Personally, I liked when Resident Evil was GameCube exclusive, mostly because I had a GameCube before the PS2 and could enjoy all of the main Resident Evil series. However, from a business standpoint, I think it was a bad idea. Even though Resident Evil can sell, that type of game does not sell consoles and PS2 owners were not about to pick up a GameCube just for Resident Evil. Both Dreamcast and the Nintendo 64 proved that Resident Evil was viable on all the main consoles and therefore, should have gone multiplatform after the Dreamcast's demise.

As far as Nintendo's former partners are concerned, it should be pointed out that they had an opportunity to completely buy Rare outright and chose not to. Instead, the Stamper Brothers went on to the highest bidder. It's also known that Factor 5 had a Wii game in development after their commercial failure on the PS3. With their financial struggles, Nintendo could have bought out and given their relations with Nintendo, they would most likely have accepted and Factor 5 could have been the next Retro Studios. So Nintendo does deserve some of the blame for the misfortune of others.

As far as Capcom and Shinji Mikami is concerned, Capcom was doing what they felt was in their best interest and Nintendo didn't do anything to persuade them otherwise. Shinji Mikami chose GameCube as his preferred console because he liked the hardware and hated the PS2 hardware. Had it been the following generation instead, he most likely would not have chosen the Wii. It should also be mentioned that Shinji Mikami had nothing to do with the PS2 port of Resident Evil 4 since he switched studios and transferred over to Clover after the GameCube version of RE4 was done. The consoles Resident Evil is on has nothing to do with the series at large. I think what it is, is the creator of the series is gone and others have tried to make something of their own rather than what he would have wanted. I'm also sure the higher ups at Capcom wrestled away some control over creative decisions and deliberately made the series more like the Western games.

Well to answer your question yes, that's obvious, but you're still not understanding. Okay lets make it simple. Make a game ground up for one system, PS1. Later the devs take that same game and put it on say the N64. Its a port. Yes. If it looked and played exactly the same, its a direct port, yes? Now take that same example, but lets somehow make the game different when we port it, it doesn't matter whether its a software optimization or a hardware optimization. If the game benefits noticeably, its an enhanced port, yes? End of story.

That isn't what its about at all.