Those tens of millions of casual players still own a Wii and have one at home.

The problem is getting them to buy the next one now the tablet/smartphone explosion has occured and shows no sign of slowing down.

those casual players are buying now the xbox360, which will led to a bad start for the nextbox

This. 

A casual gamer is nothing more than a person who seeks a fun experience and goes where the hype is.  The reason tablet gaming is as popular as it is, is because it's one of many features available on a device they already want.  People would not be paying top dollar for tablets if all they did was play these games.

Point being, if WiiU does indeed become the next big thing in console gaming, there is no reason to believe that these people won't bite... particularly when the price comes down to the $249-$299 range.

Uhhh... I've not heard that the casual audiences moved away from Wii. In fact, I remember the Wii doing extremely well at moving casual games just this passed holiday.

Core audiences though are indeed gone. Anyone see CoD: MW3 sales on Wii? Yeesh!

The announcement of the Wii U kinda killed it. And COD is a casual game.

Zelda's more core than COD, and it's racked up a respectable 3+ million so far. Xenoblade is also doing alright for itself in the US, for a JRPG and a new IP. The core isn't entirely gone, it's just reduced.

The industry does not consider CoD a casual game. But call it what you want.

Zelda does well on Wii because there isn't a better port on HD platforms.

Oh well. "Casual" and "hardcore" and silly terms that mean absolutely nothing, and people only refer to others / themselves as in order to make themselves feel better. Nobody only plays competitive multiplayer games 100% of the time - And if you can provide an example of someone that supposedly does this, that person is only hurting themselves. People also apply the terms "casual" and "hardcore" to games, just to give them a reason to discredit one game, and behave condescendingly towards others for not playing it.

The people that think they're "hardcore" are the hugest casuals to ever exist. All they do is sit around and say "PFFF I'M NOT PLAYING THAT GAME!" which translates to "I'm not accepting that challenge, or I'm undermining its potential depth in order to save myself the humiliation!"

These are video games we're talking about people. Get over yourselves.

The industry still holds the childish view that hardcore means M-rated. Hardcore is a playstyle, and most COD players are about as hardcore as Wii Fit users.

1st, Wii U announcement didnt kill anything, COD games on WIi have been selling like crap for years, multiplat core Wii games have been selling worst than the HD counterparts forever.  and Zelda is a Ninty game a popular one at that. So lets not make excuses

As for COD if it is indeed about playstyle, then that is a core game. People play that game for HOURS on end, hours, in fact thats probably the only game they are playing. So by your logic COD is indeed a core game. WiiFIt?? I seriously doubt people are playing that everyday for hours on end.

The Wii COD games before MW3 all cleared a million and were selling much better at this point in their lifespans compared to MW3. This steep decline in 2011 was due to both the Wii U announcement and a lack of Wii games for the year putting gamers off the console.

And COD is very casual; its very accessible, simple, and noob friendly. Almost anyone can pick up and play it in groups of friends, just like Mario Kart or Wii Sports.