Well I think it was part of microsoft's move into the market and how wii was perceived. Power did have a factor which is why it missed out on multiplats but I would like to point out that there are factors playing in nintendo's favor this time.
If you consider stuff like microsoft's relevance in japan and nintendo being merciless in that area you see its highly unlikely it will play like that this time. If I may point out hd game development was becoming the norm when wii got here but if japanese developers make healthy enough sales on nintendo (and xbox japanese support compared to gamecube proves they do) they won't be so eager to move on no? Final fantasy would easily sell enough on nintendo so why not build it for wii u and port to the others? I think securing games like monster hunter is nintendo's way of cruising to victory there before the others get here.
IF that happened why ignore them in favor of a system that doesn't even sell there? Sure put your games on 720 by all means but leaving wii u when nintendo could very well be dominating the market there? Suicide I say.
At worst I say this will be similar to gamecube which had some ok third party support. Not great but not bad either.
One more thing to complete my year = senran kagura localization =D
