Few points I disagree with, Lucas. Why are you so sure that Wii Party U had such a huge effect on hardware sales in Japan? There's no evidence that points it being a big seller in Japan. The uptick in console sales was most likely due to a combination of massive bundling and the holiday boost. A new 3D Mario doesn't hurt either.

Also, I'm not sure why you think that the PS4/XBO are going to have the same drought as the WiiU. Both consoles will get their system seller in March with Titanfall for the XBO and Infamous Second Son for the PS4. Thief will come out in February for both consoles. Tomb Raider will launch in January. Seems to me that console are doing just fine with game releases.

As for the WiiU? They had a 3 month drought from December to March, it was ended by The Amazing Spider-Man. You can argue that the WiiU didn't get a notable release until Pikmin 3, which came out in August. That's 9 months after launch for the WiiU to get it's big exclusive! Again, the PS4 and XBO will get their big exclusives in March, only 4 months after launch. Still a while to wait but much better than the WiiU. Ultimately the PS4/XBO will avoid the WiiU's drought because they can actually get 3rd Party support. Add in some indie games here and there, and they've got a steady list of releases throughout the 2014.

Many people forget that Japan is the Capital of the Videogame World.

Umm what? What year is this? What does gaming in Japan have anything to do with the West anymore? The US and Japan could not be farther apart when it comes to gaming taste nowadays. Japan stops functioning when a new Monster Hunter or Dragon Quest comes out, the US could not care less about those franchises. It goes crazy over COD/GTA/Halo, franchises that go nowhere in Japan.(though GTAV did post respectable sales) I'm confused as to why mainstream gaming in the US is going to be affected at all over Japan. 

you seem to miss something: are sony's and microsoft's exclusives as powerful as Nintendo's to sell systems? And will these third party games ONLY come to PS4 and Xbox One? Remember, the PS3 and Xbox 360 will still be selling well during 2014, and they have a huge install base. Third parties will need to keep supporting those platforms for the time being if they want to make money.

Yes to both questions. Halo 5 and Uncharted 4 will move a lot of consoles. In March both Titanfall and Infamous will be system sellers. I'm sure many will disagree, but I think those two games will each have a bigger impact on hardware sales than Super Mario 3D World. I see them as the definitive next-gen exclusives, and while I don't particularly care for Titanfall, a lot of people are hyped up about it. Infamous shaping up to be the open world superhero game that I've always wanted. 

The HD twins are still getting multiplats yes, but they will be phased out in time. A lot of developers will want to take advantage of the extra horsepower the XBO and PS4 offer without having to limit themselves to previous gen technology. Major publishers will also use this as an excuse to not publish their games on WiiU. Nintendo built a console for Nintendo and have alienated 3rd parties again. Sony and MS involved developers early on while Nintendo didn't seem to care what they wanted. They're still getting a few pity ports from Ubisoft and Activision but those will end soon. COD Ghosts on WiiU made up .33% of it's overall sales. Not even Major Nelson could spin that into positive news. 

You forgot to put development costs into consideration when it comes to my second question. And you also seem to forget something about my first question:

Microsoft and Sony HAVE to rely on third parties to sell consoles. Nintendo rely on themselves.

If I had a trillion dollars and went to every third party company in the industry, here's what I would say and do:

''I will pay you one billion dollars to sit out during an entire year. Do not make any games for anybody! Let the big three fight with first party games!''....

Microsoft close their gaming division and Sony goes home. And that's not an opinion, that's a fact!

You don't believe me? Look at the top selling games on Xboxes and Playstations.....MOSTLY third party. And look at the top selling games on Nintendo platforms....MOSTLY first party games.

I'm still here! Already started my rebuttal, gonna take some time to find the actual meat in there that warrants a response amidst all the mindless text.

Here are my initial thoughts;

* Basically all those rhetorical tools I mentioned have been put to use. Some will will be listed below along with other quick observations.

* John Lucas is attempting to box in the argument and force me to argue on his conditions by trying to force the parameters through "banning" certain words and definitions from the debate, elevating himself by stating his superiority without ever presenting why he is actually superior. Textbook so far.

* He links a bunch of unrelated youtube content to undeline opposing arguments to arguments I never made (the commercial bit is the main culprit here).

* Due to my harsh language, I've made him all but come out and expose his Messiah complex, it's actually scary to witness.

* He thinks, apparently in all sincerity, that everyone should have the same taste in gaming as him, including me, a staggering show of incredible elitism.

* He thinks that the development cost of a game is affected either way by how many copies you print... no comment needed there.

* He's a master at the strawman.

* He claims that he and his disciples are the only ones gifted with the ability to see the industry for what it is, he's basically claiming sole subscription rights to reality.

* He's labelling me as a mere "hater".

* He's dooming Sony and the Xbox brand throughout but he doesn't seem to know why, he's simply echoing the others saying the same on the boards.

* He's dodging the issue of poor current sales and even suggests that the sales aren't poor.

* A vast amount of the text is subjective philosophy and has no worth in sales discussion.

* He purposefully makes his lists of examples long enough for them to digress and reach semi-relevance for comparison, at best.

I'm not arguing that Nintendo games sell well, but I'm not sure what your point is. Both Sony Sony and MS have multiple 1st party franchises that sell quite well. In addition, they have plenty of 3rd party support.  Nintendo having to rely solely on their firsty party franchises is not a good thing. Look at Gamecube sales for proof. 

They have 1st party franchises. That's true. But are they enough to sell consoles by themselves during the ENTIRE lifecycles of these consoles? Think about that for a second. They have Halo and Gran turismo that sell to Nintendo levels but what else do they have that selll to that level? And you want to bring up the Gamecube sales....

Ok, so if the gamecube sales were bad....shouldn't I say that the original Xbox sales were bad as well?

It's true that Microsoft had a bigger first party presence back then than now, but did they sold those 24 millions all by themselves? If it wasn't for the third parties, the original Xbox would have sold way less than it did. Nintendo sold 21 millions Gamecubes mostly by themselves. Quite a small difference, don't you think?

Once again, look at the top selling games on on the big three's consoles to understand my point.

The reason why the gamecube lost is because of an identity crisis and a lack of hardware innovation. 

I think you need to explain your point a little better. I'm still not sure what exactly you're arguing here. Are you saying that since Nintendo has larger 1st party franchises they will win this gen? Because that wouldn't make much sense. Are Sony and MS more reliant on 3rd parties than Nintendo? Probably. But that isn't a bad thing. Major 3rd party publishers aren't going anywhere. Yes a lot of studios have closed down over the years but that's nothing new. It happens every gen. The only major publisher that has closed shop recently was THQ and it wasn't even that big to begin with. So you think Nintendo is proud of the fact that they can sell 20 million consoles with only 1st party games? They would kill for more 3rd party support. 

I'm not saying Nintendo will win automatically because of first party titles. You brought up the gamecube sales to prove that. Innovation is a key factor to winning. And where did I say that all major publishers are gonna die? But I do expect some to, EA in particular. You say they can sell 20 millions with only first party, but you forget that they sold100 millions Wiis by themselves. And who wouldn't kill for third parties? I never said otherwise. The difference is that Nintendo won't pay for multiplats like the other two do. 

You say that HAVING to rely on third parties is not a bad thing....well, look at where Sony and Microsoft are now....financialy in their gaming division, they're not doing that well, because they spent tons of money to please the third parties.