What is more important for Wii U: strong holiday or sustained momentum in 2014?

[TK14]

Momentum in 2014 is by far more "important," however, without at least some success this holiday that will be hard to achieve. If the holiday goes poorly, some very significant changes could begin to take place in how Nintendo does/runs its business starting next year. One thing's for sure, if Wii U does poorly this holiday and then STILL manages to find a cliff to fall off of (an underwater deep-sea fissure when its drowned, airless heap sinks even further) in January and February, then Iwata is in some trouble.

That's a little bit doom-and-gloom, but it's difficult to not get sucked into it by all the negativity about Wii U sometimes. Ultimately, even if this holiday goes poorly (I suspect Wii U will show moderate numbers this holiday and will manage to actually show "improvement" in its January and February sales compared to the previous year) as long as Wii U can "hang on" in early 2014, I still believe Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. BOTH have system-selling potential far beyond what a single excellent 3D Mario game could ever hope to achieve (Super Mario 64 excluded of course). Mario Kart 8 will appeal to the "everyone" audience, while Super Smash Bros. will appeal to "the hardcore" and the "Nintendo loyalists." Add those two plus a stream of solid, high-quality games like DKC: TF, X, Yarn Yoshi, Bayonetta 2, and others and Wii U should be "okay" in 2014. It's NEVER going to be the Wii in terms of sales. That ship has "sailed"...pardon the pun. What Wii U fans can realistically hope for is Gamecube or MAYBE N64-level sales in the long run. And you know what? That's okay. As long as the first-party content delivers, I'll be happy. Wii U won't make Nintendo a lot of money, but as long as it breaks even or makes a modest profit in the long run, 3DS will keep Nintendo comfortably in the black. And that's all it will take...we'll get another handheld and another console and more iterations of some of the BEST franchises in gaming all over again. Or, who knows...maybe the next system will be a handheld/console hybrid like people have been speculating? We only have to wait 4-5 years or so to find out. In the meantime, I'm legitimately happy I own 3DS AND Wii U and I'll be enjoying all the games Nintendo releases this generation.

Oh, and just for fun, who's already dying of excitement since Nintendo already confirmed the next Zelda for Wii U will be shown at E3? :D