Everything depends on which way the industry giants will go.Pfft, as if.
If the sales of the WiiU will continue to be abysmal and the developers will choose to go the easy PS4/720 way, neglecting Nintendo's system altogether then the situation will be pretty shaky - fortunately Nintendo has the 3DS cushion to fall on, so they definitely won't go bust and will be able to keep up with first and second party CPR for their home console.
If the tides will turn and the WiiU will start to sell, enticing developers to develop for it, it may have an equal footing... for about half the generation, after that, we'll see a point where developers won't be able to push the hardware any further.