Don't really care about this thread but you deserve a spanking for saying Dreamcast and WiiU are not "good consoles" and that's why they failed. 

If gaming is all you're concerned with, it doesn't get much better than Dreamcast. WiiU also smokes the pants off the next gen competitors when it comes to gaming. 

It doesn't need 3rd part cross platform support.. It's getting plenty of 3rd part support in develping games though.  Smash Bros and Star Fox come to mind. If the wiiu wasn't gaining steam each year i would agree with a sub 20 million assessment but by the end of next year if the same level of growth continues it will be well beyond the gamecube pace.

It's one thing to say that a major franchise has been tapped.  But Zelda hasn't really been tapped yet. Remakes and spinoffs don't rival a brand new Zelda game. Nintendo is also bringing back some major franchises like Star Fox and developing new major franchises like Splatoon and Xenoblade. And they still haven't done an Animal Crossing or Metroid which seem to be 2016 franchises. Nintendo is supporting the wiiu with better software than it did with gamecube. Next year they already have something like 12 exclusives announced. I just don't see the system not selling faster next year than it did this year. Strategically the wiiu is in a much better position than the gamecube to have longer legs. It's a second console and only becomes a better value propisiton as a second console as time progresses.

does it now? and what if i'm not into a console with the following:

#1 most of the top games i might have liked when i was 8. 

#2 negative 3rd party support 

#3 hardly any releases. 

#4 technically week games

Yeah I don't consider that good and the majority of consumers agree. 

>Never worked for anyone

PS1 came before nintendo 64

PS2 came before gamecube and Xbox

X360 came before PS3

inb4 Sega

Sega always made buissiness mistakes with their consoles....

The WiiU isn't getting plenty of third party support, I can't think of any major upcoming third party WiiU games.

Smash Bros isn't exactly having a massive impact and I doubt that Star Fox, a game which sells 3-4 million units at best is going to do much either.

The WiiU is going to need to gain a lot more steam just to keep up with the GameCube, let alone surpass it by 9 million units.

I already accounted for Zelda which has never been a blockbuster. Zelda is nowhere near as popular as Mario Kart which itself did little to, excuse my pun, drive WiiU sales.

Xenoblade is not very popular and it had virtually no impact on WiiU adoption. I also doubt that Splatoon will do much better.

Metroid games sell 2-3 million at best meaning that they too have little to no impact. It's a pity because I love the series (except for Other M) but it's a fact.

Animal Crossing is pretty popular on handheld but that success never really translated to console. Even if the next installment exceeded expectations I wouldn't expect a miracle.

Sorry but I just don't see anything turning around the WiiU's fortunes, neither a price cut nor Nintendo's stable of B-listers (strictly from a popularity standpoint, not quality). I'd love to see Nintendo surprise us with a wildly successful Pokemon MMO or a Metroid re-re-re-reboot that actually achieves mass market appeal but I'm not counting on it. Barring such unexpected developments I'm expecting the WiiU to settle down at around 18 million lifetime.

You have to gauge consoles at the time they come out, not today looking back at a library that is 15 years old. If you were 8 when Dreamcast was out, and it wasn't your bag of tea, then you have absolutely no viable perspective on the matter. None of your points are true if you were a gamer from 1999 to 2002. Dreamcast was a glorious failure. A console that kicked ass bt ran out of steam (money)...

Post its death, almost 30 Dreamcast games have been released by independent developers, with many more in the making... Games like Strumwind and Gunlord are quite fun. 

As far as WiiU is concerned, it's got its drawbacks like lack of 3rd party support but the console has some amazing exclusives that the competitors are yet to release on their next gen consoles. Hardly a bad console just may not be what you want/need out of gaming.

If you have to choose, PC +  WiiU combo gives you the best of what gaming has to offer in 2014 IMO...

It sure as hell worked for PS releasing a year earlier than N64. It just didn't work for Sega, ever.

It also worked even better for PS2 releasing a year ahead of GC.

I don't think it really worked for 360. 360 would have sold only 50 million if it wasn't for Kinect. Kinect is what got 360 to 80+ million not a year early launch.

If I chose PC? I have a very good PC that costs a lot of money and guess what? It can't even run half the big releases this year. PC ports are horrible for more AAA games. I use it for work but I'd be pissed if I bought it for gaming. 

ANd buying a Wii U? I'd have a played a sum total of zero games on it. That's a waste of money and the majority of consumers are like me. I had a wii in my house (bought it for my sis) and it was fun to play because of the motion controls not the hardcore games. I played PS3 for them. That's my opinion and as you see from console sales a lot of people agreeing with me. 

On the Dreamcast thing. I agree with you. At that age I had no console loyalty. Didn't even have a console. I used to go into my neighbours house everyday to play his PS1 (crash bandicoot and spyro). My other friend in our estate who i didn't go to that often because he lived further away had a dreamcast. We had great fun playing some flying game on it. So yes I would have enjoyed it and I did. 

But the console was a mess and can be considered shit from a business point of view as it put them out of the console business. Wii U on the other hand is making a small profit but to me personally I think it's bad. As I said zero games I'd now play on it. I've grown up like a lot of gamers and want more than something I'd have liked when I was small. 

If the product in question is considered by consumers to be as good or better than competion. Then It's a good plan.

If Sony would have released the PS4 at the same time the Wii U was released then it would have definetly helped.