Hmmmmm...thats going to be though for ZeldaU to compete with.

Third parties do that token "we have to show up at hardware maker X's press conference to pledge support" all the time. Not sure why you get so emotional about it. The 3DS had the same exact type of thing before its launch, and the GameCube did too. So did the Vita, and PSP, and PS3, and PS4, and XBox, and XBox 360, and XBox One. 

It's standard operating procedure for any new game machine launch from any of the big three manufacturers. It doesn't in any way reflect how software support will be in the future. It's just a token courtesy in the industry at this point. 

Nintendo hasn't made a system acceptable to the majority of the third party community since the Super NES, that's simply just a fact at this point. 

The Wii U is basically a full generation behind the PS4, there's no third party in the world that would've chose the chipset Nintendo did for the Wii U.

But really on the third party bit, I don't even disagree with the notion at this point that there's no point in Nintendo even trying to court them. Nintendo had a window of oppurtunity to right that ship and it sailed a long time ago, the main developers are never going to leave Sony/MS for Nintendo unless Nintendo basically allows them to design the hardware and charges lower licensing fees than anyone else (which Nintendo will never do, and around and around and around we go).  

If a hybrid unified platform is basically Nintendo's gaming future, having that platform be like 70-80% Nintendo software in sales, may actually be to Nintendo's benefit anyway at this stage, so you wouldn't neccessarily even want a lot of third party games interfering/flooding the market in that case because in a unified platform setup, Nintendo can supply adequete amount of releases for a system year round (more or less). 

GC?

most who wanted the game already bought a Wii u some time ago. I dont know why this is news for anyone. Wii U is pretty much a Nintendo machine a t this point. Nothing wrong with that perse

Well for one, Nintendo designed the Wii U with the assumption that many people already had Wiimotes in their home, so why not give them a new type of controller to go with that? I think that was their thinking (rightly or wrongly). The Wii U controller really isn't that much different from a 3DS or DS, yes it has analog sticks and maybe that's confusing to some gamers, but it also has a giant touch panel that is arguably even more intuitive for many players than finnicky motion controllers can be (try to get a true casual to play Skyward Sword and see how long they last). 

I think the design hope for the Wii U was always to create a slightly more balanced system than the Wii, they didn't want a system that people basically just played Wii Sports on. They still wanted the Wii Sports crowd, their ambition though was just to nudge those people to maybe try different types of games. 

Maybe not unlike the DS' success in Japan ... where sure it sold a ton of casual titles like Nintendogs and Brain Training, but it actually had some good success with things like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest and other more "core" IP too. I think that was Nintendo's idea to maybe bring more of that to the Wii. Not to compete directly with Sony/MS though, looking at the system specs for 5 seconds makes it fairly obvious it was never intended to compete in that way. 

I think perhaps EA thought they could get Nintendo to use Origin, that was the only reason they were on that stage, in no way is the Wii U the system that EA would design, and you know that full well. Of the three current consoles it's the furthest thing from the system EA would design actually. 

It happens all the time for Nintendo anyway, not sure why people are so shocked, developers expressing interest in a console is just courteous. Hideo Kojima was in the Wii reveal sizzle reel saying he really liked the Wiimote. He never made a game for it. Ken Levine was in the Wii U sizzle reel. Ubi Soft promised Assassin's Creed for 3DS. Etc. etc. etc. etc. 

At this point I don't really care about its sales. Nintendo has delivered some great games for it already, and at E3 they showed literally about a dozen more Wii U games that will be day one purchases for me. I already have almost 20 Wii U games (not counting digital) so in the long run I'll have at least around 30 or so, which has been pretty much par for the course for me on Nintendo systems. I'm already sitting at 27 3DS games and could see winding up with 35-40 for that. I'm content. I'm just going to enjoy the games and then when they reveal their next system/s or some kind of handheld/console hybrid, I'll get it/them as soon as the games I want arrive.

I care about the sales for one reason only: Nintendo to keep making gaming devices.

I agree for Nintendo's own software I'm enjoying the Wii U as much if not more than the GameCube or Wii to this point. Yes the droughts earlier in the years here have been a bit frustrating, but lets not act like the GCN and Wii didn't have similar droughts either. 

And Nintendo games in HD look soooo great, it really is a nice breath of fresh air, it's like upgrading to a luxury car from a standard sedan or going from a 3 star hotel to a 4 star one. Everything is just a bit nicer. 

Yeah, this game had far less of an impact than I was expecting.

Don't shoot the messenger, the tablet pad isn't the controller I'd bank a system on, I'm just looking at it from Nintendo's POV. I also probably think that they came up with the idea for it before Apple released the iPad in spring 2010, and if everyone and their grandma didn't already have a tablet in the house, some of what the Wii U tablet brings to the table may have been fairly novel. They probably also saw the inital success of uDraw on the Wii. 

But as is, put next to "real" tablet, it looks like some cheap kids toy with limited functionality and that certainly isn't helping Nintendo. 

Some of the things are neat though like the ability to share funny Youtube videos on the TV with family/friends ... in a world where an iPad doesn't exist, something like that might be much more of a notable functionality. 

Though I think this whole situation illustrates pretty clearly the dangers of trying to rely on controller gimmicks to sell a console. Sometimes it works, but if it doesn't, you've basically put all your eggs in one basket and now you're screwed.