Strong holiday sales that give 3rd party publishers confidence to develop exclusives for Wii U. Then this to be followed up by Nintendos own games in 2014 could see them end next year around 10 million

Why does there have to be this he said she said statement? I honestly don't see how it offends you so much that fans of Nintendo try to remain optimistic for a console they've probably invested in. Yes the WiiU is not looking great but it shouldn't bother you so much that fans of the console defend it and remain hopeful for its future

its crazy just how wrong people were. hell even me

I dont think it needs a massive holiday in order to sell well next year. 3D Mario+Holidays will continue to see Wii U sales increase for the rest of the year, 2.2m for Nov+Dec seems like a decent prediction and Is similar to last holiday sales. Those arent amazing numbers but its a step in the right direction compared to the 20-30k weekly sales we saw for so long.

The big difference is this year there were literally no games released in Jan/Feb and the only exclusives released from Mar-June were Lego City and Game & Wario. 2014 has Wii Fit U in Jan, DKC in February, Mario Kart in the spring and Smash Bros is rumored for May. Thats a significantly better Q1-Q2 line up than 2013 had. Also Wii U wont be the most expensive console, will be advertised and has more value in its bundles so sales in the first half of the year should in theory be much better than they were this year even if it doesnt have a huge holiday boost.

I have no idea how that got pasted the way it did.  Oh well.  At least its there.  It's funny how things change over time, huh?  Nothing's written in stone.

optimism is one thing, but moving goalposts and history revising is another.

Momentum FROM a serviceable holiday would be enough, unfortunately it isn't a give that the Wii U will get even that.

Hopefully, DKC: Tropical Freeze will be enough to jump start a buzz that Nintendo can ride into the the next few major releases but as it is right now, I don't have faith the current Nintendo leadership (at least in North America) can get it done.

I don't have an issue with it, honestly I do hope the console does reasonably well, but there was almost an angry vitirol spewed by some Nintendo fans earlier in the year for anyone daring to question the system. There seemed to be that constant "wait for Pikmin and Zelda and Mario!!!! Are you stoooopid?! It just needs moar games!" sentiment thrown in various poster's faces. 

I've invested probably all told a good $600+ in the Wii U. $350 for the console w/Nintendo Land + Mario 3D World + NSMBU + BLOPS2 + W101 + Tekken TT2 + ACIV + Zelda: WWHD + a Pro Controller + a Mario Wiimote + various VC downloads (Earthbound etc.) just for the record. 

I think we're just seeing an erosion of the Nintendo console market in terms of demographics. That's the main issue here, casual gamers have gone elsewhere and mini-game collections are bombing left and right (Wii Party U and Mario & Sonic incoming), which leaves Nintendo the kids market beyond their traditional loyalist fanbase. And kids are tricky ... the kids who were maybe 8 or 9 when they got a Wii in 2007 are 14/15 today and quite possibly more interested in the Playstation/XBox by now. It seems to be a tough market for cartoony games in general ... even Sony ones like Puppeteer aren't taking (Tearaway is probably another victim) and things like Rayman can't find a large audience either. 

some were correct

N.America is where the console is doing best. UK, Europe and even it's home Japan is where the major problem lie.

That doesn't mean that I don't think changes should be made. Nothing personal against Iwata but some fresh ideas or a new approach is definitely needed.