Can't argue with that logic!

Even the japanese ones? Animal Forest 64 wasn't released outside of japan.

 That logic. 

Yeah, that's actually a really interesting parallel. And when you consider Animal Crossing Plaza was put on the Wii U, you gotta figure they're planning something there, and they probably wouldn't let there be that much space between the opening of the plaza and the release of an actual Wii U Animal Crossing game. I hope you're right about this, because that'd be pretty awesome. I'd like to see where the series goes from here, too. I mean you'll have to still be the mayor, since Tortimer did retire. But I feel like there was a lot of untapped potential with that role in the 3DS version, so maybe they could expand upon that in the next game.

My hunch is this game was originally for the Wii U, but I think Nintendo has moved it, either to the 3DS or to their future handheld/console hybrid (launch window?).

Animal Crossing sells better as a handheld title by far, and on Wii U, honestly its probably looking at 1-1.5 million WW sales ... just not good enough, when it could probably easily double/triple that on the 3DS or a future handheld platform.

I think Zelda, Metroid, Mario Party and everything else we know in development is still a go for Wii U, that should give the system a healthy life span, but I think quietly behind the scenes projects like the next Animal Crossing and Super Mario Galaxy 3 are probably very much up in the air or have been already transferred over to different platforms.

Nintendo needs to maximize profit potential on IP like this.

The wii version I felt was a lazy port of the DS game with just a few things here and there added.   I had fun for a short while.. but bought it 2 years after it came out.  Bought the bundle that came with wii speak.

flawless comment!

We have Animal Crosing for DS, GameCube, Wii and 3DS, now we need for Wii U.

if that logic applies then nintendo is quickly becoming one of the most boring gaming companies ever,

Yep, let us hope they put more effort into the game than the Wii version.  Was City Folk fun?  Sure it was but it didn't really offer too much new (compared to New Leaf).  It is going to be hard to top New Leaf additions (being mayor, building projects, etc) but I am sure there will be some cool new features.  Animal Crossing sells the best on hand held because it is perfect for the play 10-15 mins a day (check up on your town, etc).  A Wii U version will still sell at least 3+ million even if it doesn't bring anything new to the series.  However, if they can pull a New Leaf by adding a ton of cool new features then it might go 5+ million sales even with a low Wii U install base.