Microsoft's casual multimedia experience has more longevity than Nintendos gimmicks. Nintendos fanfare can and went, but people are still talking about the kinect and they will continue to talk about it if Microsoft supports it and makes newer versions. Its a part of their multimedia hub.

Nah....Sony scales back the multimedia to be secondary to the games. Microsoft pushes multimedia into the forefront. Microsoft has the commercial American appeal with the glitz and the commercialization, but when it comes to meat and bones games Sony has that while giving you more concrete multimedia as a secondary option.

Taking the Wii route? What does that even mean?

I don't wanna put words in your mouth so can you elaborate?

This is silly. we all know the new Sega system will be 95% casual with 3 Sonic games to cater to the hard core gamers.

Casual "Wii" route.

WTF? Sega was always more core than Nintendo. Sega was in no way marketed as a family console brand and accepted whatever games came their way whenever. Sega was always second to Nintendo and eventually when Nintendo was crushed by Sony Sega eventually had to bite the bullet as well. I don't even rememeber Sega truly ever going for mass appeal outside of celebrties, Sonic and Nights, seriously. The Dreamcast was like having a Sega arcade in your living room, because thats how Segas games were (and still are)...deliciously arcadey for its time...but they have fallen beind in the times with their third party development. 

Nintendo is stepping away from casual games and kenect will probably fool gullible casual gamers into buying the 720

Well I think Nintendo is pushing for the casuals, but until the Wii U is 250 or less and the Wii is discontinued, no one will care. I have two sets of grandparents, who just bough Wiis to try out Wii sports, there is no way they are paying 350 dollars for a new system that plays updated iterations of games like Wii Fit that they already have, yet barely touch. I have friends who are casual gamers, and they went through the Wii craze, but ultimately they were disappointed and their ways stagnate in a closet.

Wii U fit will be a revelation for Nintendo in terms of what audience they need to push for. It's a game with little to no core gamer appeal, the Wii U has 2.5 million userbase right now that will barely be around 3 million when Wii U fit launches, and any casuals who did jump onboard will already have Wii Fit in their homes, and it will be fully playable on their Wii U. Wii U fit will not sell more than a million units by 2014.

Microsoft is in a different position. Kinect was quite successful, and is still a focus for them. I think the fact that it's an add on might have confused said casuals, and confusion is something that doesn't sell (See Wii U). So if Microsoft launches their Nextbox with an updated kinect, and a strong advertising campaign, I think they could easily steal away that casual market that Nintendo previously appealed to.

I don't think that casual gaming is dead, Tablets and Smartphones do have a lot of casual players, but motion controlled consoles offer things to them that their tablets and smartphones can't. First off, local multiplayer is essential, and motion that requires space is also a big appeal. Games like just dance simply couldn't be done on tablets. Games like Wii and Kinect Sports, Mario Kart, and NSMB are all unavailable on tablets and smartphones.

Nintendo will gather a fairly large casual base, but Microsoft will lure a bigger one into it's green clutches.

The WIi U's launch was in no way shape or form aimed at the casuals, but rather towards the gamers who already own a PS3 or 360, serious gamers who only owned a Wii and the non-existant serious gamers the Wii attempted to form.

I disagree, the hardware, and Nintendo's own offerings, were entirely aimed towards the casuals. 

Tablet controller is clearly an attempt to tap into the tablet/smartphone/DS crowd. They are also trying to build on the casual success of the Wii by keeping the name, and keeping motion control. Also, Nintendo kept Mii's and the general feel of the OS that clicked with the casuals. 

Then from a games point of view, Nintendo launched Sing Part which is an attempt to tap into Sing/Dance games. Nintendoland which tries to be Wii sports in that it is a collection of minigames that attempt to show off the systems new control method, but are easy to pick up/ offer little to no depth. Then there is NSMBU, which is a reaction to the wild success of NSMBWii which brought in loads of casuals by offering the fun platforming of a Mario game, simplified, and with multiplayer. 

I think it's clear who they wanted to get right at launch.