I think that Shane was correct that people arent going to read into the Wii U as being as casual of a system as the Wii. Its probably going to drop the playing field down by like 65-70% of the userbase that was casual. If Nintendo doesnt hold onto the casuals the amount of people with consoles will drop. Every time Nintendo tries to go full hardcore and do battle with Sony (and now a second gen with Microsoft) they always lose or alienate casuals. 

actually it sold 0.76 million not to bad for it being a JRPG on the wii 

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/42966/xenoblade-chronicles/

Not bad at all, the budget had to be way lower than Lost Odyssey and it made around the same amount. 

Xenoblade is as much 1st party as Uncharted is actually, since Nintendo owns Monolith. The Last Story on the other hand is 2nd party game. Like Bayo2 will be.

@OP: They had some valid points to bring up. But what really caught my ears was Shane saying that he's always surprised by what Nintendo brings. It seems as if they're pretty surprised it's a good and fun system! "I feel like I underestimated the power of something so simple" - Shane. I have the feeling like this is what the industry as a whole always does with Nintendo. We, as gamers, see the potential, but the "experts" don't...

Uncharted was made by Sonys request to Naughty Dog. InFamous was also made by Sonys request to Sucker Punch, but at the time they were just a second party, once the title sold they purchased them thus ensuring their entrance into the family. Nintendos ownership of Xenoblade is yes first party, but the creation of said franchise had nothing to do with them, but rather Monolith under Namcos watchful eye. Their first party ownership is more akin to Microsoft with Rare, where Nintendo let go of the shares and Microsoft picked up the pieces. None of their most memorable titles were created under Microsofts watchful eye and neither were Nintendos. Most of Sonys were since the beginning. As for the second party part, thats my mistake. I mixed it up with the Last Story which was second party like Lost Odyssey or Gears.

As per your other point, Shane has a point though. You see, Nintendo created a highly casual market with the Wii and that market will either grow with them or move onto other casual gimmicks. The kids will move onto the COD's and GTA's (its alarming how many kids are playing these games). 

I have no insight in how Sony or Nintendo operates regarding their studios, so you're probably right.

I just don't get why Shane was surprised that Wii U is as good as it is... The casuals have moved on, but that doesn't mean that Wii U as a gaming system would be bad, that's just a weird way of thinking. I could see the appeal the moment I read those rumors back in spring 2011, and it says a lot that almost all "experts" were sceptical - until actually trying the system.

He wasnt surprised, he just sees the Wii's movement, tech, and media awareness as trouble for sunstaining its marketshare. Thank goodness for Garnett Lee, because he gives me a glimmer of hope for Nintendo no matter how bad I feel about their position right now. The Wii U is going to sell off of first party with core third party titles behind it. Nintendo knows this. The question is, how many of the Wii owners who just joined in with gaming will translate to the Wii U? I am predicting about 10-20% of them. The sales of this new gen is going to be smaller than last gen, since Nintendo wont have that full casual audience carrying it when you look at console sales in general (not excluding competition).

Anyone who thinks Nintendo created the casual market with the Wii hasnt got a clue what they are talking about. Sorry but its just a fact. Casuals bought up the PS1 and PS2 and have been around since the days of Space Invaders. Surely you arent going to try to tell me PS2 got to 150 sold off just hardcore gamers and they suddenly vanished. More copies of Rugrats were sold on PS2 than copies of God of War sold. There are of course other examples of the majority of PS2 owners being casual. The guys opinion is invalid now because he is using personal opinion in place of facts.

As far as new IP's from Nintendo you have Wii Sports, Disaster, Xenoblade, Pandoras Tower and a few other Wiiware and DS/3DS games. Everytime they create a new IP, people claiming to be NIntendo fans act like those games do not exist and Nintendo sees people pretending they do not exist and sees no reason to waste money on them. If people want more new IP's from Nintendo then they need to stop pretending the new ones they have dont exist.

Think about it, the Wii did not take the PS2 owners from Sony. The Xbox and PS3 have over 140 million consoles sold between the both of them. Their consoles will sell into next year and slow down around Christmas, but definitely meet the 150 million mark and surpass it some. Casuals on the Wii are different from the casuals on the PS3 and 360, those are multimedia casuals who have more utility from those console than they would with a Wii. The Wii only has the console and the wii motes so if the novelty wares off its utility vanishes in a short span of time. 

Nintendo created an entirely new audience which with all consoles sold together were more than last gen. They increased the market of gaming by about fifty million. Again, lets see how many of those stick around. Wii Sports is more a tutorial to show how their peripheral works and so is Nintendo Land (which at times you must still have the Wii mote for). If you want to count that as a real new IP then thats perfectly fine.

I have two cousins who are girls and growing up they played maybe a grand total of 15 minutes of Super Nintendo and would never touch a N64/Playstation/etc. 

They have a Wii. It's the only video game console they've ever owned and probably could be the only one they ever buy. 

A close friend's 6-year-old daughter, they got her a Wii for the TV in her bedroom because it's easy for her to use Netflix For Kids on it and point/click. 

Virtually every woman I talk to has played Wii actually. That was Nintendo's biggest break through was getting all these female consumers who wouldn't even play Super Mario Kart (and once they got the system then it becomes "well OK ... I'll try Mario Kart" and away you go). 

You're kidding yourself and looking at things from probably a purely male centric POV if you don't understand this as being different from even the Playstation. 

Unforuntately for Nintendo a lot of these players are not of the hardcore variety and no amount of coaxing was going to change that. And women by and large seem to be indifferent to the Wii U. 

They have moved on, Apple and Android are the new "electronic fashion items" that you gotta have, and being able to stay connected to Facebook or Twitter at all times trumps the Wii experience.

What the Wii actually tapped into was the fun of things like Twister (the 1960s game), karaoke with friends, or charades with friends -- it was a fun living room experience that got everyone laughing and up off the couch. Watching grandma play Wii bowling for the first Thanksgiving = awesome. But watching grandma play Wii bowling for the 50th time ... the novelty begins to wear off.