Even in gens where nintnedo has lost they've more often than not turned profit. It's deceptive because of how badly they lose sometimes. They keep their tech affordable and profitable from day one. I doubt they spend As much as their competitors on ips. The switch will make shareholders happy. Nintnedo is only growing.

The bar has been going up and up on what expect from handheld games. Especially post PSP, 3DS, Vita, and smart devices. Over a decade ago we had console-esque GTA on a portable device.

While the Switch fills the void of a traditional home consoles, it was built for portability. Frankly, I'm happy all the major companies are basically focused on one device now and the traditional home console market is covered by MS, Sony, and technially PC.

It should be noted that at points this week, Nintendo was actually valued higher on the stock market than Sony. They are currently neck in neck with a Nintendo at 46B USD and Sony at 47B USD. Nintendo is trending up.

Nintendo's biggest disaster was the N64. It seems the generation did irreparable damage to Nintendo's partnerships - permanently losing most of their exclusive Japanese support, as well as Rockstar North/DMA over in the U.K., and they failed to get their grips on RARE, who then sold to Microsoft shortly after the generation.

Nintendo also permanently lost the most iconic RPG series, Final Fantasy. They regained Dragon Quest after a two game outing with Sony, but DQ10 and 11 are both Multiplatform.

Had Nintendo not gone with cartridges on N64, Final Fantasy, Xenogears, and all of those classic PlayStation games would have been on it. It's possible Monolithsoft would have remained Nintendo exclusive as well, even if the breakup with Square did occur... mostly because it's unlikely Namco would have left Nintendo either, but also because Monolithsoft would have been developing Xenosaga on N64. There might not have been a GameCube, as N64 would have been able to live strongly until 2003 - and by then, the Wii technology would have been in the picture.

Of course, it's also possible that Iwata may have never ascended to the top; but he would be near the top.

Accessibility/simplicity, local multiplayer and dedicated controllers are the main differences between PC gaming and traditional home consoles. How is PC (or MS/Sony for that matter) covering home consoles better than Nintendo? Graphics?

I'd call the PS4 the safest, most conservative possible console that any one of them could have produced. Competitive launch price, off-the-shelf parts, reasonable upgrade over the past gen that was more in line with previous new gen upgrades than PS2-to-PS3, essentially the same controller layout, no new disc media to introduce, the biggest "gimmick" it had to introduce was the touch pad on the controller. In fact, I'd say the only financial risk Sony has taken with consoles was the PS3. Everything else can easily be justified, and you can understand the thinking behind the PS3 as well.

There's nothing wrong with any of that; 25 years of data shows that playing it conservative for Sony is paying dividends, to put it mildly. I'll go out on a limb and say that there is a market for Sony's consoles. I like Sony being old reliable in contrast to wild and wacky Nintendo.

Feeling threatned by Sony are we? If your thread is about Nintendo, why did you make it about Sony?

Nintendo's situation is very different and just cause the switch is doing better than the Wii U, it doesn't mean their problems went away.

We don't yet know what this market the switch is and how much it draws from the portable market and if theres going to be a sucessor to the 3DS or not. These things are important in order to determine wether Nintendo's market is still shrinking or growing.

I always said this and I'm glad is now more obvious than ever.

Nintendo is always doomed! Just as console gaming is doomed and PC gaming is doomed! Apple is past its prime and also doomed. Sony is doomed because they were in the red for some years! Microsoft is doomed because some folks refuse to use Windows 10! Everyone is doomed! Doomed, I say!

The ps4 is definitely sonys safest console (well the only one) but nintnedo turns profit early almost every gen due to conservative spending. The only anomaly for Nintendo was the Wii U which forced them to refuse to cut price because of recouping. Nintendo doesn't play with money. It's respectable but honestly they played the stingy game every holiday season because they were pinching every penny.