I found GCN to be Nintendo's nadir.

They butchered Zelda, 3D Mario, and Starfox, overcomplicated Mario Kart, and Melee's one of the most overrated games in existence. Metroid Prime 1 & 2, RE4, and Twilight Princess were awesome, but they had superior Wii versions

I think Nintendo fans may want to enjoy their Wii U while it lasts, because there probably isn't a successor to it coming in a traditional sense, not because Nintendo feels obligated to support the system for X amount of years, but moreso because they will have little interest in continuing forward in the console space. 

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft bails out of the console biz too after this gen. 

Sony will likely be the only one left that's really strongly attached to the idea of a traditional home console, most because they have the most to lose. 

Nintendo's console audience has basically whittled away into such a small niche that they won't really miss it, they'll just roll that audience into their handheld base and let future handhelds run games on the TV. 

Nintendo's not in this business to provide support to platforms that sell a paltry 3 millions units/year, the Wii U will be supported through 2015 just to keep the fans happy, but I think behind the scenes they're already well underway in focusing on different hardware pillars which will actually be the future of their business (for their sake they better hope that QOL thing takes off). 

Finally, we also learned today that Wii U hardware on its own is now profitable. Meaning that even at low sales, its still making money on its own even without a single game sale. 

What this all means is that Nintendo is not going to abandon a low selling profitable console and risk ruining its relationship with current Nintendo core. Instead they will continue to support the console for a normal life span which is commonly at least 5 years or 2017.

I'm sorry but Metroid Prime 1 is in my opinion the greatest game Nintendo has ever produced. That game and Eternal Darkness alone made the GCN for me.

(Also, Double Dash was great. Seriously it's just two characters on  Kart, it's not fucking rocket science.)

The Wii U honestly could by the end of 2015 will have pretty as good of an output as the GameCube did LTD.

If we confirm every Nintendo published Wii U game we know to be in development through 2015, lets even assume the only games that we don't know about that Nintendo releases for the Wii U in 2015 is Metroid U and Mario Party U:

list

Lets compare this to really all the major Nintendo published games from the GameCube era prior to the Wii's release:

list

To me Nintendo is really only "on the hook" for the Wii U through the end of 2015. If they want to phase it out after that, they will be well within their rights to do so IMO, and they'll have delivered enough Nintendo content to justify its existence. 

The OP kinda stretches what Iwata said too, he never promised any number of years, but if Nintendo provides all the above listed Wii U titles, then to me a Nintendo fan can't really complain about the system not getting enough Nintendo support -- it's fairly easily on par with the GameCube at least even after just 3 years.

In tonight's Q&A session following the overall presentation Iwata was asked about the next console. Iwata's reply was that they cannot release a new console until they've satisfied the existing WiiU owners otherwise they'd be similar to SEGA.

Additionally, earlier today Nintendo discussed new hardware in terms of fiscal years and it was clear in that presentation that FY16 or more than likely FY17 was when we'd see something. 

Next you have to consider the known games coming. MK8, SSB, Hyrule Warriors, X, Bayonetta2 and many others are this year. Zelda, yarnyoshi, and many others are known already for 2015. Then we have the tease of two major games at this E3... one that will prove soloplayer must-have gamepad use and one based around the new NFP figurines. As well as the mention today that many other games will be announced at E3.

Finally, we also learned today that Wii U hardware on its own is now profitable. Meaning that even at low sales, its still making money on its own even without a single game sale. 

What this all means is that Nintendo is not going to abandon a low selling profitable console and risk ruining its relationship with current Nintendo core. Instead they will continue to support the console for a normal life span which is commonly at least 5 years or 2017.

With the current pace of Wii U sell-through, I've been stating I believed we'd see something new in 2015 with a launch in 2016. NOW I am back to the original pre-WiiU launch belief that we won't see a new Nintendo home console until holiday 2017 and it may be shown to world in 2016 at the earliest.

So stop with the redesigned WiiU/gamepad-less design/etc crap. Nintendo is not going to make the same mistake SEGA did and kill of a main console early. It's not going to drop the biggest benefit the console has. Its now setup to make marginal to great profits while it prepares for a normal time frame between generational hardware launches.

What are those "many other games" scheduled for 2014 and 2015? They are not in the Nintendo report. By many others you mean 1 or 2 games?

We still don't know if the Wii U is profitable or just break even. Up until the end of this FY, the console was being sold at a loss, so I don't think Nintendo is just happy of breaking even taking into accoun t that the attach rate is bad. With a low userbase that buys few games, it's quite difficult to make any money, and even if you did, it will be really small quantities.

Nintendo didn't say they wouldnt be releasing a new console before 2017, that's just made up. The wording was totally different.