To be honest , if Wii U sales do great numbers from now on, 3rd parties will go only back to the weak hardware excuse. I think Nintendo just need to keep Capcom, Sega, Ubisoft, Activision on board, try to expand their own gaming divisions and form partnerships like they have done with platinum for exclusives.
Dont bother with EA again, the damage has been done, and Rockstar, Bethesda etc just arent interested, never have been in the past so no great loss imo.

That's fair. I certainly don't expect Wii numbers from any region, though I do expect better than GameCube numbers when all is said and done.

Do you mean you don't think the PS4 will sell as well as the PS3 in Japan only, or globally?

For the most part no. "mature" titles like AC, Battlefield, Batman, Dark souls, Metal Gear Solid are going to have a much stronger userbase on the other platforms. Even when I get a Wii U, Its only because I want the exclusives, so automatically 3rd parties are at a disadvantage and at the back of my priorities

Its a completely different story for sony and microsoft consoles, because plenty of people buy an Xbox or playstation for 3rd party titles like GTA. It comes down to hardware really. Because Nintendo makes underpowered hardware no one really wants to buy their machine to play inferior versions of 3rd party games. If the Wii U was the same strength as the PS4, I would have bought one by now and it would be my sol platform for the foreseeable future and I'd be getting it to play games like Witcher alongside nintendo's properties.

In Japan I think the PS4 will sell a little less than the PS3, but globally I think Sony is going to win this console cycle, though I suspect Microsoft will panic once they see Sony get out of the gates faster and start throwing their money around to try and even the scales. So I think Sony wins, but MS will make them sweat for it.

so much wrong it's hard to start.

calling 3d mario and 2d mario the same thing, saying the wii u lacks variety this year. saying it costs $350. saying nintendo's audience isn't "hardecore".

I'm hopeful but expecting the worst.

The PS2 was a huge leap above the previous gen so it didn't matter. If it was merely an overclocked PSOne, developers would have prioriticed the gamecube or xbox. Just as they prioriticed the 360/ps3 despite the wii's larger userbase.

You're right 3D Mario and 2D Mario aren't the same thing -- 3D Mario almost always sells worse than 2D Mario. So that's not exactly a plus.

The Wii U isn't appealling to "hardcore" players, I'm speaking primarily about the 140 million owners of the 360/PS3 who play primarily IP like CoD, Madden, FIFA, Battlefield, etc. The Wii U has no appeal to this audience because they already have a PS3/360. The "Nintendo audience" thing is overblown, they make a lot of noise on internet message boards, but many of them like you don't even have a Wii U.

A lot of Nintendo fans can't even afford the system themselves but yell from the top of their lungs that no price cut is neccessary, just because they view that as being a sign of weakness in "system wars" (lol).

Yup pretty much. If instead of making the PS2, Sony had upped the RAM in the PSOne, added a new casing, and tried to sell the console around the concept of the new EyeToy bundled with each system -- developers would've shifted their dev focus to the GameCube and XBox.

There's just no way things like GTA3 and Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy X and MGS2 would be able to run on an overclocked PSOne without massive sacrifices to the scope/ambition of the games. Most developers wouldn't even bother with a "PSone+" version.

it's being developed for next gen (wii u/ps4/xone) and being downported for ps360. AC4 is developed for ps360 and upported to next gen. but of course you knew that already.