Wii U seems to have a lot of the same kind of niche games similar to those found on Gamecube (Wind Waker, Wonderful 101, Bayonetta, Pikmin 3, etc), but also has some that are similar to those on Wii (Wii Fit, Just Dance, Mario Kart). Because of this, I think sales will fall in the middle of the two consoles, so around 50-60 million.

I thought nintendo fans hated those games you listed for changing it up, but I agree I think those games fell below expectations even tho Wind Waker was one of the highest rated Zelda games they were expecting the Zelda tech demo and got a kiddy style game.

I have no idea how Wii U will be selling this December. There too many unkown factors such as what games Nintendo will release and if they do a price cut and how much money they spend on marketing. Predicting Wii U sales so many months in advance is impossible and that makes predicting PS4 or XBox 720 sales even more impossible. We have no idea what kind of demand there will be for these next-gen consoles. Feel free to reply when your ban is over.

That's what I meant by "weird design choices," they put changes into each that many fans didn't want; cartoon graphics for Zelda, a waterpack for Mario, two characters per kart in double dash, drum controls in Jungle Beat, on-foot Zelda-lite gameplay for Starfox, etc.

If the Gamecube and the Wii had a baby, that would be the Wii U. It still has time to become more like its dad but it I can see it becoming more like his mom.

I like how the OP says not to compare Wii U to GC, and then goes on to make some ridiculous comparisons between the two consoles like saying that the GC's 1st party lineup was way worse than the Wii's and it did not help sell systems for the GC the way it did for the Wii.

Newsflash... the vast majority of people who bought a Wii did so because it was the trendy must-have item for the first 2-1/2 years or so of its life, and they never owned a videogame console before (except maybe going back to the days of Atari and old-school NES). This is why Nintendo's 1st party lineup had such strong sales... because the vast majority of Wii owners all bought the same games, with a handful of trendy 3rd party games sprinkled in like Carnival Games (a party / mini game) and Just Dance and Guitar Hero (music / plastic instrument games).

GameCube was targeted at an existing videogame-playing userbase that was becoming increasingly splintered thanks to increased competition from Sony and M$ and the absence of previous industry stalwart SEGA, and while the GC enjoyed a pretty rich and diverse lineup overall, it couldn't shake its "kiddy" image, nor could it keep up with the 3rd party exclusives that Sony continued to receive by default, nor the trend towards online multiplayer that M$ took full advantage of with the Xbox and its PC-like gaming experience.

Now the reason that the Wii U is selling so poorly is a combination of lack of software coupled with the fact that neither the casual / expanded market that flocked to the Wii this past gen nor the long-time "core" gaming market seem very interested in it because the system tries to hard (and fails IMO) to strike a good balance between the two.

Edit:  Also... GC is the most underrated console of all time, even moreso than everyone's precious Dreamcast, which I find highly overrated IMHO.  And unlike the OP, I have actually played the DC, so I know what I'm talking about. A handful of some great exclusives coupled with some interesting features weren't enough to disguise the fact that the DC was just a stop-gap console and couldn't match up to the much more powerful consoles released a mere year or two after.

GameCube was product of complicated times at Nintendo the old guard retired and the new one was either inexperienced (Iwata) and not very capable (NoA), the 1st party games were either polarizing (Wind Waker) botched (Sunshine, Double Dash) or unappealing (Metroid).

WiiU is transitional platform prelude to convergence of console and handheld, everything point to this, eg. dependency on tablet, low power consumption, low HW power, in few years this became cheap enough to converge to one portable platform.

It's too early to say what kind of success the WiiU in the end become.

But screaming Sony fanboys especially those defending Vita are great sign for future prospect.

It was.

Come on guys really? No body knows the future so please stop acting like you all do.... The Wii U may get a boost and become a moderate success. I personally hate Nintendo for selling out the "core" gamer with the Wii so do not take me for a Nintendo fan. I am the complete opposite now actually. I grew up with my SNES and loved them all the way through the GC (Preferred my PS2 though) but the Wii was obviously a success and who saw all that time ago that it would become what it has? To say the Wii U can not or will not is nonsense. I personally will be skipping it due to me not liking Nintendo and lack of games. My PS3 will tide me over easily to the PS4 which I would buy if it was 1k (If the Specs were top notch). Nintendo would be wise to get a larger crowd for the Wii U before the PS4 and 720 are released though as they will only make it tougher.

I'm not surprised at all. Nintendo was always the entry level stuff of games, and a lot of it's fans are very sheltered to other non AAA games.

I also think that's an interesting take OP. The Gamecube was always my favorite Nintendo console personally. I do think it'll sell better than the Gamecube, and N64 to boot, all things considered, but I still don't see it doing much better (much being the keyword) marketshare wise.