Now imagine the Wii U sales if it had The Legend of Zelda, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros., a Super Mario Galaxy sequel and were $150 cheaper.

It wouldn't be at Wii levels, but the now stronger Nintendo franchises (especially considering it wouldn't be a "Sunshine" Mario or "Wind Waker" Zelda) would easily put it above Gamecube levels.


The Gamecube/Wii U comparison remains invalid.

Great thread Fusion. It's not hard to see why the GC had success early on and the Wii U continues to struggle mightily...

GC was a next gen system released at $199 and featured games with cutting edge graphics and features that just weren't possible on current gen systems.

Wii U is based on older technology masquerading as a next-gen system and released at $349, and features games with comparable graphics and features to consoles that are nearly a decade old at this point.

The GC didn't have MKDD yet but your point is very real. 

Wii U only has Platform & Party games so far...

So basically what your asking us is to imagine a Wii U that is $199 with cutting edge graphics, and features an installment of every single one of Nintendo's major franchises within the first couple years of its life?

Hey, that sounds just like the GameCube!  But everyone keeps telling us how the GC was bad and Nintendo should do the direct opposite of the GC.  Well, looks to me like we're seeing the results of just that.

And it's necessary to consider the cost of its competitors. PS2 and XB launched at US$ 299 while PS4 is US$ 399 and X1 is US$ 499. 

Except this time around Mario wouldn't feature a water pump, Link wouldn't be stuck in a cartoon, Fox wouldn't leave his spacecraft and karts wouldn't have room for two. Also, it would feature 2/2.5D Mario and 2D Donkey Kong.

Cutting edge graphics would not help.

~$195 USD  in 2014 adjusted for CPI inflation.

Also to note around 80% of all PS2 sold were priced at $199 or under  (~$260 adjusted for inflation.)

For the umpteenth time, it bears pointing out that GC had a very steady flow of GAMES, and much stronger third party support, especially in the first two years, than Wii U had. GC also got several "system seller" games early on, like Rogue Squadron II, Melee, Sunshine, and Metroid Prime. Wii U has great games, but MK8 is going to be it's first BIG "system seller". Those are the facts, no matter how anyone wants to twist them.

GC sold better, because it had more fucking games. Pretty much /thread.

Depressing indeed!

edit: Apparently, the NWR author has made a mistake, which  they unusually did not correct as soon as they realised it (and still have'nt)

Here is the statement from the author

Hey all - sorry for having the wrong year's numbers done for GameCube. It isn't 14.5, but rather 9.5 million units. Not quite as huge of a disparity compared to the Wii U, but still not kind of awful. Entirely a mental error and our fault.

So yeah 

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Nintendo_GameCube

Regardless, Wii U sales are still behind the GC

I don't see how Donkey Kong, New Super Mario Bros, and 3D World are any worse system sellers than those games you listed. The WiiU has already had several major 1st party titles, it's time to stop waiting for one game to come out and fix everything. If a series that sold nearly 30m units last gen isn't considered a "big system seller" then I don't know what is.