PixlBit

If selecting a game to put into development based on total sales figures alone; one would elect to publish another 2D Donkey Kong over a new first person Metroid.  And that is exactly what Nintendo did in choosing to finance a platformer over a first person shooter for WiiU.  Donkey Kong on the Wii sold just under six million units while Metroid Prime on GameCube sold 2.8 million units, but there is a deeper story here.  Metroid Prime sold 1.96 million units in the US alone on GameCube and it outperformed Donkey Kong in Europe by 100%.

Metroid was the more valuable IP for Nintendo because they already have the Donkey Kong consumers satisfied with multiple 2D games; a cool new 3D Sonic, and an isometric Mario game this fall-- not to mention Mario Kart and Smash Bros. next year.  Metroid was more valuable because Nintendo needs to be working on expanding beyond that Donkey Kong audience-- they need the sort of gamers in the West who buy Western third party games.  It was more valuable because the WiiU has zero exclusive first person games of A-class quality and it has no games as yet built around using the controller's gyroscope as the primary method (option) for camera control while using the screen of the controller to create a handheld virtual reality experience.
There is also no first person game that uses the touch screen (if you're a touch screen fan) for camera controls.  The narrative of this console and its controller is one of unused features and technology.