Dreamcast broke record numbers, as far as I can reacall. Even more than the N64, which was so sold out, that celebrities personally called Nintendo to order one.

That is still wrong.

Sega sold old stock for years. They just stopped production in 2001. And DC was sold with really heavy discounts. Especially in europe DC started selling 'well' after it was discontinued and after those heavy pricecuts. You could get a Dreamcast for 149 Deutsche Mark (about 75€) back then. Sometimes even less. So those 10,6 million Dremcasts weren't sold in that short timeframe.

Wikipedia actually says, that finally stock was cleared for prices between 49-79$ in the US. Don't know that for sure.

That together with all the heavy cuts Sega had taken before makes Dreamcast hardly comparable at all and 'DC sold faster' somewhat a fairy tale.

DC sold more than VGC says, but that is with heavy price cuts long after it was discontinued. So, Wii U still has to manage Dreamcast levels, but it will, at full price.

Only time, DC ever sold good sadly was right at launch.

Keeping an ever reducing user base happy. Wow. They really don't know what they are doing. They haven't done a damned thing to get in new core gamers since the Gamecube and they are now paying the price dearly. 

Umm, the Wii-U's user base is growing. Slowly but growing. Growing is not reducing.

Of Course they keep their user base and fans happy, they certainly want leave them like Sega,
they care about users and fans and that is good thing not bad.
Because of their support Wii U have very good exclusives and Wii U owners are happy and Nintendo can steel make profit, it is win-win situation.

I was referring to the userbase of Nintendo between generations, not the Wii U. 

And what else can they do? They have already stated that they are not happy with sales of the consoles, something you mentioned. They don't want to give it too much support because, come on, it's a flop, but they must keep their user base to prevent disasters in future generations and, overall, because they don't want suffer what SEGA suffered in the past. 

Wii U IS a success. Nintendo is able to make profit from it and that profit is going to skyrocket thanks to Amiibos.

At the end of wave 3 they will have sold Amiibos worth more than a second Wii U to me...

Nintendo have more revenue from hardware than software.

Nintendo have more revenue from handheld than home console (except for during the Wii).

"Royalties & content income" have never been a major source of revenue. 

Nintendo built a new R&D-building next to their Kyoto-headquarters. The construction of the facility costs about 200.000.000 $ (this is also something that disturbed their profitability in the last years)

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=740455

Because that was never the point. The point was that it's sales have been slower than the Dreamcast, and yet the Sega called it quits long before. As a side note, the DC sold over 10 million, VGChartz screwed up on that one.