Guess it depends on what your definition of "next gen" is. For my money, next gen is a brand new console with brand new games and features, with improved hardware. So yeah, WiiU is "next gen."

I don't know what people expect to see out of Sony and MS's next consoles. I have a feeling they are going to be dissapointed. After all, how much better can graphics get at this point? Even if MS and Sony have improved graphics from Wii U, I can't possbily see them being much better to the point of being obviously noticable, and justifying $400 + new controllers/accessories. I see it being more like the Xbox 360 to PS3 comparison.

Same, here.  After a year of only playing Red Faction, NBA Street, Zone of the Enders (great looking game) and The Bouncer, when the REAL heavy hitters came out in late 2001, I didn't know which awesome game I wanted to play first!  Jak and Daxter was one of those games that showed what we were waiting for.  It didn't even have load times!

And that approach, now that I think about it, has been done many times before.  The N64 facing off against Tomb Raider and Resident Evil in 1996,  The PS2's launch games facing off against Jet Set Radio and Shenmue, the PS3 launching against Gears of War, or the Vita launching against Mario Kart 7 and 3D Land.  When the competition arrives, I think Nintendo will release the Kraken on their asses.  The question is:  will people overlook the Wii U's best games (like they did with the Dreamcast) or will they embrace the console and its games like they did with the PS2.  2nd gen Wii U titles will likely be on par or better than launch games for the PS4/720.

Oh, there absolutely is a big difference there. But right now, anybody doing something multiplat is a moron if they don't at least look into porting it to WiiU too. Right now, it's going to be easy as pie to port the games, and they'll absolutely find enough sales to at least make it worthwhile (already-developed games that are easy to port really only need to make 50,000-100,000 sales to turn a profit on the port).

This is going to end up getting them all used to working on it while also giving WiiU a respectable early lineup. Respectable early lineup = more early adopters. More early adopters = larger potential market. And larger potential market = developers are more interested in taking advantage of it.

And since games can be 100% traditional on the WiiU without sacrificing ANY potential buyers whatsoever (except those that refuse to play things that don't use the screen), I really don't see devs not being interested. It just doesn't make sense. The only reason we didn't see more games on the Wii wasn't because it was weaker. There was almost absolutely zero concern there (save from companies like Epic, who are very few and far between). The main issue was that devs didn't want to have to do motion controls, or wanted to be able to do more than the Wiimote + nunchuck could offer WITHOUT motion controls, and the Classic Controller sales were far too low to do that. There just wasn't a big enough market on the Wii for traditional games.

But WiiU's userbase will be 100% traditional-game capable. And since graphically, it won't be lacking either (even in comparison to neXtbox/PS4, it's really going to be more like the difference between current 360 vs current top-of-the-line PC at most), the devs that were once iffy on graphical capability won't be anymore.

And actually, the WiiU will be also setting the first standard for next generation, especially since Sony and MS didn't announce anything this year - meaning they probably aren't releasing until 2014 (honestly, if they were releasing next year, they would have announced something at E3 to try stealing any attention from WiiU that they possibly could. Hold back the competition as much as possible, etc, etc). Two years as the best thing on the market will make WiiU's initial installbase pretty respectable, even if it starts off particularly slow. Assuming it starts off really slow, they'll have an installbase of 20m by PS4/neXtbox release, and if it's a runaway success, could be around 50m. Either way, it'll have been wildly successful financially for Nintendo. Remember, GCN turned a consistent profit, keeping Nintendo always in the black, at only 22m final installbase.

Do you have any idea how big of a difference that is?  Metro:2033 on Ultra in 1080p at 60 FPS looks easily a generation+ ahead of even Gears3!  I would say the difference is close to the one between MGS3 on PS2 and MGS4 on PS3.  

Look I used to hate PC gaming and stuck to my PS3.  I still love my PS3, but coming from just building a gaming PC, I can say the difference is huge.  Mine is not even top of the line!  

I hate PC elitests, but nothing annoys me more than someone that clearly doesn't know what they are talking about!  

Case and point:  Top of the line PC in 2012 = PS5.

^ This. Actual generations have nothing to do with power or new IPs. Note that if your mother gives birth in the same year as you or your wife, those two children are of the same generation, even though one is the other's aunt/uncle. A similar concept applies to technology. The Wii was barely more powerful than the X-Box, and not even close to the 360 or PS3, but it was a 7th-gen console because of when it was released.

If you mean anything other than that by "next gen," you are using a vague definition at best and mere buzzwords at worst. If the question is, "How much of a step up from the PS3 and 360 is the Wii U?" then the answer is, "An immeasurable one." You can put a clear value on power (although we haven't nailed that value down just yet), but you can't put a clear value on a different controller. Does the Wii U GamePad represent an improvement in controller design over Sony's DualShock? It's impossible to say for sure, because it's an obvious matter of opinion.

Even disregarding the fact that new IPs are not a requirement for next-gen status, your claim that no new IPs were shown off for Wii U is erroneous. You may actually have been stating that none of the new IPs shown were "stunning," but again, this is a matter of opinion. LEGO is technically an established IP, but LEGO City appears to represent enough of a departure from traditional LEGO gameplay that it counts as a new IP, the way Paper Mario is a separate IP from Mario Party. Like it or not, Nintendo Land is an obvious first-party new IP. Project P-100 is a brand new IP from Platinum Games. There are other new IPs announced but not really shown, although I doubt anyone here cares about SiNG or the sports game Ubisoft is making. Even ZombiU, a revival of a 26-year-old game, is basically a new IP.