THQ is out of options bro, on the brink of bankruptcy.

This isn't some stroke of luck, the industry has been plagued with closing studios this generation, it's an opportunity for Nintendo, not some scarce occurrence. Midway (Bankrupt in 2009), Acclaim (Bankrupt in 2004), THQ (on the brink of bankruptcy), and many many others that I don't have off the top of my head, as well as a slew of smaller budding indie studios just begging for financing.

Wii U: Nintendo 'Needs More Exclusives' To Beat PS3, Xbox 360 - Pachter

Michael Pachter tells us what Nintendo needs to do for the future of Nintendo's Wii U.

I know, right?! :D

Meh..  We need Retro focusing on Nintendo franchises. What a waste to get them to do a Darksiders game.

I know, right?! :D

But the question is if THQ would go exclusive for a while (or a whole generation)... They'd lose out on their PS360 fans that bought Darksiders1&2 and many other games that haven't shown up on a Nintendo console...

Yes, it could be a fantastic opportunity for Nintendo to get 2ns party studios, or simply giving them projects to do and paying them to develop games. But have they? Not as far as I know. The only game they swooped up is Bayo2... And that's a fault from Nintendo imo. They're not doing enough to secure games.

You are not using common sense, you're bending the rules of reason.

The success of the Wii U in the sphere of the home console sphere is the topic at hand (like the title and OP state), so injecting notions and sales numbers of handhelds is not contributing to a sound argument. Otherwise, the N64 was a success in the Playstation era. We know that, relatively to its competition, that was not the case for Nintendo, as its brand image was greatly damaged in the home console space during that generation and the one after it.

Great, now that I've cleared that out, let's actually get to the heart of the topic.

The Wii was a runaway success by catering to a market that was mostly age and taste agnostic. That lead to wins on the casual and non-gamer front, but led to losses on the traditional gamer front, to which Sony and MS were both catering much more instensively as manufacturers (3rd and 1st party offerings).

As such, comparing the Wii to its competition, it lost an opportunity in customers that resulted in 140m HW sold units for the competition (PS360) which Nintendo did not participate in to any considerable degree (as shown by sales of top blockbusting multiplats - COD, EA Sports, etc.).

So no, his analysis is not refuted at all, and there is a lot of truth to what he is saying, it's just that his solution stinks.

...And in the real world, Nintendo`s traditional gaming franchises - particularly their most iconic traditional gaming franchises: 2D Mario, 3D Mario, Zelda, and Mario Kart saw their greatest successes on the Wii and DS platforms respectively. It is no coincidence that these platforms are contemporaries of each other. This is simply the factual state of things.

In the real world, common sense dictates that the Wii and DS fanbases are both the same fanbases, and wouldn't be two separate fanbases which coincindentally have strikingly parallel gaming interests. Common sense also dictates that since their most traditionally significant franchises from over the last 25 years have grown in sales, that their traditional fanbase has grown, and not shrunk as you have said.

No matter how you slice it, Nintendo controls the most powerful exclusive franchises in the videogame industry. Facts are facts, and facts do refute his statement.

I think Nintendo could do a great work with the franchise!
The series has great potential.