the_dengle on 22 November 2013
If your questions are about how the online and voice chat support is for games like Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros, then I suggest you ask again when those games come out.
Anyway, I don't have any personal experience with voice chat on the Wii U. ...or with online play, for that matter. Most of Nintendo's first-party offerings at this time don't support it, though Mario Kart and Smash Bros certainly will.
Digital purchases are tied to an account, which in turn is tied to the system. If your console spontaneously combusts, you can call Nintendo and tell them to fix it and they'll recover your account for use on a new system.
