It's nice that Rayman sold best on Wii U for one week (still looks like a bomba overall), but even Iwata has acknowledged that Nintendo has been frustrated by 3DS sales in North America even after Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Luigi's Mansion 2, Nintendogs + cats, Style Savvy, Brain Training, Zelda: OoT 3D, Resident Evil Revelations, etc. I don't think that aligns with your theory that Americans will just buy anything as long as it has Mario on it.

That's why we're getting the 2DS I think ... Nintendo's going all out for the kids/budget demographic realizing they don't have anywhere else to go.

"Japan saved the 3DS, and America will save the Wii U" That is true.
Zelda always sell better in America. [come on Wind Waker HD, new HD Zelda!]
Americans love Mario.[come on SM3DW, SMG3]
Americans get hyped for a new Donkey Kong game.
We loved Wii Fit. [Wii Fit U hurry up]
Mario Kart Madness!
And um.....well its Nintendo. 8P

I like the way your thinking Nintendo WiiU could still recover I don't believe it is a lost cause until next spring. If the WiiU doesn't push 15 million units by the end of the 2013 fiscal year. I am confident Nintendo can make a recovery with WiiU, 8 million units sold is likely the worst case scenerio by the end of the financial year. Why am I so confident Nintendo will recover the WiiU? America!

You point to Pikmin3, Pikmin3 was number 2 on the global charts five weeks after its release. Thats right a WiiU game lasted five weeks within the top 3 which shows the power that Nintendo titles still have. As for Rayman Legends that is a bad example 27K is a terrible and if the game had been an exclusive it could have seen 100k+. Nintendo failed at E3 to show any true super powers for the western market but they did have a few decent releases. You can expect the Zelda bundle to do a million or so units over the holiday season. Nintendo Canada at E3 said that the ZombiU bundle regularily sells out you can expect Nintendo to have a good number of those units on sale during the holiday season as well.

So what do I think is going to save WiiU in North America?

BlackFriday - 1+ million units (Basic Model)

Boxing Day- 1+ million units (Basic Model)

Zelda Bundle 1+ million units

ZombiU Bundle 250k

NintendoLand Bundle 500k

Prediction total sold this holiday in North American domestic market - 3.750,000-5,750,000

Now let me break down why I feel Black Friday and Boxing Day are going to be so massive for Nintendo. One word "Basic" model, Nintendo recalled a lot of their Basic models from major retailers. The Basic models are sitting in Nintendo warehouses and Nintendo isn't just going to dump them in New Mexico. Nintendo is probably going to repackage the Basic consoles or simply send them back to retailers as Door Crashers at a price of say 199.99$ with a game like Lego bundled with it. A 199$ Basic bundle with Lego would fly off of shelves faster than stores could pull them from the back of the store.

For a store like EBGames, Nintendo could do a deal like (Buy 5 games and get a Basic WiiU free). Similar deals have worked extremely well in the past and not only would Nintendo be getting a console into a persons home they would help third parties generate revenue. If 2-3 of those 5 games were 3rd party titles suddenly publishers like UbiSoft, Acitivsion, WarnerBros would have adequate reason to continue developing games. The software sales boost on BlackFriday would be enough to make Nintendo profitable. The sales would be repeated in Canada & Europe on Boxing Day. The sales would be nearly identical and Nintendo could empty their warehouses of the Basic models they have stocked up.

A side bonus is that when retailers run out of 199$ WiiU Basic Models the 299$ Deluxe Models will sell. Parents out to buy their kid a WiiU will have to buy the more expensive console instead. Nintendo wouldn't need to cut the price on any of their first party titles as all of them will sell fairly well, but a sales price on ZombiU, Call Of Duty Black Ops II and other launch titles will help get rid of stock. Newer games like Call Of Duty Ghosts, Watch Dogs, Sonic Lost World, Sribblenaughts Unmasked will also benefit from the increased hardware sales.

Another bonus for Nintendo will be that both Sony and Microsoft will be sold out ahead of Black Friday. Even if either company has stock available on Black Friday it will sell out just as fast as Nintendo's Basic model's. This will leave Nintendo the entire week of Black Friday and Boxing Week to sell WiiU's unchallenged. By targeting the younger demographic and parents Nintendo can keep WiiU's flying off shelves the entire holiday season.

I expect Nintendo to make a bulk of their sales on Black Friday week and Boxing Week when they will sell out all of their Basic stock as well as sell a good amount of Deluxe models. Nintendo is also saving its marketing budget for the holiday's a lack of advertisements indicates that Nintendo is spending its advertising budget strategically. I suspect Nintendo will rival Microsoft and Sony in advertising over the holidays.

So what about December and Spring? Nintendo will have a few new games coming in the spring Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart & Yarn Yoshi but they will also have several new IP. At E3 2013 Iwata said the company had several new intellectual property for this next fiscal year but felt E3 was not the appropriate venue. Expect at least 2-3 new IP to launch in the spring. Nintendo will also announce Pokemon (3D game, ie XD sequel) for Winter 2014 which will help reassure consumers of the consoles viability. 

With a massive first party lineup for 2014 including Smash Bros, Project X, Pokemon, Bayonetta 2 & Mario Kart Nintendo will be able to maintain its sales from Q1-Q4 2014. The recovery will continue into 2015 when RetroStudios next big game will carry the beginning of the year! Oh and one more thing Nintendo Canada told me this year that they have tripled North American game development this year and we should start seeing the results in 2015.

In other words the WiiU should recover, Nintendo delayed its 2013 Q1 & Q2 games to Q3 so that they could move their other games into 2014. The company is going to throw its full force into WiiU next year.The Wii will recover and North America will play a major role in that. Add in international sales in Europe and a lot less impactful Japan and a minimum of 8 million units will be sold by Q2 2014. If Nintendo can shift 15 million units by the end of their financial year they will be competitive with Xbox One and PS4.

It will need to be a collective increase in all regions with a collective overall increase in all game sales before you can truly peg it as saved, and until the effects of the price drop are seen this sort of news only serves to delay what many believe to be inevitable

I also think if Nintendo cannot continue having such little development happening in the West and remain relevant in the West indefinitely.

20/30 year old Japanese franchises are nice, but you can't rely on the same 5 or 6 franchises to do all the heavy lifting for a platform over and over and over again.

New Super Mario Bros. was cool because a lot of people hadn't played a 2D Mario since Super Mario World like 15+ years prior. Now it's a new Mario platformer every year and surprise, surprise, NSMBU feels dated and isn't exciting very many of the non-Nintendo faithful to buy a Wii U.

Nintendo's gotta have more development happening in the West if they want to appeal to the West. Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter mean very little here. And I don't just mean development as in putting a handful of Western studios on old Nintendo IPs that EAD's too busy to bother with.

Monster Hunter means more here now, 4 will be the highest western debut in the series after the precedent 3G set.

Gamers like Japanese games, we dont need both Nintendo/Sony/MS vieying for the same market, Nintendo just needs to make more types of games, and they got franchises to do that lying in wait.

Nintendo needs something a helluva lot bigger than that if they want to sell systems here. That's like bringing a plastic butter knife to a gun fight.

Iwata even mentioned it in one of the investor briefings that with increasing graphical prowess, Japanese games are getting harder to sell to American consumers because the differences in design/look really become more apparent with better graphics (ie: Final Fantasy's J-Pop boy band/spikey hair characters vs. a Western RPG like Mass Effect).

I think that's a problem. They gotta go back to investing more in Western studio development like they did in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Nintendo has a set line up already, all they need to do is keep momentum up and consistent so its not selling Gamecube levels :/

We dont know what they got going on in 2014 though ,

Well... One can argue that the 360 and ps3 are getting GTA V so the gamers on those consoles are saving up for that instead... I know plenty of people that have been waiting a long time for GTA

Rayman is a great platformer but nothing tops GTA and releasing a game in the same month as GTA that is not nearly as well known is basically a death trap in terms of sales. Zelda WW HD might sell well since its Zelda

Idk if USA well save the wiiU... But Super Smash Bros sure as hell will