What Nintendo did wrong...

[Dodece]

The answer is unchecked greed. Nintendo had and still has an unquenchable thirst for bilking as much money out of their consoles as is possible. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make money, but Nintendo has always been damn near myopic of the concerns and needs of others. From their corporate partners to their very own customers. That is the thing about unchecked greed by its nature it is short sighted. Nintendo was so busy grabbing money that it was burning bridges and burning everyone around them.

Nintendo chose cartridges for one overriding reason. They owned the license to the format, and they owned the manufacturing. Which means they could run a monopoly forcing third parties to go through them to manufacture the games. This after they had already charged a hefty licensing fee. They have continued this policy through all of their consoles. Proprietary formats are good for Nintendo, and bad for everyone else.

Nintendo controlled their library with an iron fist, and more often then not it wasn't about quality concerns. They want their libraries skewed to a particular consumer usually younger who are more interested in their own first party games. It does nothing for them personally if they attract consumers that do not buy their games to their console. For Nintendo it is a logical conclusion that their hardware is explicitly for their software. This is also why Nintendo never forks out for third party exclusives. They see no reason to spend their money to drive consumers away from their software. There was a valid reason and still is one why Nintendo consoles are referred to as kiddie.

Nintendo loves its gimmicks, and more specifically selling their gimmicks after the fact. This is wonderful for Nintendo, because their games are always compatible with their new gimmick, and gives them a competitive edge over third party developers. This is often why third party developers are caught flat footed. You still see that to this day. Nintendo announces a new peripheral to be packed in with a game, and it is still six months before a third party can actually use it in their games. Why is this well Nintendo does not warn them. Nintendo treats its third parties like the enemy.

Nintendo still hasn't rectified this mindset instead they have maintained the mindset, and have decided that their winning strategy is to go after verdant untouched markets. That is a good strategy in the short term however Nintendo still has the same problem that it had all along. They are so caught up in making short term profit that they are not stopping to think of the consequences. Right now Nintendo should be building bridges to offset the lean times that are bound to come.

Anyway it all boils down to unmitigated greed which usually means that compromises are out of the question. Which is what got them into trouble in the first place. Nintendo was not working well with others, and not taking into consideration their needs.