I don't get it. You'd think the posterchild of console gaming would be throwing punches at competitors, especially since they have $10 billion in the bank, but like sports some teams play to win. Some play to "not lose". Sounds like the same thing, but it's really not. Ninty is playing not to lose.... which is rarely successful in real life sports. They are like that team that never goes for it. They are happy to scrape into the playoffs and lose in the first round. Never want to spend money to sign players to put them over the top, but still smart enough to do well enough so the team doesn't go bankrupt and disappear.
But given the trend the last few systems, Ninty has shown a clear strategy of:
- Underpowered systems
- Subpar online feature set, apps, digital downloads
- Big focus on first party games
- Little focus on third party games (some of it goes hand and hand with being an underpowered system)
I'll assume that these strategies are purposely done this way knowing this..... as opposed to Ninty execs truly going "OMG! We didn't think it would end up this way!"
So it shows they've given up on the core gamer and third party support. Third party support along with third party royalty fees ($$$$$) can come if they beef up the specs (more R&D and hardware costs), but it doesn't seem like they see value and risk going after more games, shadowed by more R&D costs. In other words, they are being conservative. More third party games should equal more gamers buying games and online subscriptions which they are adding later in the year, but they'd rather stop short.
But it seems Ninty is completely happy being a niche system, making money off devoted Ninty fans, while letting MS/Sony battle it out for the bigger slices of the pie.
However, 3DS sales are drying up, so they don't have the luxury of having oodles of Gameboy, DS and 3DS profits to balance out their hit and miss console success. It showed with Wii U when they finally had quarterly losses for the first time in like 50 years. If Switch bombs, I don't see 3DS being enough to prop them up. Their days of making billions in profits per year (Wii hey days) are long gone.
Doesn't really matter at this point. I think people put way too much emphasis on being market leader. All three companies did fantastic during the 360/PS3/Wii generation. There was no loser. You say Nintendo should go for it because they have 10 billion in the bank. That ain't s*** compared to what Sony and especially Microsoft have to play with and yet Nintendo still holds their own.
They're going for it, within their means to do so. Best first party games around. Everyone realizes by now, Nintendo consoles are a secondary platform. Xbox and PlayStation are so much alike it doesn't really make much sense to own both instead of going with an Xbox/Nintendo console combo or PlayStation/Nintendo console combo if you want to maximize your gaming options. I'm fine with Nintendo's position. No need for three alpha dogs. Let Microsoft and Sony beat their chest while Nintendo does what they've always done - deliver the most unique games.