Let me start this off by saying that I do feel the Wii U has some pretty interesting features.  But, I also feel that it may not be enough to captivate the gaming world like the Wii was able to this gen.  Meaning I feel that Nintendo won't be able to dominate next gen like it has this gen.  Here are my reasonings.

Graphics:  While gameplay will always remain the most important part of gaming, graphics do play an important role.  And while some may have been impressed by the tech demo for Wii U, one needs to keep in mind that it was just that, a tech demo.  The PS3 had several very impressive tech demos before launch, however, we have yet to see games that look on the same exact level.  How a console renders a game in real time is what is truly important in this topic.  And this is where I see Wii U failing to appeal to many gamers, especially core gamers.  While the Zelda demo looked as if it were using better AA and lighting than most games, in terms of poly count and textures, it looked pretty much on par with some of the better looking PS3 games.  I think this is going to play a role in what to expect from 3rd party games, which leads me to...

3rd Party Support:  I think that given the relatively poor performance from 3rd party games on the Wii, 3rd parties are going to be a little wary about putting their games on the Wii U.  So for the first year or two, you will probably see many ports of existing, or already in development, 360/PS3 multi-plats, with little to no enhancements or Wii U controller screen usage.  Which begs the question, why should anyone drop more money for a new console, when most of its games can be found on already purchased consoles, with graphics on par to the Wii U?  I think many core gamers will fail to see a point.  And yes, there will be exclusives from Nintendo, but it takes more than that to sell a system.  The Virtual Boy, N64, Gamecube, have already proven that.  And to a lesser extent, so did the SNES (Sega only sold ~8 mil fewer Genesis units than it).  So if the Wii U may not appeal to the core gamers, that leaves the casuals...

Casual Gaming:  One of the main reasons the Wii took off so well was it was able to tap into the casual crowd.  And the main reason for this was it wowed them with motion gaming.  This is where Wii U is at a HUGE disadvantage.  When the Wii was released, it was the only console seriously focusing on motion gaming as a viable control system.  It wasn't until about 4 years later that Sony and MS jumped in on the game.  When the Wii U comes out, both the PS3 and 360 will have motion gaming, which will undoubtedly carry over into their next gen consoles.  This will make the Wii U seem less unique. 

Another problem is that the Wii U doesn't seem to be improving much in terms of motion tracking.  It is still going to be using the old Wii remotes and balance board.  And while the Wii U controller does add a small layer of depth to it, it is mostly visual, and does not actually add to or improve the tracking capabilities.  I don't see casuals buying a new console to get the same motion experince of the Wii, except now they can, for example, see the golf ball they are hitting on the Wii U controller.  Now on the other side, MS and Sony will most likely be releasing the Kinect 2 and a new PS Eye (which will probably use the same Move controllers), which will enhance their tracking abilities.  Speaking of controls...

Controller:  Again, I do see that the Wii U controller can offer some interesting features, i.e. drawing and menu/inventory management, but I don't think people are seriously going to invest hours of gaming time while holding that huge controller.  It just looks awkward and I think that once the initial charm of being able to just look at the second screen to go through your inventory, many will find they would just rather do it through the pause menu, instead of looking back and forth between two screens. 

Another interesting feature is being able to stream the game to the controller while someone else uses the TV.  The only problem I see with that is, the PS Vita can do something very similar.  Except with the Vita, you don't need to keep the console running, thus wasting electricity, and you can actually take the game out the door with you.  Now I know most will say, "But that's only going to be for a few select games."  All I have to say to that is, things change.  I wouldn't be surprised if Sony, after hearing this announcement, starts pushing for more Vita games to support this feature.  I would imagine most Vita games will start coming with a download code for the game off the PSN, so you can play it on your PS3, as well.  Of course, next comes the biggest two hurdles...

Price/Competition:  How much will this thing cost?  Nintendo has already said that it will most likely be more than what the Wii launched for, $249.  This makes the next likely price $299.  However, given the large hi-res screen in every controller, possible use of Blu-ray, and possible HDD, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't sell for $349-$399.  And how many controllers are going to be coming in one box?  If the rumors are true that it will only ship with one, then that is going to hurt mulitiplayer quite a bit, something that appeals to many casual and core gamers.  I wouldn't be surprised if new controllers went for $100-$150.  Given all the things I have listed above, I see very little reason to drop that much money for a new console, and extra controllers so I can play with my family/friends, when most of the experience of owning that console can be found elsewhere. 

And don't think MS and Sony are going to take this release lying down.  While I still expect them to drop their prices by $50 this year, I'm guessing that at E3, maybe Gamescon, next year they will be announcing another $50 drop, bringing the price for the PS3 and top model 360 to $199.  This will create an even larger price difference between them and the Wii U, which may also be coupled with price cuts for the Kinect and Move controllers.  And the biggest hit to Nintendo will be at E3 of next year, with both Sony and MS announcing their next gen consoles.  Both of which will probably look like a pretty big leap ahead of the Wii U.  And Sony, at least, has already said they weren't going to be spending as much money developing the PS4, which means it will probably still use Blu-ray and have cheaper, though still powerful, CPUs/GPUs.  Which means the PS4 may be releasing for around $399, as well.  A very attractive price if the system can pump out visuals on par with the UE3 demo Epic recently released.

And I'll end this by saying that I don't believe that the Wii U will be a flop or anything, I just don't see Nintendo taking 1st place with this offering.  I'm also not claiming any of this as fact, just my opinion based on the things we know now.  Thoughts?

From everything i´ve seen of the console, the only thing that´s been worrying me is the fact that i´ve not seen a video or screen that show to Wii-u controllers at the same time...yes you can play with one of the new ones and some wiimotes, but if that´s it, it could be a very bad design decision, because if they want to capture the more experienced player, the one that play more complex sports games or shooters, they will be leaving out some simple yet great ideas that could enhance their experience.

Fore example, imagine you are playing some local multiplayer of ( insert whatever shooter name you want ), and every player could have his own screen, in the tv there will be stats or whatever....that would eliminate the screen peeking or whatever it´s called, making it a more fair play ( and i say this because i like playing shooter locally and that could be a great thing to have and experience.).

I will buy the console first day, but this is the only thing that worries me....and i think a lot more people could feel the same as me, and hopefully they reveal later that more Wii-u controllers can be used at the same time.

My word, we still know nothing about the console, games, specs, price etc. and DOOM is already predicted? After 1 day? Why so much hate and pessimism? :s

OT: I think it'll do fine. 80mil LT. But that will still beat the other consoles next gen. If you want reasons look in the other thread (seece )...

I would imagine you could use more than one controller at a time.  The bad thing is, though, its going to cost you quite a bit to buy those extra controllers.  I mean you could ask a friend to bring theirs, but that won't help you when you want to play with someone who doesn't own one or the people who live with you.

@ conegamer

Lol, I wouldn't call this a doom thread.  I did say I didn't think it would flop.  But, I also don't see it claiming 1st place next gen so easily.  Especially if it ends up being $350 and the PS3 and/or NeXbox releases for ~$400.

While I dont agree some points there, I agree that there is a lot to be seen yet so we can make more assumptions...
I wouldnt really care if the console is just on par or just a little bot better than a ps3, but for I could read the console is very powerful, the guys from darksiders II said they put the game in just two weeks for the wii2, so...
The system seems to be getting some third party support, a new ninja gaiden exclusive is a good step, the ubisoft game looks promissing, the new online features sounds good as well, so I think the wii2 is going the right way.
I still think probably the next COD is going to sell a lot of ps3/360 but the wiiU version should be good as well, and thus many other devs will support the company. WiiU seems like the natural next step for wii owners so I guess thats what nintendo had in mind since the beggining.

I don't know how any of the companies are going to get any better than the PS3's graphics. I mean it's already so amazing that I don't think anything better would be noticed. In my opinion any graphics better than the PS3 don't really make a difference. So, graphics on par with some PS3 games are perfectly fine with me. Being a Nintendo-only owner, I think I will be perfectly satisfied with the WiiU's capabilities.

I can only predict two things about the Wii U market

1) It will probably lose some of the Wii users since its main controller is not as immersive as the Remote Wii is. For example: I don't want to play any Zelda games with the old controllers anymore, so if Nintendo forces me to use the Wii Pad and not the motion plus I will not buy the game or even the console.

2) It will probably prevent Nintendo fans of buying a new console to play third party games since the Wii U is going to have a better third party support.

So it can not only shrink the Wii market but the PS360 market as well. This why I'm hoping that Nintendo will do some changes in the Wii U's business model in order to at least keep the Wii market.

My expectation is that most of the criticisms that are being brought up today will probably be resolved and addressed at next year’s E3. In game graphics will surpass what was demonstrated in the tech-demos and run at full 1080p @60fps, two tablet controllers will be supported at the same time along with 4 Wiimotes, additional tablets will cost $60 to $75 and the system will sell for $300 to $350, third party support will be strong but will mostly consist of enhanced ports of HD games, Nintendo will have a decent online system which has most of the features people have become accustomed to and many new features people had never thought of before, and Nintendo’s first party line-up will be fairly strong and consist of a combination of classic Nintendo franchises and new concepts made possible by their new tablet.

Conegamer said: My word, we still know nothing about the console, games, specs, price etc. and DOOM is already predicted? After 1 day? Why so much hate and pessimism? :s OT: I think it'll do fine. 80mil LT. But that will still beat the other consoles next gen. If you want reasons look in the other thread (seece )...

Because the internet has ruined people's patience. I don't think we'll see another explosion on the same level as the Wii, but I think it'll do fine. Price point is important, so I'm guessing $300 to $350 (inflation is a factor here since $250 in 2006 isn't the same as $250 in 2012). Another thing I would like to throw out there is how much are games gonna cost. Remember, Wii titles sold for $50 at maximum by default while 360 and PS3 games sold at $60. What I wonder is whether or not Nintendo will go to the $60 price point of MS and Sony or will it keep to $50 like before. That could actually be a deciding factor on what system people by a multi-platform game on.

@HappySquirrel

Sounds about right. Almost right after the presser we had people screeching like harpiesoutright demanding more despite the fact that the WiiU made the biggest splash at E3. Seriously, I think there is more news dedicated to the Wii U on gaming and mainstream news sites than anything else right now aand they only showed off the controller!

Fully disagree.

There is no reason to think the WiiU will be anything less than many times more powerful than PS360. The known architectures in any combination are resoundingly more powerful than what either PS360 contain.

This means games will look far better. There was only one game shown on WiiU hardware and it was in real time and did look noticeably better than any PS360 game.

MSony will not do a 20x jump in performance and will be similar to WiiU when they release in 2013, so here all you'll have is a 3rd party buffet of options as they are thrown on all consoles with minor differences.

The controls WiiU offers (screen and/or wiimote+nunchuk) match or excel the base controllers for PS360 and will at least match what the next MSony consoles offer. Plus, every publisher and dev either in Nintendo's conference or not had a lot of good things to say about the possibilities. As long as the hardware is as easy to develop for as its rumored, controller differentiation won't be an issue. Plus, I'd bet MSony copy anyways.

Casual games and core games will be present here and people will flock to it just like they did Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Kinect Sports, Dance central. There will be no difference.

Price will be fine. If people are willing to buy so many $150 Kinect they will buy a $300 new console based on the biggest casual gaming machine to date.

In the end WiiU has every reason to succeed and no reason to even hint at it being a failure or even disappointing.