Selling consoles is not synonymous with people using their online service. Moreover, there is no guarantee that even Nintendo will be able to sell a significant number of consoles.

There are several huge competitors in online gaming currently, with more competition arriving and maturing every day. XBox Live, Steam, and Battle.net all have tens of millions of users and offer a robust set of features: social networking (friends lists), online game purchasing and digital distribution, online multiplayer and grouping with friends, text and voice based chat, achievements systems, etc.

Digital distribution and selling of non-physical items have enormous profit margins and low per-item operating costs. They are clearly the wave of the future for all software, especially gaming, yet Nintendo is only just now barely even flirting with the idea. "Catching up" to Steam and XBL doesn't just mean achieving the same number of online users, it means achieving the same level of revenue and the same level of brand credibility from the rest of the industry.