Last gen, Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube were going after the same audience and (though PS2 easily won) cannibalizing themselves. It's like there was an all you can eat buffet but everyone was fighting over the steak. Nintendo just said, "Okay. You guys can have the steak. We'll feast on the prime rib, the chicken, the roast beef, the fish, and everything else you guys are neglecting." Nintendo got very fat on the leftovers.

They spoke about this well before the launch of the Wii. I said that they got lucky but, looking back, it was a really smart way to approach the market. Had they launched a Super Nintendo II and went after the hardcore, Nintendo would probably be in last place as Sony and Microsoft dominated. They shook things up. It wasn't a pass or a free ride. If Nintendo gets a free ride, they wouldn't have lost to Playstation two generations in a row. The Wii's success was the product of careful planning, cunning strategy, market friendly pricing, and embracing a new way of thinking.

Being bigger, stronger, faster--there's other ways to win a battle.

Actually, most of Nintendo's success this generation comes from things that their fans wanted in an earlier gen, but didn't get. There's a reason why Nintendo kept losing fans for three generations straight and why these fans returned when the Wii was released.

Not sure what point is.

I didn't say anything about "real" gamers leaving Nintendo's boat to join Sony and Microsoft, and if they did that ( which probably a lot of them did) they did it in earlier gens and not this gen.  However, a number of them did stick around during the N64 years and Gamecube years if forum posts are anything to go by, and they're the ones that seem to praise games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit for being some of the best games ever due to their company loyalty and to insist that things like metacritic scores of those games must be wrong because according to them those games are all better than the likes of Uncharted.  However, from my experience, I hardly ever hear them criticize Nintendo for not doing things like innovating by releasing new core ips.

Now a lot of us thought that if Nintendo really did take off in popularity again what they would do is just drop all this casual fluffbunny stuff and begin to concentrate exclusively on bringing out the best core experiences again;  however, that's very much not what they've done.  And, if I was to praise one thing about Nintendo fans it would be the Operation Rainfall campaign; however, it took only the greatest effort to get Nintendo to release those three titles.

You need learn how to read I am afraid.

What are the things Nintendo fans wanted earlier but didn't get until the Wii?

Yeah because their fans wanted core experiences like Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, and Halo.  And now that they've come back they're just praising Nintendo for the few scraps Nintendo gives them like more Marios, and not giving them any flak for giving as much time to Wii Fit U  as to Mario at their recent E3 Press Conference rather than demanding that Nintendo shows off a new core experience as formidable as those in the best new core experiences that were hyped for the other consoles.

A family console.

In your original post you were talking about E3 2006, now you are talking about E3 2012. The reaction to E3 2012 was widespread disappointment among Nintendo fans.

Gotta admit I mixed your posts with someone else's .. ;) sorry

But still: why do you think the fans are still the same as the ones before and just defending due to their love? It's actually a lot of younger or newer gamers, as you mentioned yourself. They do not know much about Nintendo's past or how the competition became big, they are new to gaming.

I don't really like what Nintendo did myself but I notice that it's always the same. They are successful when they aim for new customers and family (NES + Wii). I don't believe people who loved any of the earlier Nintendo consoles really defend Nintendo all the time and praise the Wii beyond heaven. Maybe some games that don't feel party-ish or remind you of great games in the past.