So its pretty well known that third party support on nintendo consoles sucks. But why?

Is it the fault of third parties?

I donkt think so.

Lets look as an example at Ubisoft. They gave the Wii U at launch an exclusive aa-title (ZombiU) + Raymen was announanced as an exclusive title.

I doubt Nintendo paid anything for this. They didnt published the games, both games went multiplat later because of wii u´s poor sales.

But still, I cant remember an big western publisher like Ubisoft ever gave any exclusive title to xbox or playstation for...nothing? Sony and Microsoft both pay for their exclusive content. It seems like Ubisoft would had supported Nintendo for free.

So the relationship cant be that bad, right?

Nintendo hardware is the problem

No 3rd party is going to take extra time implementing random features just for Nintendo who typically has a lower install base compared to the other consoles.

Being a multi-console owner, I don't care about it tho

*pulls hair out*

I think the relationship is mixed still. Sure, there's the Skylanders deal, a few Ubisoft games, a couple ports from EA (including the infamous Mass Effect 3 port when the other consoles got a trilogy release, why EA?), Koei Tecmo with Hryule Warriros and Fatal Frame, Platinum Games is pretty much well-documented here, and Square has Dragon Quest, Bravely, and Final Fantasy on 3DS. Then you have Atlus with SMT games and the crossover, Capcom with the Mega Man Legacy Collection, Monster Hunter, and Ace Attorney, and Level 5 with Layton and Yokai Watch.

While not mindblowingly great, the content there is pretty darn good. Bravely Default and Shin Megami Tensei IV found moderate success and Yokai Watch is a monster in Japan (along with the other Monster).

I think Western third-parties are less inclined to support while Japan is more willing (at least more on 3DS).

Well, Ubisoft isn't supporting the Wii U anymore.

It's clear that the Wii U hardware became too much of a hassle for Ubisoft to develop for, as well as several other companies.

Same thing with Call of Duty, after how poorly Ghosts sold on Wii U, they realized that developing the game for Wii U is just a waste of their time.

Japan is only more inclined because Nintendo fronts bill. 

Look at KT, Platinum and SE - How many times do they release games on Nintendo home consoles, or even handheld when Nintendo has NOT fronted a bill of some sort? Nintendo shouldn't have to any developer to do something natural elsewhere. That's why SE doesn't localize because they know Nintendo will cave.

there is no egregious bad blood between nintendo and third parties. third parties will go where they think they can make money - simple as that.

non-standard hardware architecture. non-standard controller input. low install base. these things get in the way of making money.

no big conspiracy no matter how much some will tell you otherwise.

Only and exactly this.

Ubisoft can't handle money. They expected the costs for ZombiU to replenish within a short time, but it was a completely different game once during develpoment and then they switched it drastically to become what it is today, and so it was more expensive than scheduled, and therefore they had astronomous sales hopes. Considering the install base, sales for ZombiU aren't that bad and haven't even been bad from day one, but they're still insufficient for Ubi, and so I claim they can't schedule propperly. Games like Splinter Cell Blacklist and those AC games couldn't sell well, unfortunately, because they don't fit the demographic. But those are ports. You don't need that huge manpower to create 1:1 ports, do you? Correct me if I'm wrong. So the budget for those games should be relativley low, yet still Ubi wanted to have sales on a same level as the other versions, which just doesn't make sense.

And then a vicious cicle started. Because of low sales, Rayman was considered on other platforms as well. And we all know what happened to Watch Dogs. They still release their dancing games anually, though.

Aye, I agree. Even when Nintendo had the highest install base with the Wii, any or all of the other factors you mentioned made it less appealing to third parties.

That's why I blame Nintendo more so than the third-parties but I am not saying that the third-parties are totally blamesless. But again as you said it's business.

If I was CEO of a half-decent Game Software company would I seriously consider the Nintendo platform for any A titles let alone AAA? No. Shovelware and party games, yeah.