Considering--IMO--Nintendo was the least sucky thing about E3 this year, I'm looking forward to the Wii U.
As for the third party stuff, I think Nintendo's talk of focusing on its first party brands is all just so much Kabuki (is it rassist to say that when talking about a Japanese company?). Fact is--had they not decide to abandon the move to discs when working on the N64--they would have had what is considered "the best RPG of all time", FFVII, on their console. I think that pretty much closed them off from a lot of parties that decided on pushing the envelope with discs (via the PlayStation) as they were less limited than Nintendo's cartridges. Still, as much as it may have limited them, it didn't stop Nintendo from having a decent share of the pie. They even had some good third party titles like GoldenEye and WCW/NWO Revenge.
It may be that hindsight is 20/20, but the Wiimote was shear genius. Was it looked at as an oddity and gimmicky by developers and raging internet fanboys? Sure. But, when the competition starts copying the brand that had "relegated itself to third place and--eventually--the dustbin", it is time to rethink who the industry innovators are.
The Wii was, in general, just the thing Nintendo needed to put it back on the map. People were enthralled by the novelty of the Wiimote. It was priced to sell for everybody (no tiered systems like the PS3). It was backwards compatible (even adding the virtual console so I could play fucking Bonk's Adventure of all games on the fucking Wii). Did they push the envelope in graphics and processing? No. But, they didn't create a lot of anger by introducing the phrase "red ring of death" to the lexicon either.
Bringing it back around, did they make some bad moves way back when? Yeah, but I think they have learned from them and have also found away to really put themselves back on the map. I believe we are at a point where outside developers are no longer going to look at Nintendo players as a niche that can be ignored. And, while moving towards it slowly, I think Nintendo is starting to get to a point where they are more interested in what appeal those developers can bring in that their in-house brands do not.
This is just my mental jacking off to the Wii, though.
