The early support was not at all lackluster, if I do say so myself. It only became lackluster in 2011/2012 but even then I was able to buy some great new games and 2010 stuff I didn't have. It's not like I have time or money to buy and play a new game every 2 weeks, and I'm working with a PC as well.

In comparison, WiiU early support has been lackluster but I fully expect to gain better paced and more satisfying support through 2015. I think Nintendo's just waiting this one out. We could see it beginning to phase out end of 2016, with weak support into 2017.

Well my. Your opinions simply do not agree with mine. Well, except on Starfox but I just don't treat that as a Starfox game. It shouldn't be. I'll concede DD is not at all the best Mario Kart, nor is Sunshine the best 3D Mario.

I'd also like to bring Custom Robo, Gotcha Force, Viewtiful Joe, Fire Emblem, Killer 7, Rogue Squadron III, Paper Mario, Pikmin, F-Zero, Beyond Good and Evil, and Eternal Darkness into the discussion for good measure. I genuinely enjoyed the Star Wars LEGO games. And for some reason I had a lot of fun with Madden 07 (not for the quality, for sure).

Just to show you what WiiU would need to beat, for me. There are still actually at least half a dozen 'Cube games I'd like to try.

They should release a new console only when they're able to bombard it with a steady stream of quality games.

In reality I think Nintendo will stop supporting the Wii U in a primary way once Zelda U comes out and 2015 wraps up. The system will chug its way to about 15-18 million owners and then just fade away. 

They'll support it through 2015 to keep the few fans that bought the system happy, but Nintendo's not in the habit of sinking tons of money into low-profit ventures either.

Like I said though, even with just the games we know about, through the end of 2015, the Wii U library from Nintendo's side compares very favorably to the entire 5 year run the GameCube had though ... so that should be enough for Nintendo to fulfil their obligation and move on to other greener pastures if they want to. 

I suspect projects that maybe would've rolled onto the Wii U in 2016/17 like a Super Mario Galaxy 3 have already been quietly moved to Nintendo's hybrid platform (though I suppose if its easy to port such a game to the Wii U, then maybe Wii U will get a port) behind the scenes. 

There is no basis whatsoever for expecting a new Nintendo home system to arrive less than four years after the previous one.

I think Nintendo fans may want to enjoy their Wii U while it lasts, because there probably isn't a successor to it coming in a traditional sense, not because Nintendo feels obligated to support the system for X amount of years, but moreso because they will have little interest in continuing forward in the console space. 

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft bails out of the console biz too after this gen. 

Sony will likely be the only one left that's really strongly attached to the idea of a traditional home console, most because they have the most to lose. 

Nintendo's console audience has basically whittled away into such a small niche that they won't really miss it, they'll just roll that audience into their handheld base and let future handhelds run games on the TV. 

Nintendo's not in this business to provide support to platforms that sell a paltry 3 millions units/year, the Wii U will be supported through 2015 just to keep the fans happy, but I think behind the scenes they're already well underway in focusing on different hardware pillars which will actually be the future of their business (for their sake they better hope that QOL thing takes off). 

If they don't release new hardware asap, they are dead and irellevant to the videogame market.

Of course they're not going to replace it with the hardware now breaking even/profiting. You don't ride a system through a year and a half of losses only to give up once it finally turns the corner.

I have been hoping for some time that Wii U would behave like GC, in reverse. That being, it would start bad and end well.

Releasing a new console in a year would hurt more Nintendo than do good: where is the trust from consumers who spent 2 years without a steady flow of games to make their purchase worthwhile?
If Nintendo decides to streamline production, they can afford to end the Wii U`s life cycle with several games, because each game they develop for one console will come out for the other platform. Think of how many games Nintendo produces within a year to see that supporting Wii U even in it`s last year won`t be a problem.

The fact that Nintendo isn`t selling Wii U at a loss is really good news.

The 3.6 million is also a conservative figure - as expected.
Also, having to produce new units to achieve that goal could be the right time to redesign the Wii U and even do a full make over next year.

Metroid Prime 4, F-Zero, Pokemon Wii U game