http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/nintendo-promises-platinums-the-wonderful-101-will-be-out-by-june/

My take is Nintendo has given up Wii U's Fiscal 4th quarter.  Before anybody gets offended, please be reminded that I love Nintendo.  First alerted by the unnecessarily big deal made by Nikkei of the hardware consolidation article.  Now this furthers my hypothesis that Corporate Nintendo is preparing to window dress what is bound to be a difficult 4th quarter. And it's a rational move.

Unless Nintendo has plans or even the capability to shift up a couple of major title during the 4th quarter, they really won't have an easy way to explain what is bound to be a material downward revision in unit sales, especially for Wii U.  So they must send up a smoke screen of hope (new product possibilities via product line integration!!!) and controlled implosion (because we are moving back some titles to ensure the BEST quality expected of us, we won't have as many sales during the quarter as originally expected).  In fact, depending on the success or lack thereof of the few titles such as MH3, Lego City Undercover (each only contributing just two weeks if that to the quarter's sales), Nintendo could even use their lack of support apologetically and as a segue towards offering ambasador bonus, price cut whatever.

Again, just pulled out of my ass.  I reserve the rights to change my mind at any time.  And don't try to get in a series of recriminations like we often see in these forums these days.  Remember, you would only be arguing with my ass cuz that's where this came from....

It's certainly possible that Nintendo is sacrificing 4th-quarter sales for a stronger 1st quarter. It's pretty clear that they weren't prepared to launch in November, and just did it to get as much of a head start as possible with those Holiday sales. Wii U is pretty much re-launching in March -- I seem to remember them saying shipped consoles would start having the firmware updates pre-installed around that time.

I don't expect a price drop any time soon, though. Not until Microsoft and Sony's next consoles have prices attached to them, at the earliest. And if their starting prices are above $350, still no price cut for Wii U.

My guess is they were thinking they would get more third party support (ie: Bioshock Infinite, GTAV, MGS Rising, etc.) and that it would have a bigger impact than it has (ie: Black Ops 2) for this period.

When it became clear that this wasn't the case, I think they opted to push things like Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 back into Q2 and maybe even Q3 for W101.

The other thing is Nintendo may have been surprised by the positive reception and attention Wonderful 101 has been getting and may have opted to give Platinum more time (bigger budget?) to work on the game in hopes that it might become a franchise hit. It seems to me that from E3 and the Wii U Experience events that W101 when it was on display tended to have some of the longest lines and has gotten a nice reception from the press. 

Might be that so it doesnt clash with the 3DS releases aswell.

That's an interesting theory about Wonderful 101. I can report that it was getting a lot of attention at the Wii U booth at NYCC last year. My fiance even commented on it, saying it looked really cool, and she's not the biggest video game fan.

Omg, didn't realize before, but that's right. For this quarter it's only MH3U and Lego City Undercover (and those aren't developed only by Nintendo).

Next quarter should be Game&Wario, Wii Fit U, Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101.

I think we should give up on announcements also. Any other unnanounced game will be revealed untill E3 at this point.

this is the last time I buy a Nintendo console at launch unless of course there is a big game I want.

Is a nice theory, but I think one of the reasons of the delay for W101 is that it looks/feels too much like Pikmin and Nintendo may not want that to happen, with enough time and distance from the other title the differences can be bigger. I think that game will become an end of August release, so the company has something exclusive for every end of the year month.

W101 - August

Retro Project - September

Hal Laboratories project  - October

EAD1 project - November (Mario Kart?)

I assume its down to them trying to save Q1/2. Had all the launch titles arrived by march, they would have nothing to release in spring+ summer. I think the fall will also be fairly week with only one strong title (Mario Kart) and possibly mario party 8 or Animal Crossing? something they could push out quickly. I have every faith that 2014 will be their year though...

Nintendo has had at least one big game for their home console every 4th quarter for as long as I can remember. I'm not worried about this at all.

I imagine they are spreading out their launch window games because otherwise they wouldn't have anything else ready for the 2nd and possibly 3rd quarter. I'm expecting something bigger than NSMBU towards the end of the year. Then again I might be dissapointed to find out it's Mario Party 10 or something. I still remember that year Nintendo's holiday releases consisted of Wii Music and Animal Crossing: City Folk. Hardly games for core gamers.