Lessons learnt:

-Never get hyped for E3 ever again.

Umm really? Both Sony and MS showed TONS of exclusive games.

Well to comment on the Nintendo side of thing, I agree that Nintendo brought in this new system, and well they put up more questions than they answered. Not great, but I think there are other reasons behind this. Really, I don't think Nintendo wanted to show this thing off at E3. I think they were saving it for an introduction later in the year. But they decided to bump up that first showing and instead had a lot less to show. Remember, they never even formally introduced the system which suggests what we saw of the system probably isn't the final product. They also virtually had no games to show off for it, which would fit this theory. A few tech demos, some Nintendo prototypes, third party footage from the PS3/360 versions, and Ubisoft showing off two games that were so early along that we basically can say we saw nothing running on the system. The tech demos were also nothing to awe about, aside from the Zelda one, which was a good idea for Nintendo considering they couldn't show anything else. Also we saw a weird announcement of Smash Bros for Wii U (and 3DS) which was odd considering the game hasn't even been started yet and it is very unlike Nintendo to announce games that early.

I see that and it really shows me that Nintendo was unprepared, and unprepared in the sense that they weren't ready to reveal it this early. Same with the third parties who have not had dev kits for very long. I have my theories on why it was shown earlier than expected, but I'd be speculating on speculation and that is really reaching haha. But if ya want to know, maybe I can give my reasoning. But I agree with your analysis on Nintendo, but I think there is something else that led up to the decision to show it off at E3 2011 and also explains why they were so "limited" and "restrictive" of its first showing.

Nintendo's displaying issues that they've had in the past. They'll tell you what they want to tell you and leave all other information out until the last minute. I mean, it was practically zero-hour in Japan until we found out that the 3DS would have one unified friends list.

Nintendo's needed a better relationship with the gaming media for years, and part of the hate they get from that quarter stems from the fact that Nintendo never really gives the media anything to work with, no interviews, exclusives, no information. We basically have E3 and the two Nintendo Media Summits a year, and those are the only times we can ever expect to get information period (they just regurgitate their E3 lineup at Gamescom and skip TGS altogether)

They all showed about the same number of exclusive games.

I should have clarified that statement better as I was mainly pointing at WiiU's lack of any real games being shown.

However, the point in general is that they each showed tons of games that were all announced previously and nothing to get excited about. Each had maybe one or two new game on display that wasn't even that big. They were all simply boring.

You're right. However, they still could have made improvements in that the console was on stage like Wii in 2005. They still left certain things out that just made sense to do.