I also predicted in 2007 Wii would sell 20m that year and win this generation.  At that time only two people agreed with me and everyone else thought I was nuts.    

I have no hate for Nintendo, nor any slavish love.  I find the industry interesting to watch and call it like I see it.    In 2006 I saw Nintendo was onto something monumental when everyone on sites like these had written Nintendo off completely.    Now I've been saying since E3 2012 that Nintendo's completely missed the boat with WiiU (and so far been proven right).    I am also unimpressed by PS4/XB1.   PS4 will fare better initially but XB1 has more potential.   However, I think the entire market will shrink significantly.     Mobile and systems like Ouya (but not Ouya, Ouya won't do well) and the Steambox and PC with virtual gaming, etc., will both grow the market and shrink the traditional home console market.    None of the big three have done enough (yet) to stave off this drop.

Sony has been the most conservative and aimed directly for the gamers and this will do them well, MS and Nintendo tried to cast bigger nets but Nintendo totally missed that call and judgement is out for MS.   But I suspect MS has more up it's sleeves to be revealed over the coming years.  They have a long term vision which should (should but may not, it is MS afterall) see them rise to the top this gen but still sell less than 360 did.

Of course all of this is my estimated guesses and I haven't always been right, but I've often been right when the mass thinking said exactly the opposite.

b2: PS4 is $50 more and yes I agree.  To many their won't be a signigant reason to upgrade.  The games are basically the same.

b3: 3DS is doing well in Japan.   It's NA and PAL sales leave something to be desired (but aren't horrible, but really, the 8 year old PS3 shouldn't even come close to 3DS sales in what should be it's peak years, yet some weeks it outsells it).  Even Nintendo admits this is so.   This despite Vita being a huge flop basically giving the 3DS the market all to itself.    Leading the market when the market is made up of ancient and failing systems is no cause to rejoice

I think you're dead on with your analysis. The DS preceeded the Wii and iPhone in being the first real mass market device that centered around using the interface to make electronics more accessible to the average person via the touchscreen, which has revolutionized home electronics since with smartphones and tablets subsequently.

The DS you could also see a shift in software early on too, Nintendogs and Electroplankton and things like that showed the direction that Nintendo was going in pretty much from its first E3 showing, because games like that fit into the new paradigm Nintendo had come up with. 

The Wii U ... this is its third E3, and Nintendo's most notable games barely use the Wii U controller in any kind of substantial way.

Actually, they have 2 issues: Games and Communications.

Games are coming but they need to pair that up with better communications/marketing to be truly effective.   Right now, they are not marketing and communicating very effectively and the sales are showing it.

"I gave u legit reasons why Wii U is currently selling less than GC last night and instead of coming up with any counter, u go and ask other the people the same thing? Do u have any reason to believe lifetime sales will be less than GC other than, because it currently is?"

Sorry I didn't see the above post. I thought it was only Zero that quoted me (as the thread got a load bigger so I didn't check the whole thing). And I didn't go around asking anything, I was only replying to people.

As for your points:

1) We don't know what impact the PS4 & XB1 will have, but it isn't unlikely that combined they will have a similar effect on Wii U sales. It could even be worse, given that PS360 sales are continuing and the Wii U is also positioned against them.

2) Could well help, can't really say. I'm not sure these differences are that big to people who aren't core Nintendo fans who get the console anyway. And hasn't the reaction to these games been "Why isn't it a Mario Universe?" and "Why isn't it a Metroid?". I personally thought a Galaxy successor would be what is most wanted and would sell the best.

3) True, but this crowd isn't likely to come back anyway so is a loss to both consoles.

Yes, the main reason why lifetime sales look to be lower than GC is that every month so far it has been. It is the only solid evidence we have, as the rest is speculation. Also there are big advantages that the Wii U had over GC (like NSMB and a year head start) that didn't help, so why are people so sure the others will? This means the assumption right now should be that it will sell less.

i think the best buy demos of E3 were a great idea to show the general public that wii u is there.

nintendo aims at gamers just like all others, if not more. and ps4 is $100 more expensive than wii u.

That was indeed a massive step in the right direction.  Sadly it was only 2 days and at very few Best Buys.   This needs to be greatly expanded upon.  

The momentum it had, though, would have meant that it would have either been GameCube or Xbox forced into irrelevance.

I agree that the ecosystem really can't support more than three systems, but it's easy to forget that Dreamcast died out at 50% of what the Xbox and GameCube each achieved by the end of their time.

Ya I dont get why those couldnt be permanent demos at all best buys. But hopefully this was just a test and will see more of this strategy Iin the future.

WiiU will sell better than Gamecube.

would that be somthing hard to do?