Nintendo have learnt nothing.
I don't think it's about learning nothing. I'm sure Ninty knows exactly what they are doing.
Their focus for the past 3 gens is low cost shovelware systems, whose catch are Mario, Zelda and some kind of gameplay gimmick. As low a price as possible. And whatever sales and profit it reaps is good enough for them. Little focus on specs, third party, online, DLC etc...
It doesn't even make sense. Switch is supposed to be some kind of grab and go portable system that promotes party play, taking it on buses and airplanes, yet the battery lasts only about three hours, and can't even do any basic apps like watching Netflix or surfing the net when someone wants to do something else. Without even checking, I'm positive the iPad 2 my sister in law has better mobility and battery.
The last time they went toe to toe with a nicely powered system was N64 and GC and they failed miserably against the opposition, so they don't want to do that again.
However, if they really want to strive for top dog like the old NES and SNES days, it's actually easy. Gamers are fickle. All they have to do is make a top system that competes with the MS and Sony systems.
Just to show how fickle gamers are, NES/SNES ruled. Then PS1/PS2 rules. Wii came back, but suddenly 360 did great after a meh Xbox OG. Now PS4 is back on top and Wii U had terrible sales. So it shows any gen can shift user base.
They have the right family oriented franchises as a lock. Nice powered systems will lead to more third party games, will lead to better online, and gives Ninty the opportunity to make some new IPs that caters to an older core crowd. But Ninty doesn't want that.
Ninty prefers a bronze medal and that's fine I guess. Some people put in the time and effort and gun for gold. Ninty prefers to take a less strenuous approach and is happy being third.
It will be interesting to see what they do in the next 10 years. 3DS sales are falling, and it seems there is no other dedicated handheld that was the equivalent of gold coffers. The reason why Ninty has done so well the past 30 years is heavily skewed to handheld devices. If Switch fails and 3DS sales continue to fall, there is no safety net..... unless they have some back up plans:
- A successor to 3DS.... like a 4DS sells 50-100+ million units like all their handhelds seem to
- A big shift to PC/mobile games (which they already stated will be 2-3 a year, and it takes off)
- Ninty goes third party
