I think it`s a great idea! And if there`s region specific content the better!

Why would you need to sit near the console?

And that makes reading a magazine or anything of the sort useless? What strange logic.

Mummelmann said: What happened to Nintendo's "consoles play games" motto? Anyways, nice to see that they have realized that they need to keep up and branch out the console's capabilities to stay relevant, launching a console with the same lack of functionality the Wii has would be suicide in 2012.

I think that was just something projected onto Nintendo by some fans earlier this generation, in an attempt to justify the Wii's relative lack of funcitonality vis-à-vis the PS3 and 360.

To discuss the overall topic, I think this is a good idea, and I really want to find out more about how they plan to handle online functionality on their next console.

They need some sort of platform agnostic account that any purchses are tied to in order for an app store to really be feasible.  They can't have content like that tied to hardware like they have in the past.

I just hope they make a wise decision when choosing whichever company will help them construct their online infrastructure.  The rumor that EA was trying to get Nintendo to go with Origin as the Wii U's primary online service kinda scared me.

The thing is your logic here is still bizarre as one many people read magazines, books and such in their house.

You need to be in the same room. The controller only gets what the console stream.

I was thinking the same thing, if that what its going to be like then how is that cool?? ANd instruction booklets?? Ninty should have done that from the jump. Hell PS1&2 classics has that feature, even some PSP games.

Unless the WIi U will have memory and you can DL the content on it and take it away, i think that would be a way to go.  

Nintendo has made it clear from the beginning that the Wii U controller is not a portable.