How is that different from partnering?

You should ask Panasonic.


And SNK.

Nintendo isn't going anywhere ever.

Their IPs are by far the strongest in the industry and have kept demand high generation after generation.

Sure there will be the occasional bomb, but that will be followed by the next big thing eventually.

When Pokemon and Mario start selling 1-2m vs 10m+, we can discuss some form or real Nintendo doom.

Come on, Nintendo. You had one job. You failed with the Wii U, but your revenues/profits were bailed by success of the 3ds. All you had to do was fail with the Switch, which has nothing to bail it out, and we'd finally get a good idea revenue/loss-wise of how long before your have to shift to software only. You just HAD to crush it out of the park on the Switch and further delay my analysis, didn't you?

Logged in just to offer you some support in this difficult moment u.u

Thank you! It's been an emotional whirlwind, let me tell ya.

Yeah, hopefully they fuck up their next console and go third party. Thou brilliant analysis shan't be delayed any further.

Nintendo is the next SEGA! By 2017 they will drop out of consoles and put games on Playstation and Xbox. Nintendo doesn't have enough appeal to hardcore gamers. They are just too casual and would just be better to play Mario on Playstation. They only make Mario, Zelda, and their casual kids games anyway. Nintendo can't compete with the big boys. Maybe on a real console, Zelda can look as realistic as GTAV ya know. Make it M-rated so it can be good for once.

Well, this thread got bumped.
Nintendo has insane amounts of assets. After the Switch, they could probably make another two Wii U-level failures in a row for hardware and likely still be more than justified to stay in the hardware business.
But on average, I think their hardware would need to sell around 30 million (a few million shy of the N64) for them to be justified in staying in hardware. Considering they almost never sell their hardware at barely breaking even or a loss, they would be fine .Even if they had a piece of hardware that only sold around 30 million, they would still earn billions in subscription and software revenue.
Nintendo will be the last one standing in the hardware business of the big three.

He necroed himself. Haha. I was staring at those poll options for a while not realizing this thread was made in 2013 and just wondering what the purpose of the thread was.

Yeah, both the Wii and the Switch have proven that even in the darkest of days (GameCube; WiiU) you can absolutely never count Nintendo out. And they accomplish most of this success internally without the aid of third parties to get them across the finish line.

If there is a time that Nintendo is so unsuccessful as a hardware manufacturer it will be because their software has faltered. At that point, going third party as a software creator would almost seem like adding insult to injury. Knowing the class of developer at Nintendo we don’t ever have to worry about this fate, thankfully.