they could work at minimizing risk for exclusives. we may very well be at the edge of what big budget games can allow and survive. smaller budget games with more creativity and originality would go a long way to helping some of these developers. there are a lot of titles that have been successful this gen for their devs with out having to sell several million. cost are rising fast and sales are not rising in proportion to the costs.

The rising costs associated with developing for new hardware will kill small companies if their games bomb. The only option for the would be to develop for the 3DS, but even that is risky, western devs aren't having much success at the moment. Even big companies will be in risk if an AAA production of them bombs on the new Sony/MS platforms.

But Nintendo isn't helping here either, as WiiU will look unattractive to devs like Wii did this gen when the new consoles get released. As this gen proved, new innovative controls didn't draw devs in, it drew them away. WiiU could end up being the casual console of choice once again if third party is neglected, and back into the casual stigma that Iwata wanted to wipe off with the release of this new console. Anything can happen though this time as well as Nintendo has a head start, and the other consoles could bomb if price is too high. I do however feel that this time around industry will struggle.

He was likely just looking for a politically safe answer where he didn't sound like he was bashing the Wii U.

The most logical reason is simply that no one is going to delay a game for the sake of a simultaneous release on the Wii U. With the user base the console has, it's just not worth it. Likewise, the sales of late ports seem to indicate that those aren't worth the resources, either.

Not necessarily. Now devs can get their hands on leading game engines (UE and CryEngine) for free, which will help keep prices down, as well as the stream lined funtionality of the tools provided. I have a feeling that part of the rising price issue is that the people working on games are not that good - if you're good at IT, you can make a lot more money in different industries.

The problem is the Wii U won't even be the casual console as many casual gamers are content on their smart phones and tablets. If games are sorted for it quickly then it'll go the way of the GC very quickly. Sales in Jap land may be good, but Europe has shown complete apathy towards it and even the US has issues (42 people in total on Madden...). 

Industry needs to be innovative. I'm not talking about things that can be regarded as gimmicks, but get back to the original dreams and wishes of gaming. Where's photo realisitic graphics? What about VR? Increase the interactivity with the games and remove the screen entirely. The Wii and CoD proves that there is a lot of money to be made from gaming, but it needs to be kept fresh to prevent bordom and stagnation. 

This!

Plus - my sig. I predicted the fate of the Wii U long before the launch and now everything is turning out the way I thought it would. Another console that gamers will buy just to play a Zelda, Mario or Metroid once or twice a year. Will need a price cut after PS4/Xbox8 get out and get a couple of games to establish them on the market.

I think I said this on another thread but unless Nintendo gives big incentives to 3rd party devs the games will not come to the Wii U, simple as that. Does that mean the Wii U will never get 3rd party support? Not really, but it will take time before devs can see the potential of the system and it's game sales (this of course if the Wii U truly delivers those things). This is normal for every new console, it will be time to "panic" when after the release of the other next-gen console this trend continues.

nintendoomed!! lol