would happen. Vita doom confirmed o_O

Pretty much!
Well, even if it only gets release on one console, i think it`s clear that it will be on 3DS seeing as the userbase is already BIG in Japan and it doesn`t seem that it will stop growing anytime soon.

Nintendo needs to have at least some moderate success in their home country in order to be a successful company, especially now that repatriated money from overseas is costing them and others so much in profit due to currency fluctuations from Europe and the United States.

Nintendo's problem is that many, maybe a third to one-half of the games that make their systems successful in Japan have very little or no popularity in overseas territories where most of their business is done. The popularity of JRPG's in North America has gone down significantly since the days of the PS2, so while Iwata is able to gain a lot of traction by releasing so many huge Japanese franchises in quick succession on 3DS, releasing those same titles in the West will not have the same results. Just look at 3DS software performance in the US... it's not good.

Monster Hunter Ultimate for Wii U will have great success in Japan in the spring, but it's unlikely to sell very well over here.

But to answer your question... Nintendo needs Wii U to be at least a minor success in Japan, as they do in all territories with Wii U, otherwise they will have severe problems. By minor success, I mean GameCube-level sales as a bare minimum. I definitely see them doing fine with the Wii U. We can probably expect lifetime sales of at least 60 million, which is almost double what N64 was able to do.

They've got Monster Hunter, Bayonetta, some huge third-party ports that they haven't had since GameCube's early days, as well as all of the huge first-party stuff that will be announced at E3 next summer. They'll be fine.

I actually do think Dragon Quest XI is a dual 3DS/Wii U (1080p) title.

Can totally see that.

Problem for Wii U is that game is probably 2-3 years off and a lot of people in Japan will probably get the 3DS version.

Nintendo needs to sit down with Enix and tell them "look ... we need a "real" Dragon Quest on the Wii U" and at least get a Dragon Quest VIII Remake or something.

2013 will save the Wii U. Establish the content it has, and let the first party bring the cash in.

Monster Hunter Ultimate is out today in Japan not next spring. Next spring is Monster Hunter 4 for 3DS. 

I see more like 45-50 million Wii Us sold if there's a big decline, which would basically be half of the Wii's audience. 

Insanely premature to judge the WiiU right now, its not even out in Japan and people call it doomed :S

I myself am unconvinced, but we'll only have a decent idea of how the system is doing by Easter, by then you can get a few vague ideas where the system is headed.

Note: to those who say it'll do well in Japan, is the 3DS doing too well right now and will it take possible sales away from the WiiU? (As the WiiU's Japan line-up is pretty damn awesome if I do say so myself).