The only thing what could make the Wii U as late bloomer, is the return of third party support and great marketing.

I doubt we will see those things for the Wii U.

In the world of technology, late bloomers are a bit of a rarity. Systems like the PS3 and DS improved greatly over time, but neither started off as badly as the Wii U and the PS3 had to do so with a major price drop. It's possible the Wii U could improve and sell well... but it's not typical in electronics and particularly rare in the console market.

You can't compare it to PS360 because it's still tracking waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay below both of them with aligned launches.

As for this paragraph:
"Mario Kart 8 is a game that, on its own, was able to up the U's baseline from just not doing much (30k weekly) to a reasonable number (60k weekly)."

In reality it's more like this:
"Mario Kart 8 is a game that, on its own, was able to up the U's baseline from selling like shit (30k weekly) to just selling really badly (60k weekly)."

Edit: Do you mean late bloomer as in will sell ~ 30 million because it's baseline will increase a bit, or late bloomer as in will do more than 50 million because its baseline would increase madly?

Great thread!
I thought about this as well and I think Nintendo still has chances if they do it right.
With "having chances" i mean selling around 40 mio. and not 100 mio. like the Wii did.
Nintendo has the most known gaming franchises in the world and games like MK8 and Smash Bros have a huge appeal. Also they still have some surprises left with Splatoon and the Amiibo's.
Who knows how much those things are going to do?!
They really need to step up their game if they want to sell Wii U's, but they have made some really good decisions this year already.
I find it funny when people think that they can judge a console by its first year performance, but that never works that well.
If Nintendo does stuff right they definitely have a chance to make a comeback with the Wii U.
MK8 was a good first step, but they need to keep up with that!
The Wii U lineup for the next time looks really good imo.

I am extremely sure it will. 2015 will be it's best year, I mean, the baseline will increase, Amiibo will be full steam ahead, the New 3DS is lauching which would drive amiibo even more popular, and also the fact that:

THERE ARE ENOUGH games from what we know right now for next year to have at least 1 retail game a month. That obviously does not include the unannounced ones.

Happy Year.

Same reason Xbox one can't

Which would be...?

It is possible. And it is a very cool console, I am loving it. Power is not a concern really, and, as I have a PS4/XBOX ONE also, I am not concerned of the lack of third party support. My GTA/Batman/Kojima needs will be fullfiled by the PS4.

I basically agree with the entire OP. It's nice to see a positive Wii U thread for a change.

Fanboys :P. Lol I think both the wii u and Xbox one can be successful but certain fans are hoping they won't be.