Sphinx

I was with you until you said gimmicky motion controls. Every console, controller, and game is a gimmick. Consoles (great power, beautiful graphics, DVD/Blu-ray, and online capabilities) are a gimmick. Controllers(buttons, pad, sticks, motion, and touchscreen) are a gimmick. Games (FPS, RPG, Platformer, Movie based, storytelling, and action/adventure) are gimmicks. The talk of third party support makes no sense. All consoles have third party support or all games would be by first party and the rare second party companies. It isn't whether Third party support will be on the Wii U but what kind of third party support.

I'm sorry that you don't like my terminology, but that's really beside the point. What I was getting at is that motion controls  tend to not really enhance the core experience. The WiiU on the other hand the potential to add depth to a variety of genres in ways that we've never seen.

I respect your point, but I really gotta disagree with you on this one... the 1st party content appeals to a certain type of gamer (mostly, the kind that was perfectly happy with the Wii, as well), but not to the audience of gamers currently on other systems, or about ready to go to other systems - both those that have left the Wii because they felt it ignored them, and those that never took Nintendo seriously in the first place.

The real problem is this.  With the much lower install base of a newly launched system, and the recent memory of abysmally low sales for 3rd party games on the Wii, developers will, naturally, be hesitant to make anything truly original for the WiiU.  3rd parties need either big sales numbers or big Nintendo support to justify design risks.  If all that the WiiU gets from 3rd parties is bland ports of games available on other systems, the WiiU may be looking at a repeat of the Wii situation, where 3rd party support evaporates and Nintendo is left with the only content on the system.  Cross-platform games are okay... but they don't help the system itself succeed if there's no wide install base to buy them.

This is what Nintendo needs the 3rd party exclusives for.  3rd party exclusives draw wider ranges of new people to a system - get them in the door - and that allows all cross-platform games to sell well.  If you can make a Sony fanboy break down and buy a WiiU for those two or three cool exclusives (like I bought an Xbox for Mass Effect and Gears of War), then you've got them for the cross-platforms, too.  If you don't have them, then the cross-platforms don't sell at all.

The people who are all OMG'ing for a new Animal Crossing are NOT the same ones obsessing over the latest COD zombie mode DLC.  The difference makes a big difference in a systems financial viability...

If Nintendo wanted to make those types of games exclusive to the Wii U then they would hire a renowned studio and publish the games themselves. The original Mass Effect was exclusive to the Xbox 360 only because Microsoft was the publisher, and the same goes for the Gears of War trilogy. There's a reason why third party exclusives are practically non existent on the PS3 and Xbox 360. You can't expect third party publishers independently to spend millions upon millions of dollars to create exclusive games for a system and therefore miss out on a TON of potential revenue.

What needs to set the Wii U apart is its control scheme. Third parties should enhance multi-platform games sold for the Wii U by incorporating the uniqueness of the touchscreen, and the potential it holds. That would set the Wii U apart from the PS3 and 360, and would give gamers a reason to purchase a Wii U. The situation with the Wii is much different for 2 primary reasons: 1.) The system is significantly less powerful and therefore unable to handle most third party content. 2.) The motion controls are much more gimmicky then the Wii U's touch screen, and didn't do much to enhance the core experience.

Your not so subtle foreshadowing sounds promising.  

Nintendo does not need third party exclusives. Their plethora of first party content is all that they need to ensure that their console stands out. Among home consoles, practically every big AAA third party title is multi-platform anyhow. The amount of money required to convince publishers like EA or Activision to produce Wii U exclusive AAA titles would most definitely not be worth the cost.

What Nintendo should focus on is the assurance that all major third party multi-platform games come to the Wii U.

Now that we've actually seen it I can safely say that Yes, the next Xbox and PS systems will be considerably more powerful than Wii U.

We still haven't seen what the machine is capable of, just very early gameplay footage by some third party developers.