Point blank, the Wii U should not cost more to create than $300. For a new generation, most people will be willing to pay that much for it, espeially in the advent of expensive Apple products.

Wii U will be marginally stronger than the Xbox360, a product using hardware that is 8 years old at this point. Parts from 2008-2010 inside the Wii U do not warrant a price higher then that $300. If so, Nintendo deserves to fail for being short-sighted in their approach.

These past 2 years have been a large struggle for them, and they've lost more than 40% of their cash reserve in a year. Abandoing the core and not crafting a 'strong enough' Wii console came back and bit them in the ass after their record-breaking ascent, with an unprecedented decline. Their American division has had no presence in the last 2.5 years in further promoting their console front, so Nintendo has to go back to the drawing  board. Their PR Firm got sacked, so a lot is changing.

The only benefit they have, is launching first in November (which is still late in my opinion) and releasing content while the PS3/360 get even longer in the tooth. Nintendo usually plays by their own rules, but they have abandon that for a while and stop pumping Marios if they expect to survive the long haul.

Likely a signaling tactic on the part of Japanese industry as a whole: if they all forecast the yen as weakening, the Yen will weaken.

If anything they need to start pumping Marios, just doing so correctly. The 2D-Mario double-dip for this year is the smartest thing they've done since making NSMB in the first place.

NoA sacked their PR firm, or Nintendo as a whole?

But i would agree that weak promotions from NoA has been a problem pretty much since 2008. The 3DS got a weak push outside of holiday 2011 when they had some better stuff going, and throughout the Op Rainfall mess, it really seems like NoA is content to run purely on inertia. It will be interesting to see how they work the Wii U launch from a promotional standpoint.

Hope they deliver some solid numbers.

I fear the dire state of most Japanese companies, dramatically reducing exportations and stock index over the course of the next few quarters, might be the catalyst for a japanese debt implosion scenario. That would not be good.

So it's on our best interests that Nintendo, Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba, to name a few, perform at least on acceptable levels this quarter

I thought having 2 2D Mario's in the span of a few months was a little much...

 I am crossing fingers for that here.

What did they sell for the Quarter, according to VGC?

Well, I'd say they'll sell 15 m 3DS' at the most - or 16 m... 18 seems a bit much tbh; but it all depends on how it'll sell in the West.

10 m Wiis/WiiUs seems... plausible... I'd say 8-10 m myself, but it depends on WHEN it's released. If released in October it'll hit 10 m for sure, but I'd say it'll launch in mid-November.

And regarding the DS... Yeah, somewhere between 2-2.5 m copies sold.

3DS - I don't see 18 Million right now. When XL and Mario comes out it'll hit it but that's not what we're talking about. I would say 15 - 16 Million. VGC seems about right with the overall's.

DS - I see around what Nintendo has said. 2/2.5.

People don't seem to get the importance of the exchange rate. Please took a look at this graph:

Sony and Nintendo get half the yens than 4 years ago from the same console sold at the same price. You add the price cuts, and now they get less than a third of the money they got four years ago from the same console, as Kowenicki already said in this thread talking about past price cuts. Japanese companies are going to have a really hard time in the near future.