Nintendo consoles have been known for software droughts since the N64, but as the old adage goes, people buy Nintendo consoles mostly for 1st party software and this is where the WiiU was absurdly bad.
Regarding NA, the N64 launched with only two 1st party games: SM64 and Pilotwings 64, same as Gamecube with Luigi's Mansion and Waverace Bluestorm. The WiiU also launched with two: NSMBU and Nintendoland.
The difference was that with N64 we got Waverace 64 just over a month later and both Mario Kart 64 and Blast Corps by February. This held us over until the summer when Starfox 64 and Goldeneye arrived. With the Cube we got Pikmin and Smash just a couple of weeks after launch.
The WiiU, however, didn't see a single internally developed game after launch for a full seven months - and then all we got was Game & Wario until, finally, Luigi U and Pikmin arrived in August. This was the unfortunate result of Nintendo's transition to HD while also supporting another platform (3DS).
Since the PS4/XB1 won't rely as heavily on 1st party games, in their worst case scenario they will still at least have 3rd party games to fill the gaps between the Driveclubs and Kinect Sports Rivals. That doesn't mean the consoles' sales may not slow down considerably, but the software releases that the userbases will support won't be a sparse as WiiU's were.
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