I'd say that the 'pillars' of Nintendo's stable are Mario, Zelda and Pokémon. Animal Crossing is a far more important franchise to them than Metroid.
That said, I do think that Xenoblade is going to be groomed into being Nintendo's answer to Final Fantasy, and I think it's going to be pushed hard. Not that will translate into sales.
Splatoon, IMO, has a much better chance to be up there with the Mario Karts and Smash Bros in terms of sales. Even looking at the 3 games side by side you can see the trinity there: party racer, party fighter, party shooter.
And compare the amount of E3 coverage Splatoon got with Xenoblade; more treehouse footage, huge section of show floor, big section in digital event. Don't get me wrong, Splatoon as a new title was clearly going to get more attention than one that we'd already seen a fair bit of, but I think that Nintendo is going to lean on Splatoon to be the Mario Kart of team shooters.
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