Its been pretty typical of every gen for Nintendo yet.

Wii - "OMG lol casualz!"

GC -"OMG Kiddie!"

N64 - "OMG Kiddie!"

SNES - "OMG Genesis!"

I will say when the Wii was announced, I was like WTF Nintendo?! But when I got to play it and eventually own one, it made sense.

What it did do is bring my gaming connection with my dad full circle. When I was like 4, we used to play Atari 2600 together a lot, and we played Super Mario Bros on the NES together. He played less and less as the games became more 1 player style. He came back to gaming with the Wii, completing the circle before he passed away last year. So, in the end, I'm glad the Wii came around, it brought my gaming mentor back into gaming for one last round. =)

1. Discontinuation of hardware is not the same as meaningful software support, whichh has rarely survived subsequent console launches, which is what I mean by support.

2. The conversation you insinuated yourself into was related to the point that Nintendo is not dropping the ball on the Wii in terms of support, not the semantics which you misunderstood in the first place.

That's a very sweet story and a very valid point

A lot of people forget about just what the Wii has done. 10 years ago a lot of people wouldn't be caught dead with a gaming console. Now we can all talk about Mario or at least Wii Sports, and the Nintendo faithful get all the support they ever wanted.

Without the Wii, gaming may well have been on its way out. You can hate on the Wii, but not the effect it had on the industry as a whole

Very well said, and a damn good story. When I was still living at home Wii replaced films as a Saturday night family thing to partake in together, so it gave us a little quality time I appreciated. Before the Wii my parents hated how much time/money I spent on videogames, now my mum even takes an active interest in what games I'm currently playing. It's something that's good to have, and even though I don't think the Wii has ever been able to reach it's potential, I think it's been on the receiving end of massive amounts of unfair criticism, and the impact its had on the industry will only truly be realised in the years to come.

well we have seen nothing really of dragon quest 10, so who knows they coudl surprise us, but if i were to guess i would say a 3ds release before a wii 2 release

thats what i see happening if a wii 2 is announced.  all the software that would have gone to wii, being brought to the 3ds instead or as well. 

I think that, all in all, Wii will have left a lot of potential unsused. Remember the enthusiasm: Balance Board games, Motion-Plus  support, Johnny Lee's head tracking - it all never really came. Looking back at Nintendo's history, we should have known. They've always made tons of peripherals that never saw any support. But I'm still disappointed. 

Games wise, I am a bit lukewarm about the Wii too, but I'm not sure if there really is someone to blame (but me). I didn't even play Donkey Kong Country Returns or Metroid: Other M yet. So I guess it's just my age and current financial situation. 

On the plus side: The Mario Galaxy's (especially #1) gave me the best gaming moments since my childhood. Mario Kart was great too (still I prefer Double Dash). Zelda should have come earlier though.

I find it slightly ammusing that the Wii started with Zelda and effectively will end with Zelda.

Eitherway I'm very happy with my ownership and have garned countless hours of fun for myself, my family, and friends.

Looking forward to what's coming in 2012.

Well you should have clearly stated your point, not blame me for thinking another of the possible meanings you left open.

But you're still wrong. The support for the SNES and NES was still longer than your claim.

This.

Unless the new console works in conjunction with the 3DS, say the 3DS can be used as a controller.  Then the E3 would be all about the 3DS and games for it and how it was going to work with the new console.  At the same time, it allows them to keep something exciting about the console under wraps to be revealed at the 2012 E3.

LOL, not likely but that would be pretty cool.

No, you have a history of misunderstanding people when they're being relativley clear, me in particular; I am fully comfortable letting you shoulder this one, a-yup.

As to the last: firstly you are missing the core point, which is that Nintendo is not abandoning the Wii in a way that isn't in keeping with their treatment of previous mainline consoles. Secondly you have yet to qualify meaningful support for the NES and  (especially) SNES post-successor-launch.