If anything Wii U is overtracked. There is ample supply of it in stores and since release. 600k is pretty supply constrained and opposite of what supply shows. Sales are probably closer to 2mil at the end of Dec. On top of that the SW sales are easy to ship millions upon millions of. Like someone mentioned there are 20k dedicated gaming stores in the US alone. Then there are Walmarts, Bestbuys, Targets, ect ect.

I hope so! Desperate Nintendo is the best company in the world!

Q&A session could take some days to come out, probably this coming Monday as last time it appeared 5 days later than the Earnings Release.

Meanwhile, please take a look at the past Q&Q session from Iwata, it's interesting to see what were the hopes of Nintendo in regards to the Wii U and what they actually did or didn't do.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/121025qa/index.html

I'll give you an example:

Q1)

My question is on what conversations have taken place between Nintendo and outside partners about Wii U. There is strong third-party support in the U.S. launch lineup. Do you think that third-party publishers are launching their titles on Wii U simply as part of their multi-platform strategy, or are they looking into the new form of entertainment that Wii U offers? Furthermore, do you think that they share Nintendo’s vision for what it believes is the raison d'être for dedicated gaming platforms? Also, you announced that you would launch a service named "Nintendo TVii" with Netflix and Hulu Plus, among others. What do your non-gaming partners think of the Wii U system?

A1)

Satoru Iwata (President):

Let me first explain how software publishers in the video game industry are seeing the Wii U system. Naturally there are publishers that simply fell in love with the possibilities of Wii U, and as exemplified in "ZombiU" by Ubisoft, some are developing Wii U-exclusive titles. In addition to this, there are multi-platform titles that nevertheless take advantage of the Wii U GamePad or the Wii U system itself, and at the same time, there are purely multi-platform titles, so it is true that our publishers have varying degrees of commitment. However, the fact that we were able to announce such a rich launch lineup of games, particularly from overseas software publishers, does give us confidence. While the future of dedicated gaming platforms is now widely discussed, as the graphs for the U.S. market justify, I believe that this lineup proves that Nintendo’s vision is shared by many, and there is active support for that too. My aim is to set a successful example towards and after the end of the year that rewards the investment our third-party publishers put into their titles and will then create a chain of other successful titles. Establishing this kind of example at an early stage is crucial since it gives others the incentive to follow suit, while failing to do so casts a dark shadow over their future prospects of the platform. We should therefore not be content with having a good game lineup. It is important to produce examples of success from these titles.

Stock dips below 12, go even lower or bottoming out?

Stock should settle. The stock is not at its year-low in Japan but is in NOA because of the yen; yen weakens, ADR shares weaken. Nintendo is going to post a profit after all for this fiscal-year nonetheless because of foreign exchange gains. However, Nintendo must outline what it plans to do to help Wii U sales and what steps they will take to post the 1 billion operating profit for the fiscal year ending March 2014, outlined by Iwata.

Nintendo has solid releases for the 3DS from here on forth. Consequently, one should see the 3DS hovering around the 50 million mark by March 2014. Nintendo will be making a chunk of their money off the 3DS so I don't think they are concerned too much on that end. I also see a 3DS revision, 3DS Lite in summer, to maintain momentum until Pokemon X and Y releases. They have the Japanese market on lock as outlined by his presentation, but it is the US that is behind, sales in Europe are more steady.

Nintend should be concerned for the Wii U. Iwata knows it has less than a year to turn this ship around. Nintendo will most likely concentrate on locking the Japanese market first for the Wii U though as oddly as that sounds. Nintendo has developed strong ties with Japanese 3rd party developers thanks in large part to the success they are having with the 3DS - they will want to keep those strong ties moving forward. Nintendo will be driving the install base starting from March with a steady flow of games in Japan - Game and Wario in March, Dragon Quest X in April and so forth. Sales will start picking up and will hopefully hit 1.5 million by October.

From November to December, Nintendo will have their big guns out to try and negate the hype surrounding Sony's PS4 in Japan, Microsoft is irrelevant. I see Nintendo following the same release pattern as the 3DS with the release of 3D Mario, Mario Kart and a big 3rd party game for the Nov-Dec period; sales will be off the roof. Its going to get ugly for PS4. Nintendo wants the Japanese market all to themselves and I see nothing stopping them. Furthermore, if Nintendo is smart, one might see a Wii U app, a la Pokemon Dream Radar, to coincide with the release of Pokemon X and Y on 3DS.

The same cannot be said for the US and Europe market though - they will be moderately successful. Wii U sales will drop more until Raymand Legends release date hits. March will be the best month in Q4 for Nintendo as the Wii U will gain momemtum with Monster Hunter and Lego City Undercover, the latter being a surprise hit. A steady flow of games should follow from here on out. Moreover, there will be no price drop as they are already losing money per console. I see Nintendo releasing a 8GB bundle with New Super Mario Bros U pre-installed at 329.99$ to replace the by-then discontinued 8GB White Sku (Nintendoland bundle at 349.99$ will stay); sales will increase as a result as consumers will see value, Mario game + affordable price.

Much like the Nov-Dec Japanese schedule, I see Nintendo following the same strategy but serving more as a re-launch with heavy marketing and promotions in the US and Europe. Judging by Nintendo's 3rd Quarter Results, Nintendo did not spend as much as one would expect on marketing this quarter - 300 million US, which includes 3DS, Wii, Wii U and DS budget.

I the end, I think the best has yet to come but there are some struggles ahead. What do you think or anyone for that matter?

I honestly don't think the library is as big of an issue as the hardware concept itself.

This is the game machine no one asked for. It doesn't have a hook as strong as the Wiimote which created a ton of excitement with casuals and interested even core gamers enough to want one (even if it was as a secondary/"pull it out when the grandparents are over" type thing).

It doesn't represent enough of a hardware leap beyond the PS3/360 to excite core players who want a real upgrade after 6-7 years of that generation cycle.

The console is flawed from its conceptual stages period.

They can throw all the Mario Kart, Mario 3D, Metroid, Zelda, DKC, etc. they want at the console IMO. It won't change things much, without the casual bubble to carry them this is just going to end up like a glorified GameCube. This is just like the GameCube when Nintendo fans kept saying "wait for Mario, Zelda, and Mario Kart!". They even had Resident Evil. Still didn't work. People didn't want a purple lunchbox console that didn't play DVDs and didn't have GTA or a proper successor to GoldenEye/Perfect Dark.

Barring some kind of new miracle, breakout franchise that brings in a new audience, but Nintendo seems very reluctant to spend any real development + marketing dollars on a franchise that isn't tied to their existing IP.

I think your analysis is flawed my friend :)

- Neither the SNES or Wii played cassettes or DVD's during their respected periods but sold well nonetheless.

- Nintendo during GC compared to today is much different. Nintendo is arguably much bigger and is more popular than it every has been

- Mario has much more selling power than it ever has.

- Gaming market is different. Back in 2002, Sony had the monopoly with the PS2. Today, the market is evenly split between Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

- Nintendo is a toy company, always has been; as a result, their targeted consumer is not the core fps gamer, but families, kids and people who enjoy gaming and Nintendo's offerings. Judging by recent media coverage on video games, they did right to do so.

- Nintendo franchises have built a larger following - Animal Crossing and Mario Kart are examples.

- Wii U will sell more than GC, that is a given.

- The Wii didn't need to play DVDs because it had a monstrous hook in the controller broke all barriers for gaming, had novelty appeal off the charts, and was the hot thing to have for 3-4 years. The SNES didn't need it because it was the defacto game platform of its time, it had all the third party support and the strongest first party games.

- Nintendo did cash in on the nostalgia of Mario 2D, but it's fading now. When the NSMB series started, a lot of people hadn't played a 2D Mario since Super Mario World in 1990/91. That was 15+ years ago for a lot of people. But now that everyone has played NSMB on the DS or Wii just a few years ago, it no longer as much of a "big deal". The first new Star Wars movie in 20+ years is a huge deal. The next Star Wars movie just two years later ... not so much. People like Mario, but Nintendo's misused the brand by oversaturing Mario into too many games recently, as such a new Mario really isn't the same big deal. They've also shot themselves in the foot by recylcing a lot of the art style and music tracks from the various NSMB games.

- Consumer electronics are changing, I don't think people want a "toy console" anymore. Even kids don't want that. By the time they get to 10 or 11 years old they want what their old siblings/adults are into. The "toy/family console" is an outdated concept from the 1980s, people want products with Apple-like sophistication and styling, not something that looks like Fisher Price made it. The Wii broke rules because again it had a revolutionary new concept/controller and did borrow some design cues from Apple in its glossy white minimalistic chic. But really IMO all that did was buy Nintendo an extra 5-6 years of time. Now that the Wii casual bubble has popped, Nintendo is back in the same position they were with the GameCube. Wii U controller looks like a trainwreck of ideas mismashed together however, it's far too bulky.

- Animal Crossing IMO is primarily a handheld game now, and it's better suited for that anyway (10-15 minute short bursts of play). AC on the Wii did not sell that great. Mario Kart is bigger, I'll give you that one, but this is a franchise that's now 20 years old and on its 8th iteration coming up ... dare I say franchise fatigue looks to have set in with the 3DS version already.

- Wii U will be like a modern equivalent to the GameCube, though it's already trending a lot like the GameCube. Nintendo has forecast 4 million Wii Us through its first March, the GameCube shipped 3.8 million through its first March ... pretty darn close. I agree it will probably sell more than the GCN just because the market as a whole has expanded, but like the GCN, I think it will be third place because like the GCN it's fundamentally not an appealling hardware concept.

- ''People didn't want a purple lunchbox console that didn't play DVDs'' - Like mentioned previously, both the Wii and SNES did not play DVD's nor cassette's during their respected periods and both had a foothold and sold nonetheless. Thus, your point of people not buying a console because it does not have a DVD player does not stand.

- ''a new Mario really isn't the same big deal'' - Both NSMB2 and NSMBU sold 5.9 and 2 million respectively, the 3DS version in less than 6 months, and NSMBU in less than 2 months. I hardly call that not a big deal. These are ever green titles, they have long legs as oppose to modern games such as Mass Effect who need to cut the price on their software early in order to achieve their targets, maitain revenue and meet their goals. Though I agree it was a mistake on Nintendo's end to release both titles so closely.

- You are generalizing too much.

- Mario Kart 7 with 7.7 million in less than 2 years and counting. No franchise fatigue reported as of yet.

- In 1 year, Xbox 360 sold less than 6 million. Today, the cummulative total is over 70 million - One cannot assume or predict how the market will react.

What if Nintendo adds backwards compatibility with the DS.  They have eight years worth of games that people could play until better and more fleshed out games come along.  They could sell the DS library on their store digitally.  

Your TV would be the top screen and the gamepad would be the touch bottom screen.  I think it would be a nice feature and I would buy one if I could use it this way.  A usb dongle or sd card adapter might work for the DS cartridges.  I enjoy the GBA adapter on the Gamecube, and  others might like playing these games on TV like I have.