I was reading this Minecraft Wii U port review (which looked more like an editorial about Nintendo fans' behavior) and stumbled across this paragraph:

That strikes me as a bit odd. Nintendo fans want third-party games for the Wii U, but third-parties feel obligated to add in special features for the Wii U Gamepad. Many times, companies have made the excuse that there’s no reason to bring a game to the Wii U because it cannot utilize the Gamepad. Then, after statements such as these are made, fans erupt saying that that the company didn’t need to utilize the Gamepad specifically in order to bring the game to the Wii U, and that the company was just making up a stupid excuse. And, once again, when Minecraft released on the Wii U, many of the Nintendo faithful cried out for additional gamepad features.

http://nintendoenthusiast.com/article/double-take-the-real-problem-with-minecraft-on-the-wii-u/

So I was wondering what people in here thought about this.

Do you think it is understanable to demand WiiU gamepad funcionality from third-party gamaes, holding the lack of it against any company that releases games in the console? Or should releases on the WiiU be welcomed with opened arms and not holding that against the developers?

BS tbh. Most wii u games made by Nintendo barely use the gamepad so why should third parties?

That is reasonable.

I remember though reading in here some comments by some people attributing unsatisfactory performances of some third-party releases because of lack of gamepad integration or something. I can't remember for which games though, it was a while ago.

I can only understand that mentality if you're getting a lesser game than the other consoles. A game that is on par should not receive serious complaints, especially when it's for a console that is well behind the leader in sales. No one is entitled to third-parties using each console's respective gimmick.

I especially hate the ignorant "lazy devs" rationalization. If programmers aren't working on one thing is almost certainly because management wants them to work on something they deem more important.

Better question is, if most wii u games made by Nintendo barely use the Gamepad, why even make the thing in the first place?

Nintendo works in mysterious ways.

Whilst I really dislike this oversimplification that it's somehow the same amorphous blob complaing about two contradictory things that runs rampant in the media, I have seen a decent amount of people complaing about each example and a small handful fitting the oversimplification by complaining about both.

I'm one of the people that believes that Minecraft could have made excellent use of the GamePad (perhaps, not only for significantly better inventory management, but also to implement the PC version's crafting system in the console version), but it's not any worse than the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and Xbox 360 versions. It's just a missed opportunity that's further compounded by releasing long after the other versions, being behind the other versions in terms of content and being more expensive than the other versions (and the inclusion of additional skins doesn't really make up that price increase unless you were already intending on purchasing those particular skins). Unless you only own a Wii U, or unless you prefer playing on the Wii U, it's really not worth it over the other versions.

I do agree that third-parties shouldn't be obligated to include GamePad features if they can't come up with anything, don't want to redesign certain aspects or don't want to invest in such features when they're likely to have a very small impact on sales, but Minecraft is just underwhelming for a lot of people because it's been discussed to death since the Wii U first released and people believed that the GamePad would make it the most enjoyable console version. In saying that, though, people are going to complain about literally everything; it's just up to the companies to try to minimise the complaining as much as possible whilst still remaining profitable.

It depends on the game IMO. Assassin's Creed? We don't need to have GamePad functionality for that.
Minecraft? Now whereas we don't need it, it has way more obvious reasons to have GamePad functionality.

Then they are fanboys that can't see the bigger picture.

They thought it had potential. It's like MS making the Kinect and Sony making the PS Move

This

But why should they put extra effort to the Wii U version when the install base is around 11m and when Nintendo is getting ready to announce a new console in 6 months?

I don't think games necessarily need GamePad integration. In the specific case of Minecraft, I'm just annoyed because the game is either an inferior version of the game (the X1/PS4 versions have 20x bigger worlds) that comes at a higher base price (yea it has texture packs, but if you don't want the texture packs, too bad), or an equal version of the game (360/PS3)... that comes at a higher base price, 2-3 years after the original release. I have the 360 version, and when I get an X1, I'll upgrade to that for $5, so I don't care all that much. I just would rather it have been $20 without the texture packs, or $30 with GamePad features.