None of those games were bundled the way Wii Sports was

All those games sold the way they did because THE WII allowed for those games to flourish the way that they did.

It's great to not only have Software that people love but to also have hardware that people love. 

quite a few sku's were bundled with multiple games. The Wii sports+wii sports resorst was a common combo in bundles, and Mariokart Wii was also heavily bundled. I'm not even a part of this argument, but I had to point this out.

You're so right. I'm glad you informed me so now I can turn on my PS4 and play uhm......nothing I can't play cheaper on my 360.

Because PS2

What I don't get is why Nintendo isn't getting a piece of these franchises. Gamecube had Resident Evil and it sold well despite Gamecubes small fanbase. I'm fairly confident that if games like Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid released on the WiiU, they would sell well enough to make a decent profit.

I mean if Nintendo is willing to pump out JRPG's like XenoBlade, there must be an audience. Maybe not for GTA and Western developed stuff, but I see no reason why Dark Souls can't release on a WiiU.

I agree with you about some stuff. A lot of the casual gamers who played FF and GTA last gen have moved onto Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed. Still, I don't see any real reason why Watch Dogs and Kingdom Hearts can't release on WiiU. Nintendo is making XenoBlade and Resident Evil 4 did well on the Gamecube.

WiiU will surpass Gamecube sales. Sure it's selling less annually (3-4 million per year where Gamecube did 5-6 million), but Gamecube only really sold well for 3 years and then died off. Console generations are longer now, I still see WiiU holding decent sales 3 years down the road (when it's 5).

MK8 should be slowing down considerably by now and will not have any lasting impact on HW sales either. It was pretty obvious based on the other U titles released that it was only going to sell a small percentage compared to last generation. DK has settled at a little over half a million, compared to over 6 million for the previous console DK. MK 8 will do slightly better percentage wise but it's going to drop off the top 10 by the end of the month and won't rise again without a price cut.

It would be hard to believe that many will go for Smash on Wii U after it's released on the 3DS first, if it means they don't own a Wii U by now. All the "great" software, I'm sure people would have been convinced by now to pick it up so don't believe the hype that Smash is going to do anything meaningful without a price cut. Bayonetta and Hyrule Warriors should both release this year and will not move consoles. Nobody is interested in these titles and would not have picked one up for the multiple first party Nintendo games already released.

@ bold - Completely wrong

1. Wii was a lot more complicated then Gamecube, but sold amazing.
2. GBA sold better over the 5 years it was sold then GB did over the 13 years it was on the market, yet it was much more complicated.
3. Gamecube was simpler then the N64 (Two prong controller, disk based games, c-stick instead of 4 buttons, etc) yet sold less

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3DS sales are down mostly because of competition from mobile devices. Unlike 2006 when cell phones were still for the most part analog, handheld gaming was limited to gaming devices like Gameboys. It's not down because of a "more complicated design."

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You guys are also mentioning a "psychological barrier" for Nintendo consoles......well Nintendo handhelds get 3rd party exclusives, where the consoles don't because of many reasons:

1. many are sequels of NES-SNES RPG's, so it makes sense they appear on a Nintendo handheld.
2. New games are similar in style to these remakes (e.g. Golden Sun/Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy on GBA, PS1 remakes on PSP)
3. Nintendo didn't mess up with memory like they did with N64, so they are staying on Nintendo this time instead of migrating to Sony.
4. Handheld gamers are either kids (Nintendo) or more into Japanese genre games. Sony does largely depend on Western sales for their success and this is prevalent with the Vita's push towards the West. This is why 3DS is crushing the Vita.

Anyway, rant aside people don't develop for the WiiU because Nintendo lost the market a while back and is having trouble convincing people to play 3rd party games on their system again. Nintendo handhelds have never lost control and instead established themselves, this is why Sony is struggling with the Vita. Plus graphics don't matter as much on handhelds.

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Also 3DS is going to be Nintendo's 3rd best handheld. If you look at total sales 3DS will top GBA and if you look at annual averages 3DS is already above the GB/GBC.

I replied to Rol about this, but I basically agree with you (sorry to bud in)......kinda.

WiiU will exceed Gamecube in sales because of the longer console generation (simple). WiiU could have sold like Wii if they marketed themselves like they did with the Wii. I mean there was no killer ap at launch, Mario Kart 8 is the first wide audience killer game for the WiiU and the system is nearly 2, it already has a bad image. Had Nintendo not messed up, I could see Kingdom Hearts 3, Dark Souls 2 and at least the Japanese developers developing for the WiiU (We already saw Deus Ex)

Still Rol makes a good point though, 3rd parties more easily develop for Nintendo handhelds and there is a bit of a phychological barrier, but it has nothing to do with the systems. Nintendo lost 3rd party support on consoles with the N64 and has since struggled to get it back. They never lost 3rd party support for handhelds, and after 25 years of handheld dominance, they don't have to put much effort anymore to get 3rd party handheld support (same goes for Siny with home consoles).

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It's kinda interesting to see Sony dominate the home consoles and Nintendo dominate the handhelds. I think it's mostly because it's just the way the majority went and not many people are going to buy the less popular system to be different. (e.g. I didn't even know what a Sega Saturn was growing up because no one talked about it).

Just responding to your last sentence, but there is no way the 3DS will surpass the GBA.  Going by the sites numbers it looks like by the end of the month it will be a 38 million difference.  It's been out almost 3 and a half years.  It's already started dipping below 100K a week and even if it could continue doing 100K with not a lot of big titles, hell let's say half a million a month (125K a week roughly) it would still take another 6 years and there's no way the 3ds has more than 3 years left.  Maybe with all the different handheld redesigns and a significant price cut it could get close but there's only a few more big titles that could possibly give it any signiciant surges.  No way does it pass GBA.  

3DS is at 43 million right now after 3 and a quarter years and 2014 is the first year where YoY sales will be down right? All that means is that over the next 3 years it's going to sell another 40 million or so, plus 4-6 years there will be a small tail end of sales. DS was around for 7 years, so if anything 3DS is only half done.

You can't look at weekly sales because 3DS sells just sas much as it does in November/December as it does the rest of the year. 3DS has been consistantly selling 12-14 million annually so I belive that 3DS will end at about 52-53 million this year, 64-65 million at the end of 2015 and then it only needs another 14-15 million to top GBA.

I'd be surprised if 3DS didn't top GBA, it's doing a lot better then the 360 was and the 360 topped GBA.