Soundwave on 26 January 2015
I don't think it was so much that Nintendo was "abandoned", Nintendo just kinda got beat fair and square by two "cooler" brands in Playstation and XBox that market almost 100% to said "hardcore" male gamer aged 14-35.
Losing all their third party backing because of cartridges on the N64, losing the FPS shooter audience to MS with Halo, toon shading Zelda, and making the GameCube look like a Fisher Price toy with no DVD playback ... they honestly were never going to win by shooting themselves in the foot several times like that.
