This is simply a question, and not an underlying desire whatsoever. I, for one, would hate to see nintendo leave the console business.  Tha said I've often wondered if the transition would actually be more of a profitable one. Seeing as I do not have the insight or business knowledge I leave it to minds greater than mine.

Are company's like EA more profitable than Nintendo in the Console software market? Would Nintendo be in a similar league to EA and Activision?

I'll say yes just because I want to see it happen.

I haven't ever seen anyone ever do a serious business analysis on this question so it interesting to see what the answer would be. I don't have that much business knowledge either, however I think Nintendo wouldn't make as much total revenue if they dropped the console portion of their business. They might a higher profit margin in that situation, but not more in total profit. The company wouldn't be worth as much with the console part of the business as well.

Would they be more profitable? Not even close.

nope, and other third parties will likely lose a hugeass chunk of profit due to the popularity of Nintendo games

Probably not... They have their own, custom made to specifications, hardware to work with so that would mean that its easier for them to code/optimize vs being a third party would mean they have to train their developers to understand how to use the first party's hardware and OS...

Just look at Sega, they can't seem to make a zomfg Sonic game since the dreamcast...

I guess on the other side, they won't really need their R&D/patents/large advertising budget and who knows what else to make a console success but I think Nintendo knows how to sell enough hardware, whether it be handheld or console, to make them profitable and the rest will come from their amazing software lineup, which btw, MIGHT not be as well optimized as if they made it on their own hardware

As many developers have said, Nintendo is like Disney but what many developers don't understand is, Disney doesn't go to other theme parks to sell their main crap, the people has to come to Disneyland in order to experience the Disney "Magic" and in a way, Same goes for Nintendo

*Looks at it's latest consoles hardware and software sales*
*Looks at their economic situation*
As far as my knowledge goes, saying "yes" without any proper argument backing it up is absolutely nonsense. So, yeah, no.

they need a handheld console.
where would they put their pokemon game? in a smartphone? in a sony handheld? ps4?
hardware sells software and software sells hardware. this symbiosis cant be achieved in other consoles so easily. Nintendo wouldnt caro to sell more smarthphones cos of pokemon games.

but if nintendo was home console only, i would say yes.

No no no.

Every time a game sells on the Wii U or 3DS, Nintendo makes money. I can't divulge the specific amount, but it's a considerable fee. If Nintendo went third party they'd lose that huge source of income. All of their games would have to sell much much better to offset the loss of these fees.

On top of that, Nintendo also makes money on the hardware. The returns can be good on the systems in later years but they make a killing on accessories. The wii remote does not cost even close to $40 to make.

No no no.