It's easy to understand, but hard to accept (for a bayonetta fan without a Wii U)

I actually feel bad for the guy after reading this. Bayonetta is a passion project -- I'm sure Platinum is passionate about all of their games. For Sega to cut them off after already having started development must have stung, and being on the verge of shutting down the project for good must have been very difficult. Then Nintendo comes into the picture, and the team finally gets to make their game. But when it was announced, instead of being greeted with excitement and anticipation, their fans angrily (sometimes violently) responded that Platinum had sold out. They acted like their allegience to a platform trumped their admiration of Platinum's work.

I see people acting like Kamiya deserves this because he is rude to idiots on Twitter, and I don't follow that logic.

Off topic but I still don't know what Japanese Wii U owners are buying ´-_-

I don't see how this game isn't at least a mild success over there.

He's a really well spoken guy. I read everything and understood everything he wrote. Really nice and true. So does that mean any future Bayos will be a Nintendo exclusive!? He said to ask for Mario + Zelda on PS4/Xbone too if you want Bayo 2 on those consoles. I don't know...

I don't think so. It sounds like the deal was for this game alone.

More importantly, will there be any future Bayos? Who would publish it?

I can't help but love Kamiya. Seems like a really cool guy. I wish him the best.

Ars gratia artis.

Good-guy Nintendo partaking in charity.

Hardly. I'm sure Nintendo expects (or expected) the game to benefit them in the long run. They like to make and fund great games, but they aren't in the practice of throwing their money away.

It was a joke about the good-guy stuff. When the WiiU was first launched, and this game first announced/salvaged, no one was expecting the WiiU to bomb or end up where it has. Partnerships had been made (EA/Ubi), Nintendo had titles in the works, etc. But then reality hit: HD hurdle for development at Nintendo which hurt the console immensely, 3rd parties either went the way of AAAA-mega budget development of spectacle or just pulled stupid shit like delaying games, and abandoned the console.

Nintendo could have, along the way (and depending on the contract), cut development all the same as SEGA did. Even when everything went south last year, could have saved themselves a year+ of funding and trouble of distributing the game. But they didn't, and, as you say, it serves a good purpose: it will be one of the most critically acclaimed games of the generation (as if the WiiU and Nintendo had any shortage of that already), and it will fill out a gap in their portfolio for which, it seems, they are willing to take the hit for the fan-appeal. The move is certainly business oriented at the end, but I can easily see someone like Iwata sticking to a project like this for the fans first, and for the portfolio second.

Not the first time they've done it with niche titles, not the last time... I hope.

That's a Japanese thing and a response to pressure from investors.  Sony has done the same thing.  The Japanese are crazy about someone "taking responsibility".  Means absolutely nothing in terms of morality.

Nintendo is a for-profit corporation.  They don't take losses just because they're good guys.  I have no doubt that they thought the Wii U would be bigger, Bayonetta 2 sales would be better, and that it would lead more consumers to buy a Wii U.  No part of this was charity.  This is the company that tried to screw consumers side-ways with the original price of the 3DS.  They are in this for money.

What they were really after was the perception that the Wii U has a more diverse line-up than, say, the Wii.  They wanted to attract Playstation/Xbox gamers.  However, it was way, way too little and too late.  A couple figure-head games aren't going to change that.  They want into that market, they're going to have to do a LOT more and buy up rights to a few cancelled/postpones projects.

It's also possible that, not being familiar with third-party games, they over-estimated Bayonetta.  I think a fair amout of hype about the original game had a lot to do with the over-the-top sexuality of it.  It was a spectacle.  People bought it to see something crazy.  Now, though, I think the shock value is gone.  We've seen the semi-nudity, we've seen the silly sexualized finishing moves.  Personally, I got tired of that quickly in the first game.  I really don't think it's the draw they expected it to be.