It's definitely one of them, and it's definitely a major reason. It's definitely not the only reason. There are a ton of reasons not to support the Wii U.

So they are just going to spend the next few months playing on XBO and PS4 and applying for patents to all of the features they like? right.

It's a big reason, but it's not the main reason. The main reason is the lack of any significant demographic that would buy 3rd party games, because a lack of 1st party exclusives that cater to those audiences.

I don't understand what it patentable about these things. All of the functions described currently exist in devices on the market. The only possibly unique thing is how Nintendo will implement them. As far as I know differently combining existing technologies or functions isn't patentable.

Even operating at different power levels is a thing, albeit devices don't have discreet power set points but rather change power consumption dynamically depending on the processing load being placed on the device.

Which was 100% obvious to me, and which invalidates 50% of the stupidly sarcastic replies in this thread.

Some of the replies in this thread make my head itch. Like obviously Nintendo aren't patenting party chat. They're patenting their implentation of party chat. As in with the Gamepad and whatever weird gimmicks they throw in to make it unique. They aren't patenting copies of existing ideas, they are patenting their unique twists on existing ideas.

If it was, PS3 and 360 would have stopped getting support a looooooooooong time ago. ;)

No, they wouldn't have, because they had a combined installed base of 150m+ transitioning gamers.

I think some of the users who made these sarcastic posts know this and are just mocking Nintendo's online functionality.

Or maybe they really are unware lol

This is about the power of the consoles. Soley the power.

This just further proves my point that if the main reason was power, than 360 and PS3 would not have gotten the games. BUT THEY DID. Why? Because of their install bases. Yet they are weaker than the Wii U. Therefore, it is the install base and not the power of the Wii U. 

I strongly believe Nintendo is making a Nintablet (Watch me get sued in a couple of months for saying this ) along with a docking mechanism for it to connect to TVs and for you to play you own software. Could be wrong about the Docking mech... but still sounds good, no?