You are right about Star Fox but at the same time, just last year Nintendo released Splatoon & Mario Maker which have both been praised for their Gamepad implementation.

I'll give you Mario Maker, I played Splatoon IMHO there isnt anything the gamepad does that is integral to the experience, it would have been fine without it.

But even then thats what? 3 games since it released in 2012? 4 if we are counting Ninty land? I just think its pathetic that the thing that was supposed to sell the console got so little done with it. Hell Ive seen add ons do more.

They said content is their focus, yet we only got a grand total of two AAA Wii U games this year, with one of them being notorious for its questionable controls.

Star Fox is considered AAA?

I partially agree with you, it just seemed pretty biased to only point out a single game that made bad use of the Gamepad without acknowledging ones that made good use of it and i personally agree with you about Splatoon but i know of alot of people who really like the Gamepad for jump spots and the map.

While I like the Gamepad for certain things, Off-TV play being the biggest one, overall I think it was a poor design choice. People compare it to the Wii Remote alot but that had an actual purpose whereas the Gamepad really doesnt and should have just been an optional accessory for map/inventory & Off-TV play.

Oh that was just one example. It isnt even about the gamepad being used poorly, its about that it wasnt being used at ALL really. Its like what was the point of even having it? 

IMHO I think anything that isnt going to be truly standard and works with damn near ALL the games for the system should be an add on. That goes for motion controls too but thats a different discussion

Ok, as I see it being mentioned again and again I'm gonna talk about it for a bit:

"Nintendo just going third party" is not nearly as simple as many of you seem to think, not to mention that it also likely wouldnt be good for them.

First, the obvious points: Nintendos Developers are used to work very close to the hardware, thats why their games are so performant and polished. Going Third-Party would cancel that advantage. Of course they would get used to other hardware, but it would never be on the same level AND it would take quite some time.
Some people here seem to honstly think all Nintendo needs to do is press a big red "Third Party" Button and *Boom* just like that we all got zelda and mario and smash on PS4 and XB1 and PC.
In reality a shift to third party would mean several YEARS of no or mediocre games until they get used to the new hardware and have shifted their development routines accordingly.

Secondly, and this ties in with the first point, they would likely loose many of their best people. Especially the veterans, people like Miyamoto, Aonuma and Sakurai are deeply rooted in the Nintendo of today. Hell Miyamoto could just go and say "I'm retiring" hes already at the age, he just goes on because he loves his job there. Being faced with changes on a level like this I think it is highly likely that they and quite a few other people as well would simply say:"Fuck this, I'm out!"
They would probably mimic Kojima, Inafune & Co and just open their own new studios, doing whatever they want.

Thirdly, and this is the part most people dont get:
They would loose tons of money.
Thats right, going third party would actually LOOSE them money!
Why? Its simple: Royalties!

Every Developer pays royalties to the platform holder so he can publish his game on the platform. Nintendo actually introduced this system back in the day, so they could stop the crappy shovelware that crashed the gaming industry from pulling them down.
Not only would they loose the royalties they get paid by other publishers, (remember there is still a bunch of third party on the 3DS!) they themselves would need to start paying royalties. I dont have the full numbers right here, but to put it bluntly their games would need to perform extremly well from the beginning and sell better on third party than they are selling now on their systems, which, at this point in time, is not likely.

I hope this helped some of you to realize that "just going third party" is not magically going to solve all of Nintendos problems.

tl,dr: Going third party would HURT Nintendo much more then it would benefit them.

The developers couldnt even really work on Wii U HW isnt that why there were droughts? So what difference would it be for another HW? Maybe HW doesnt have anything to do with it maybe they are just incompetent. Maybe Ninty is not good at actually MAKING HW and the devs would be better if they went to work on a system that is actually manageble? Im not saying they should go 3rd i dont care im just pointing some stuff out.

YOu dont kow these people, you cant be sure they will leave

I can see royalties.

IMHO they dont have to go 3rd party, but maybe stop making home consoles since they havent been doing a great job at that for a long time now. Maybe go just handheld since people still buy those. Man i really hope the hybrid system is real.

There's little/no chance Nintendo would have to pay royalties as a third party publisher. The bidding war between Sony and MS for their services would be immense and Nintendo could easily leverage that into a deal for no royalty fees among other things (like paid marketing costs).

As for losing licensing fees, they're basically right now getting nothing from their console division on that end, and I suppose they could just continue on making handhelds even as a console 3rd party. Doubt MS or Sony would care. 

Just because NX isn't about specs doesn't mean it won't have decent specs. Reggie is only saying, specs aren't what makes the game. Some of the most graphically inferior games have become the best selling games of all time. For example, Mario Kart Wii. The game looks like trash for the era it was in. Looked like Gamecube 1.5 graphics. But guess what, tens of millions of people have bought and played the game. This is old news at this point, why are people surprised by this?

You can be affordable, powerful, and create games that reach wide audiences a the same time. That essence was the Wii and DS.