Why is "Nintendo" used as a qualifier for games?

[binary solo]

the_dengle said:

I frequently see people reiterating that Nintendo consoles are great "if you like Nintendo games." But what is a "Nintendo" game? What about the word "Nintendo" makes it a descriptive term applicable to every game published by the company?

 

It's never used in that way. It's only ever used as a catch all for games made by Nintendo. Nintendo published Bayo2, but Bayo 2 is NOT one of the games people are thinking about when they say "Nintendo consoles are great if you like Nintendo games".

So your analogy to Random House is way off base. The analogy is "I like almost all of the books written by [insert name of author]". Now doesn't that actually make sense? If you've read a few books from one author and liked them all then you will be well disposed to buying that author's work in future. Alternatively if you've read one book from an author and thought it was not very good then you won't be trying them again any time soon.

Same would apply with Nintendo, you like the games they make, you are likely to keep buying their console. You don't particularly like the games Nintendo makes, more than likely the games you do like will be available, and run better, on a different platform.

Hence the main reason to get a Nintendo console is to play the games Nintendo makes. Hence 3rd party games sell quite poorly compared to Nintendo made games. Contrast to MS and Sony consoles where 3rd party games are typically the best selling games.