Complicated title, I apologize. What I want to address here is something I don't hear anyone else talking about so I am curious what people think here. We all know 3rd party games (and in certain cases 3rd party collaboration exclusive games like Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101, Project X Zone, etc.) don't sell very well on Nintendo devices. We also all know that Nintendo 1st party games sell like crazy (almost always, especially with legs and their lack of price drops all while still selling that much means a lot more profit per each game sold than other companies). Those are facts. Here are two other facts:

3rd party games sell a TON on Microsoft/Sony consoles.

Sony/Microsoft owned games don't sell nearly as much as their 3rd party (exclusive or multiplats) or as much as Nintendo 1st party titles.

My question here is, does the profit Nintendo makes from all their 1st party games outweigh that of the profit Sony/Microsoft make off of their chunk of the pie with 3rd party games on their devices? While 3rd party ps4/xbox one games sell more than Nintendo 1st  party games, Nintendo makes a lot more profit from each of those games sold since they themselves developed/published the games, where as Sony and Microsoft are splitting profits with EA/Ubisoft/Activision/etc.

What do you guys and girls think?

Does Nintendo's 1st party profit outweigh the profit of Sony/Microsoft on their 3rd party games or not?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/anatomy-of-a-60-dollar-video-game.html

http://unrealitymag.com/video-games/how-your-60-video-game-is-chopped-up/

Nintendo first party games would get the money for the developer, publisher and console maker.  This should be in your OP.

nobody talks about it because nobody actually knows hard facts on the issue. My guess is that MS/Sony make a lot more profit from third party titles than nintendo makes from first party. Mostly because they don't have any kind of cost associated with those transactions that has to be recouped before they make a profit and also the much larger volume of sales...

Both the PS and XBOX brand are in the red when profits are concerned.

that's nice... unless you have a breakdown of where the costs/profits are of third party software, that information is pretty irrelevant to this discussion...

Nintendo doesn't waste their money making shady deals with third party studios and having expensive console bundles with third party games. ;)

Or do you think exclusive marketing, third party games in console bundles, exclusive content, exclusive dlc, timed exclusivety, permanent exclusivety, etc. is free?

also, nice, but again, not relevent to the discussion of this thread.  Why don't we stick to the thread topic, yes?  

It's very much relevant. The sales wouldn't be this high (or low) without these kind of deals. Therefor they should be factored in.

How many games are given away for "free" on PSN Plus? You think Sony doesn't have to pay third parties for that?

Agreed, and we also don't know how it fairs with current gen. It will be nice to have an update, especially since the landscape has changed dramatically this gen 

I like this discussion so far :)