I expect the Wii U to surpass the GameCube in most of the world, with North America being the exception. The GameCube was a more front-loaded system, which basically had all its big games within two years and was then killed off fairly quickly. The Wii U, though it has had a worse start, seems likely to have a longer life, at least one more year, and will have a "early" era of a longer period of time.

Also, the Wii U has more big guns on its side. 2D Mario and Mii games alone had no real equivalent on the GameCube, whereas more of the bigger GameCube games have Wii U equivalents. The only major exceptions seem to be Luigi's Mansion and Metroid, but those are no 2D Mario or Mii games.

I didn't say it was gonna happen. But I believe they would sell more consoles if there was a cheaper, no tablet option. It appears most games work fine with the Pro Controller so it wouldn't be an issue for most games.

I understand the tablet was their vision, but it was a bad idea. Moving away from the Wiimote was a HUGE mistake.

The game has been out for a month, it will make a difference. I've also been reading that the Wii U has sold more than PS3 did in its first 54 weeks, yet the PS3 made an amazing comeback, so why can't Wii U?

Because those reasons have yet to come into effect; it's still more expensive, doesn't have Smash and Kart, and still has franchises like Zelda ahead of it that they may not fuck up as royally as they did on GCN. But price cuts, Smash, and Kart are coming.

Well then you have been reading wrong.  The PS3'a "Terrible" launch sold over twice as many in that 54 weeks.  People really do not realize how bad the Wii U is doing.  It's alligned launch pretty much matches the Dreamcast.

Will be a close call, damn I remember my purple GameCube with pride. Even though I bought most of my games on pc and ps2 the GameCube had some gems. The resident evil games stood out for me, I ended up with a second black US GameCube to play resident evil zero

1) It's more expensive because of the useless tablet.  Unless they remove it, its price will never drop to the Gamecube's levels.  

2) Why would those games do better on Wii U than they did on Gamecube?  Mario didn't.  Again what do we know?

3) Even if theings turn around to Gamecube levels, it would fail to beat it because right now the Gamecube is DESTROYING it.  It would have to start destroying the Gamecube to even catch up with it...

I am not saying the Wii U can't do better, I am saying there is zero evidence that it will, and tons of evidence that it won't.  Anyone who says it WILL do better, is delusional.

There's plenty of evidence it will, you're just choosing to ignore it.

1. "WiiU will never drop to Gamecube price" ... seriously? You think Wii U will never hit $199 with the tablet? Manufacturing costs reduce with time.

2. Because those franchises have grown since then.

3. Gamecube was the car with good acceleration but no top speed. Wii U is the car with shitty acceleration but a higher top speed. (Key games arriving later, higher starting price point)

Yeah, easily. It doesn't have the PS2 against it, gaming is bigger and the system is beginning at least to pick up traction.

35mil at least. At least.

1. That $199 won't happen until 2015 at the earliest. That's a long time from now.

2. Those franchises grew with the success of the Wii, with the WiiU doing much worse it's very likely that Mario Kart and Smash Bros will return to Gamecube numbers. 

3. Several key games have already arrived and they have done litte to push hardware. NSMB sold 30 million copies on the Wii, why didn't that become a huge hardware pusher for the WiiU?