Always cool to get comparative numbers like this, from NeoGaf, this is the N64 vs. GCN vs. Wii vs. Wii U first year sales in the US market.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=81552721&postcount=105

Aug LTDs (most recent NPD month for Wii U):
WiiU 1.25m
Wii 4.0m
GC 2.1m
N64 3.6m

N64 was such a freaking beast considering it had very few games, but some really big ones.

Wii probably could've sold double what Nintendo shipped in this time frame.

I don't think people realize, the Wii U is going to have to increase its sales by like 4-5x fold just to match the GameCube's monthly rate.

So WiiU sales will pick up nicely this month and go to the stratosphere in november and december, hopefully.
By limiting supply of Wii heavily these next few months mean customers not knowing the difference between Wii and WiiU will only see WiiU units in store. Hopefully.

lol, I think realistically the best case realistic scenario is Wii U can maybe match the GameCube's holiday 2002 numbers -- (468k for Nov + 619k for Dec). Even that might be asking for an awful lot considering the GCN is trouncing the Wii U right now.

wait does that graph say N64 and GCN got price cuts that early in there life?? That just seems crazy to me

So while the Wii U -is- selling comparatively poorly, bear in mind that the lowest price on a Wii U right now is DOUBLE of what the N64 and GC went for at this time of year.

One might say it's a wonder it's been selling at all at that price. I certainly think it's a bit on the high end, considering Reggie promised we'd find the price "very attractive."

I'm getting one now that the premium bundle drops in price. But I'm still not very smitten by a $300 price tag.

It is worth noting that Super Mario Sunshine got mixed reviews and wasn't universally accepted, even by Nintendo fans. If 3D World gets very good reviews and are accepted by both 3D Mario and 2D mario fans, I think it can be done and WiiU reach GC sales for those two months. It could reach higher if Wii Party U resonates with casuals. But I'm not very optimistic about that.

Also. I'm curious as to how many WiiU units retailers will buy. If WiiU doesn't do very well in september at retail, how many units will they be inclined to buy for the 3rd quarter? If they dont have much faith in WiiU this holiday, they may just not order many units. Even if it suddenly explodes on the power of Mario and the return of the casuals, there still may not be much of any units at retail and emergency orders may not be in time for the holidays. I dont know. 

JESUS! What happened to N64 that holiday? I mean it beat Wii!

Lol that's so awful

I don't know what to say. The WiiU must be bleeding money for Nintendo at this point in time. They had the console world in their hands (literally) with the Wiimote and simply gave it up for a tablet thingy that no one really seems to get, not even Nintendo 1st party. They really blew it.

I think it's possible for them to pull it back a bit though. Write off the first year1/2 as a dud a relaunch it at a cheaper price point with the Wiimote+nunchuck (MarioKart will survive without a dedicated horn button) maybe at $250 and have a controllerless SKU for $200-220 for people with spare wiimotes and nunchucks lying around from their Wii units. Lots of people really do want to play HD Nintendo games but the entry price has to be lowered and the tablet controller is a good sacrifice for this.