mario kart is a huge system seller. Wii Fit/sports did the trick though but games such as MK and 3D mario with Super Smash Bros are huge system sellers. Like pokemon will be for 3ds!

Tagging.

@tbone51

I hate to agree with him, but his point is entirely valid. While those titles sell exceedingly well to the brands loyalist core. They don't apparently increase the consoles install base. Consumers are simply buying the Nintendo package, and those titles are part of the package. There are a lot of good indicators for this being the case on the GameCube the sell through of titles like Mario Kart, Sunshine, Smash Brothers, and Zelda. All have similar sell through rates. Those rates in turn are exceedingly high. Showing a very atypical demand. Finally even with all of these titles the GameCube still performed poorly, and finished in a very distant third place. Even managing to lose to the original Xbox, and Microsoft was a relative newcomer with not much in the way of first party development.

These titles just don't have a wide enough appeal outside of a very small community of gamers. That isn't to say that it would be impossible for these games to appeal to a wider audience, but for that to happen. Nintendo would have to dramatically up the effort they put into each title. As it stands now they dial in a clone of the previous game, and even if you say that the core of the previous game was perfect. That still doesn't explain the absence of offering up more features, modes, options, and just increasing the quantity of content in the game.

I get where ur coming from since those games didnt push GC/N64 to amazing sales but I think a few of those games are more popular now thanks to Wii. Mario Kart and NSMB sold around 30m while Sunshine and Double Dash did about 7m. Also I know NSMBU os on Wii U but its too similar to the previous installments and the console is too expensive for 1 big game to push large numbers.

Wii U should have a pretty good turnaround later this year when they start a new advertisement campaign, possible price cut and games like Pikmin, Wind Waker, Wii Fit/Party, Mario Kart coming by thr end of the year which could get the nintendo core who have been waiting to purchase one and casuals on board.

With PS4/720 likely costing $100-200 more, having mainly updated PS360 games and coming out when Wii U begins gaining momentum, I could see them in a similar situation as PS360 were in 06/07 (not amazing but not horrible). 

Im not saying Wii U will dominate this gen or even win for that matter but it can sell a respectable amount and have a solid 2-3 years in first place while the others are gaining momentum. Nintendo fans, families, casuals, and people lookong for a cheap 2nd console will get it to sell 40-60 million.

The week that Mario Kart Wii came out in April 2008 (check 3rd May 2008), Wii hardware sales jumped over 300%.  So games like that do indeed increase the install base. 

If you need current evidence of it, look at the 3DS spike when Luigi's Mansion came out.  Headline first-party franchise sequels always spike hardware sales for Nintendo platforms. 

Sounds like Wii U sold somewhere between 30-39k this month in the US so that would mean the GCN wins this month by another 40-50k or so.

It's worth pointing out that the Gamecube had a $50 price-cut in May 2002, just 5 months after it launched.

I still think they're going to wait till October or so and then slash the Wii U by $100, but just pointing out a possibility. The N64, 3DS, and SNES all also had $50 or more price-cuts within 6 months of launch.

Is this going to be updated?

Things are going to turn out interesting in the coming few months, I'd like to see how this shall turn out! :)

or not