I'm gonna quote Malstrom on this one because he addresses pretty much this point verbatim. Nintendo doesn't create art games and anyone who says that they do are just defending themselves from MS and Sony fans who accuse Nintendo games of being non-art:
"Nintendo fans responded by generating a ‘Nintendo Culture’. The Mario and Zelda games were no longer the fun, whimsical pursuits from the NES and SNES era but described as ‘genius games’ which ‘recreated how games were made’. In other words, these Mario and Zelda games had much more purpose than mere commerce! The ‘Nintendo Culture’ has become an alchemy that has turned old Nintendo merchandise, from belt buckles, controllers, and shirts, into prized ‘Nintendo Culture’ that people pay dearly for.
"Pier was a chef, a gifted and respected chef who made millions selling his dishes to the residents of New York City and Boston, he even had a famous jingle playing in those cities that everyone knew by heart. He also had a restaurant in Los Angeles, but not expecting LA to have such a massive population he only used his name on that restaurant and left it to his least capable and cheapest chefs. While his New York restaurant sold kobe beef for $100 and his Boston restaurant sold lobster for $50, his LA restaurant sold cheap hotdogs for $30. Initially these hot dogs sold fairly well because residents of los angeles were starving for good food and hoped that the famous name would denote a high quality, but most were disappointed with what they ate. Seeing the success of his cheap hot dogs in LA, Pier thought "why bother giving Los Angeles quality meats when I can oversell them on cheap hotdogs forever, and since I don't care about the product anyways, why bother advertising them? So Pier continued to only sell cheap hotdogs in LA and was surprised to see that they no longer sold. Pier's conclusion? Residents of Los Angeles don't like food."
"The so-called "hardcore" gamer is a marketing brainwashed, innovation shunting, self-righteous idiot who pays videogame makers far too much money than what is delivered."
