The heavy increase in the mobile market through the DS generation had a lot to do with it. Although devs still pushes to have their games on the DS because: A. the DS was still THE platform to make money on for low budget projects through its lifetime. Then the casual market shifted from DS to mobile largely due to the lucrative freemium market. Nintendo, unlike mobile carriers, didn’t allow pinch tactics.
Nintendo didn’t abandon the casual market as they still had Tomodachi Life, the 3DS Streetpass games, Nintendogs and Cats, and Animal Crossing. But the hardware was too weak compared to mobile, and Nintendo’s ethical stance on freemium and pinch tactics that were normal on mobile were too slow to budge.
Although I suppose that’s changed now: Switch has Fortnite which is a shooter freemium game with casual elements (by that, I mean it encourages shorter play sessions, and for users to return frequently for quests and such). Nintendo has also released a casual Fire Emblem on mobile that seems to be profitable.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
