The argument for DKCR selling shit loads is that:

A) People's nostalgia for the DKC games will make it a much easier sell than other games.  

B) the original DKC sold 9.something million on the SNES, possibly DKCR could do more on the much larger Wii userbase.  

C)  It's a 2d Platformer by Nintendo, possibly those who enjoyed NSMBWii last year could move onto it.

The arguments against are that:

A) People move on

B) DKC's pre-rendering was almost unprecedented at the time, meaning it garnered a lot of attention and possibly as a result sales

C) DK is nowhere near as strong a brand name as Mario

I personally think DKCR could sell anywhere from 4m all the way to 11m, this is all due to who Nintendo targets with the advertising (People who bought NSMBWii, fans of the original, etc), how well it appeals to NSMBWii fans, word of mouth, etc.

Myself I would be pleased with anything over 7m

Damn, double post

 Oh no, my Wario Ware is going to be phased out much like Mario Party. :(

It does seem like Vitality Sensor will slide back into 2011, but it would have to be early (new console fall 2011. Called it), so i'm entirely uncertain.

Donkey Kong was one of those social phenomenon games, at least in North America, so it could inspire American December Sales Madness to return as it did in late 09

Yep, rumours are that it will rely heavily on the dreaded User Generated Contents...

The original Donkey Kong Country sold 9 million. I expect the new version to have a similar if not larger impact because it's returning to the roots of the original, most successful game. People will recognize this, just like they recognized it with New Super Mario Bros, and return to the series.

It's also important to note that New Super Mario Bros fans will be looking for similar content that both Donkey Kong and Kirby provide. That's a huge install base of 15-16 million.

As for Vitality Sensor, Nintendo said they would find another, more relaxing event to reveal it at. My thinking is that they will release it this year in Japan (this is why Wii Party came out early in Japan), and everywhere else in May. 

Okay, so you're saying that DKCR will sell like DKC did in SNES just like how NSMBW is selling like Super Mario World. That's understandable. However, can we really just say it can do that again? Sure Mario did that, but Mario is a huge franchise name. Plus, Super Mario World may have been the latest 2D Mario game until the DS and Wii, but the original Super Mario Bros and Super Mario World ports had great sales in the gameboy advance as well. They all had 5 million besides the original Super Mario Bros. game. (Maybe b/c it was priced 30$ at launch?)

<a href="http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=Super Mario bro&publisher=&console=&genre=&minSales=0&results=50&sort=Total"<u>Super Mario Bros.</u></a>

Let's not forget that Super Mario Land did well in the original gameboy as well.

And now you are probably wondering what all this data means. This data proves that Mario was popular in several consoles and his popularity spanned from several generations unlike Donkey Kong. He was popular in NES to even the GC era. Donkey was only popular in the SNES era. That longevity of popularity helped the 2D Mario games on the DS and Wii. It wasn't only the nostaglia factor but the brand name as well. Donkey Kong does not have a brand name as high Mario. I don't even know if it has one as high as Kirby today, because Kirby actually has 2D game this gen and games that sell modestly around 2 million. When was the last time a Donkey Kong game sold 2 million? You can argue those recent Donkey games are not 2D side scrollers and that almost all of the Kirby games this gen are side scrollers and that is actually a valid point. Then you can conclude this will not hurt the Donkey Kong 2D brand.

But now we are back to games that have not been released over 10 years! So are we concluding that the majority of the people buying Donkey Kong Country Returns are people over 20 years old and dedicated gamers who are teens who actually know Donkey Kong used to be popular back then? It couldn't attract the teens playing game this generation or the little kids. These people are used to Donkey Kong doing some random recreation activity, not jumping and running like Mario. This game is likely a new IP to them and has no brandname what so ever. Mario Bro Wii gained brand from Mario Kart and Galaxy. Donkey gains popularity from smacking bongos this generation.

Of course, I could just be overy analtyical and the fact that I wasn't able to go to school yet when either Super Mario World or Donkey Kong Country could be a reason why I see Donkey Kong won't be popular. But I think this fact might even help me conclude that Donkey Kong will not be 10 million sold popular, or as popular as Halo or Super Smash Bros. Brawl this generation. The only reason I can see Donkey Kong Country Returns selling 10 million is like you stated, the install base of New Super Mario Bros. Wii wants another 2D games. However, this base will either split to Donkey Kong and Kirby, buy only one of them, or buy them both. What this base does is a wild guess, though. I realize I sound like I'm sounding really critical and maybe criticizing your post too much since the point of this thread was for me to figure out why people think Donkey Kong Country Returns will sell as much as 10 million. The truth is I am criticizing too much because I feel like we are over-estimating Donkey Kong Country Returns' sale. This, of couse is my opinion, and everything I have tried to make it sound like a fact will still make it an opinion, although a rather well constructed opinion.

If it were for me, DK would sell more than Mario, I started playing Donkey Kong on arcades, when Mario even hadn't his name yet. But the vast majority of gamers knows Mario better than DK, that ceased early being the main villain and protagonist with Mario.

So the new DK, so awaited by so many old fans, will sell very well, but it will be difficult for it to sell more than NSMBW, that can potentially count on all the old and most of the new gamers too, unless Nintendo strongly revamps DK's fame with huge and well done marketing.

Honestly, I think VS is being saved for Wii 2 at this point.  Biofeedback may even be one of the central hooks for the new system.

I also think it is saved for Wii2. And I doubt it will be the finger clip thing in its new format, a large part of the "huh?" reaction to the vitality sensor was not from its nature but its implementation as a finger clip, which is not very appealing.

Then again I could be wrong (part of the question being can one do biofeedback any other way except as a finger clip, e.g. a wristband or a finger touch control in the cobntroler).