In terms of their business, Nintendo is primarily a hardware maker.  Yes, they spend a lot of resources making games, and they are the biggest software maker in the industry.  But they are also the biggest hardware maker, and it is where most of their income comes from.  If we use the Wii as an example, we will get the following chart:

Note that their are a few assumptions made, first of all that the profit per Wii was/is $49.  It was reported that Nintendo was making $13 in Japan, $49 in the US and $79 in Europe per Wii soon after launch. That may not be totally accurate, but it's a good estimate.  Secondly, prices on both software and hardware get reduced over time... but the relative dollars should be at least somewhat consistant, and costs go down too.

But as you can see, in that chart 57% of Nintendo's business is the hardware side.  The company themselves say it's about 65%.  Further, the royalty revenue from software costs Nintendo virtually NOTHING, unlike the actual development of first party software.  About 30% of their revenue simply comes from existing in the hardware sector.

Nintendo will never become a software-only company if they can avoid it.  They will only do so if their hardware begins to mount massive year over year losses.  Since the 80's they have been build on royalties as a business and will continue to be.  Even if Wii U is a complete failure they will try again, simply because the royalty revenue business is too lucrative.  And this is even before considering factors such as their own software getting a boost by being the "flagship" titles for the system, and other 1st party advantages.

I feel confident now that we will never see another "Nintendo should go 3rd party" thread for the next decade or so... right?

We'll definitely be seeing "Nintendo should go 3rd party" threads in the future.

Very true.  I actually thought this was a MAJOR business flaw when Nintendo announced Wii U, saying that existing Wii controllers could be used with the system.  Such lost income.  If every Wii U owner had to buy a secondary controller with a $25 markup, that's a pile of extra cash.  Wii Play made Nintendo a boatload.

Right. The only way to make this mathematically viable is either that they *cannot* turn a profit, however they try, or if their userbase is so small that making less-royalty sales across other consoles would make them more than hardware+royalties+peripherals+first-party-software

It'll be a long time before that's the case, if ever.

Maybe, but they're still making profits from the Wii U "branded" WiiMotes. What they should do is sell the Gamepad seperately (when R&D costs are lower) for $70-$75. Also a Wii U Starter Set than includes a Wii U Pro Controller instead can help the need of a Gamepad for consumers.

The problem is the 100 million Wii owners already have the Wiimotes, so people will only buy the Wii U branded ones if one breaks, or they never had a Wii (unlikely).

Exactly. They should release their entire catalog of NES, SNES, Gameboy, etc to mobile platiforms like Android and iOS.

Something to consider: How much of that profit per unit goes to the recovery of hardware R&D costs? How much does Nintendo spend on hardware R&D? That cost would be eliminated if they went third party.

It's not clear in your table, but does the figure for total software (913.5) include first & third party software? If the figure includes first party software, are you doubt counting profit from your line the shows just Nintendo software (312.84)?

I think this ties in with this: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=176382&page=1

Weil es eine Bereicherung ist eigene spiele auf einer eigenen Konsole von Nintendo zu spielen. Du bist ein ziemlicher Ignorant, und wahrscheinlich kleines Kind, weil du nicht die Anfänge von Nintendo kennst und Nintendo einer der Vorreiter waren, die für das Wachstum der Konsolen verantwortlich waren. Ignorant!!