SegataSanshiro said:
That would diminish their IPs. Nintendo always has made their games with the hardware it was made for very specific in mind. This would take that away and having to worry too much about running well on so many platforms. They would also stop making games like Xenoblade or Fire Emblem. What people joke about them just making Mario and Zelda would come true. Only making the big ones and well Metroid barely does well on Nintendo systems and would just be a dead IP otherwise. SEGA is the only one who can rival Nintendo in IPs and what happened to them is a good reflection what would happen to Nintendo. Nintendo's hardware is also important to the industry. For all the innovations they had. Also that little fact they were the first console to sign Unity. Sony and MS are stagnating the console industry by selling essentially under powered PCs. Something like Switch offers something different. Diversity is needed and Nintendo is needed in hardware. |
I agree on this, but I also think that it's a no-brainer that anyone would want a piece of that Nintendo pie. Nintendo has two of the best selling franchises of all-time and they may be a helluva price point for anyone, even Microsoft and Sony. These two franchises alone are trendsetters in pop culture and are still relevant (arguably more relevant than ever) today. Then you got other respectable IPs such as Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Smash Bros., Fire Emblem, and Animal Crossing along with other IPs that have come around and about once in a while like F-Zero, Kid Icarus, Punch Out, Chibi Robo, Pikmin, Star Fox, etc. and new IPs like Xenoblade (though technically part of the Xeno series as a whole), Splatoon, Pushmo, Wonderful 101, etc. That's a lot of IPs alone. Then you got the talent (young and old) in the software and hardware depts.
But as you mentioned, Nintendo can still benefit from having their own platforms available for their biggest games. This provides them more opportunities to utilize their other IPs when able, they can create and not worry under the pressure of the heads of other companies, and they tend to be quirky with how they utilize the hardware with software, which is who they are. They are not just great software developers but they also like to experiment and try something different. Not sure if they could do that under another head looking over them as a third party developer. If they were to be a third party dev, they would want the freedom to do whatever they like and utilize their respective consoles differently instead of just doing conventional things all the time (of course you would see the Zeldas, the Marios, and the Pokemons with their recognizable formulas with a few shake ups). Again, Nintendo is Nintendo, they've done quirky things since the beginning. I mean, they initially marketed the NES as a "toy" with the ROB accessory. They had a variety of accessories throughout all their consoles (and handhelds).
