Nintendo has a history of not listening to itself. They're completely undoing all of their "progressive" statements about not letting the Wii U be another GameCube.
Nintendo's original estimates for GameCube shipments: 50 million by 2005. They shipped 21.74 million by the time it was discontinued.
Iwata on avoiding a GameCube situation: "Maybe the reason we were able to make the markdown decision [for the 3DS] is
our lesson [that we learned] from Nintendo GameCube."
Iwata on calling the GameCube a failure:
"I do not intend to declare how many Wii we will be selling today, but Wii will be a failure if it cannot sell far more than GameCube did. In fact, we shouldn't continue this business if our only target is to outsell GameCube. Naturally, we are making efforts so that Wii will show a far greater result than GameCube."
Reggie on not making their console end up like the GameCube: ""
First, we've got make sure that the titles in the first six months are strong and can drive sales. We've also got to make sure the console is attractive visually.
And we've got to deliver on the right consumer needs."
And yet...