I say it's possible. In gen 6 I feel that the gaming landscape was very different than it is now. Gamers were younger on average, and games were still growing in popularity. There were a lot of people who could only afford one of the systems, and most of them went with PS2. Now however, you've got a whole generation of gamers that grew up and now have disposable income. All my friends growing up had one system at a time, and now all my friends pretty much have everything they want. Those tens of millions of kids waiting for Christmas are now tens of millions of dudes that can spend their money on whatever they want.
That said, even if it takes a few years, I think the Wii U will eventually sell decently well. Imagine two years from now when it's seen one or two more price drops and it's got your Zeldas and your Mario Karts and even more games that haven't been announced yet. When you can get one along with a fat stack of awesome games for a decent price, I think a ton of people will pick one up. Whether or not it will still prove profitable for Nintendo is yet to be seen, but I could see it turning around drastically as far as pure units goes.
Currently playing:
Bloodbath Paddy Wagon Ultra 9
