There is a lot to talk about in this article. I think Jamin is wrong on several points.

"The company's last offering before the Wii was the GameCube, a failure..."

I wouldn't call it a failure. PS2 blew it out of the water, but it still made money.

"...and the portable Nintendo 3DS has yet to reclaim the gamers that fled to iOS."

The 3DS is tracking ahead of DS, right? The numbers are certainly close over the first 18 months.

But to answer the rhetorical question in Jamin's article, the era of gaming-oriented consoles is already over, and Nintendo is joining the party. It's not just about games, as much as I'd like it to be. It's about Miiverse, Nintendo TVii, online browsers, etc., etc. But the games are still primary, just as they are on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Also, I don't think Ouya is going to do much of anything to upset the console market, if it comes at all.

Nice try, but Wii U appears to be just as multifaceted, if not more so than current consoles. NIntendo Tvii alone hits the nongaming markets, and have we forgotten already the Wii U video chat capabilities?
Miss me with the nonsense.

"The company's last offering before the Wii was the GameCube, a failure, and the portable Nintendo 3DS has yet to reclaim the gamers that fled to iOS"

so much failure in just one sentence

I will side with you on this one Ryan. I am excited to integrate my gameing and media consumption in one easy to use package. That said, I am still wondering if the TVii (is that really the name) app can play locally stored media as well as connecting to various media providers? If WiiU will let me access my NAS and play my digitized movie collection I will be jubilant.

On topic: the games only console is dead. Nintendo is already moving off their games first image and are now branding themselves as an entertainment company.

You just have to look at services like OnLive that tried to shake up the gaming industry, but ultimately failed. The masses weren't ready for this kind of business model. I agree that things are changing (slowly), and I would agree that 'traditional' gaming companies like Nintendo need to tread carefully. I'm a long time Nintendo fan, and don't want the likes of Nontendo to fail, but they've got to move with the times even if that means leaving the hardware business and going software only on an android-like device.

The success of Netflix on Wii, which is what a lot of people used their Wii for primarily in the later years of the console life, opened Nintendo's eyes.

The "game-only" console is dead. Nintendo TVii, Miiverse, video calling, Youtube, Netflix, web-browsing, etc. are standard on Wii U, in fact looks like half of the system's memory is dedicated to these types of features.

Reggie himself said it, they look at Nintendo TVii and Miiverse as the killer apps for the system.

Is Nontendo a word to describe all gaming companies that are not Nintendo?

Why are you using a different title than the one from the article? Its kinda suggest something that is a little different.

If anyone thinks "nintento tvii" is going to pull ANY consumers in, lol you better get realistic.

I wonder how poor the content offerings will be on nintendos online service. Sony is a hollywood giant and even they struggled with PSN content early on.

Be prepared for a let down early on, its not going to be anything new or revolutionary. Lets get real.

Dude, all Nintendo is doing is partnering up with other media and entertainment outlets to deliver the same services you currently get on your PC and TV through your cable and internet providers on the Wii U... only that everything is now integrated in one easy to navigate app built into the console's dashboard instead of having to go in and out of different apps every time you want to watch or do something different.  And video services like Netflix already work fine on the Wii, so why the hell wouldn't it and other multimedia apps like Hulu and HBO Go work fine on the Wii U?

And the fact that the Wii U's TVii service is FREE and works with pretty much any cable or satellite provider in the US and Candada will make it very popular among the "casual" / non-primarily gaming audiences.

TVii will sure move a helluvalot more consoles here in the US than things like Wonderbook and cross-play with a $250 handheld that nobody's buying.