will help to change from a dreamcast to a game cube.

Around 20 Million? You believe that it is possible for the Wii U to actually sell less than 20 Million?

Anyway, this is all in juxtaposition to how the Wii U is doing now. Compared to now, Mario Kart 8/Super Smash Bros. will move a lot of units. It'll bring up sales by quite a bit. No one said 20 Million units will be sold from those games.

...At least I hope not.

I'm pretty sure when people say save the Wii U they don't mean it'll suddenly sell 100 million consoles. They mean those games will keep it from dying and doing a dreamcast or vita. Which isn't unreasonable at all.

I don't think they will make the Wii U sell 10 million more consoles, they will have 7 million copies sold each.

If the Wii U doesn't sell more than around 15 million lifetime, I really hope Nintendo has learned, and plan their next console better. I'm not saying the Wii U is any bad, I like it but so far it hasn't blown me away like the Wii... And currently it's a very niche console.

At least the wait for Tropical Freeze is almost over, if I hadn't been an early adopter, I'd surely buy the console now for that game.

the sales on Wii Mario kart and Wii smash were only high due to a massive demand for the Wii, this is something wiiu don't and won't

I predict Mario kart 8 and smash won't do anything like previous versions I don't think it can be saved now

These are both huge games. Their release can help change the console's momentum. Without them the Wii U would be down yoy. If the Wii U was down a lot yoy, it's past the point of no return. 15mil lifetime would be the best we could hope for.

Instead Kart and Smash can start a chain reaction. The two games push the system up a lot yoy and attrack more support. 5 mil 2014 can easily become 7 mil 2015 if things start working out. All of a sudden 40 mil becomes possible. It's a long shot, but there's a chance. A bad 2014 destroys that dream.

You got it.

Dreamcast -> GC was the other spot on statement in this thread.

The Wii-U doesn't need "saved". Using that term kind of assumes that it's going to get discontinued or "Dreamcasted". It's not. It's probably going to sell anywhere between 20-30 million and make a profit for Nintendo in the end.

Having said ALL of that, I expect MK8, if marketed heavily through TV, to give it a healthy bump that is sustainable.

You're not entirely right. MK and Smash Bros. still sold a lot on the N64 and GameCube.

It's probably going to sell 20-30 million because of Smash and Kart though.

Imagine everything at the moment was exactly the same, except Kart and Smash were confirmed to never be releasing on the Wii U. It would have horrible sales for the year and definitely need saving! The system would be lucky to reach 15 million even. I think that's more along the lines of what the OP is getting at.