I bought the WiiU in the first few weeks cause I was hungry for a new console and the exclusives. Mario!

I bought the ps4 on launch day since it got offered to me. Customer loyalty, store held one back for me. Yet there was never any chance I wouldn't have got it since the exclusive library of games better suites my tastes.

I was going to buy an XBox One for Forza + Forza Horizon the next Holiday season yet somehow MS keeps throwing doubt into my plans and now I'm so backlogged already that I don't see it happening anymore. I came close, a bundle with physical copies of Forza + Forza Horizon would have convinced me. (I have capped internet which is pretty much used to the max in Q4 so game tokens instead of physical copies makes all bundles worthless to me)

Anyway yes, exclusives do matter. Why would anyone buy more than 1 console per gen if it didn't!

I've owned every PlayStation and every sega console and a SNES. But I bought the PS4 simply because I believe it is the better console and offers more variety of exclusives and some of them are some of my favorite games of all time. It just happened to be a coincidence that it happened to be the most powerful console THIS gen.
The Xbox is a good console but I've never had any interest in it.
I was finished with Nintendo after the SNES, it was a good console but I simply had enough of mario and I found it catered more for children rather than adults.

For the games, which happens to be mainly exclusives

Simplicity, physical games and exclusives (love Sony first party games).

I only have a WiiU and a 3ds now.

I bought the 3ds in 2011 because I haven´t been playing videogames for a few months due to absolute lack of time, and decided to get a portable console to play during trips.

I bought the WiiU in 2012 because after a looong period of constant business travels and studies I was again able to play at home. I really like some Nintendo franchises and I really enjoy to play games with my family and friends.
(I just.... love games with local multiplayer. I feel so bad to know that this is a fading trend..... but anyway.)

I opted to buy Nintendo consoles because (at least in my country) its community seems a lot more friendly to me, it was easy to find people who own those consoles and make friends with them.

Bought a Wii U to play Nintendo games and a PS4 mainly to play the best versions of third party games + some cool exclusives like inFamous: Second Son.

I would say almost entirely exclusives. That almost means brand loyalty at this point though. PS exclusives are so ingrained in my gaming experience that something big would need to happen to make me switch over to another console.

I own 20 something consoles so I'm going to stay 8th gen.
Ps4 because that's where my brand loyalty resides and I know they will have what I want.
Xbone because I collect consoles and wanted to play sunset overdrive.
Don't own a wii U and I refuse till they come down on price.

I've bought 2 consoles this generation...

Wii U - Exclusives. Nintendo continues to innovate in ways that no one else does. I'm consistently surprised and delighted by the content in their games. Also, the best bang for your buck from the beginning of this console generation (I'm looking at you Low78wagon). High quality, polished games for cheap

PS4 - Exclusives again. In reality, I got a bonus at work and had some money to burn. I'd be perfectly content with Wii U otherwise. I'm now catching up on games I've missed out on over the years like the uncharted series and last of us. Looking forward to some of the exclusive RPG's for sure.

Skipped Xbox One due to the lack of exclusives that interested me. Which is a shame because I enjoyed Xbox 360 a great deal.

The last console I bought was the PSTV. And regardless of recent news of Sony halting its production in both Europe and NA, I do not regret its purchase. I initially bought the PSTV to play Persona 4 Golden on my big screen as opposed to the VITA's handheld screen. Now, I have the PSTV "whitelisted" so I can play ALMOST ANY PS VITA game on the PSTV that doesn't require the Vita's camera and touch pads. And those who are familiar with this will be happy to hear that I can play Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 on my PSTV on a 55" LED. Or maybe they are jealous.