Yea but thats all speculation... For all we know, they will go the same way as Sega did and ruin their main games when trying to adapt to foreign hardware... There have been many first party going into third party before and most of them have went bankrupt... I know that Nintendo has a bigger fanbase than Sega as well as more money but history does say that when first party goes third party, they don't do well... Also, Nintendo does make technically impressive games with limited hardware which is what everyone praises them for... They can push even the weakest hardware to the limits to make both technically and visually impressive games on hardware that shouldnt be able to handle such graphics... Just look at the reviews of Mario Galaxy on the wii

this ND will be an interesting one! can't wait!

$200 is not affordable anymore when everyone sees the PS4/XB1 as the defacto console they have to buy to get their core gaming fix (the CoDs, Maddens, etc.).

It's expensive, that's $200 a person could use on a tablet, new phone, why should they be spending $600-$700 combined on video game hardware just to get a few Nintendo franchises on top of the PS4 they already have that gives them everything else they want?

I think that whole idea is a tired idea. People are no longer willing to buy a Nintendo console just to play the same 4-5 key franchises. Nintendo needs to figure out how to fit into people's life style, rather than forcing people to bend over to them and try to fit Nintendo into their life.

Revenue from hardware, and revenue from licencing 3rd parties to publish on your hardware ecosystem are a bit different.  Yes I know about licensing fees that hardware puplishers have, but Nintendo would out weigh the profits they make from third parties licensing fees by selling their own software to a larger base.  They could also move to an open source platform like android to avoid having to pay licensing fees.

The idea that the Wii U will become cheeper to produce over the years is grounded in the idea of mass production, but unfortunatly the Wii U is selling slowly and the componant makers aren't producing the large amounts they had hoped for, which means that it will take longer for the manufacturing costs to fall.  Nintendo launched the Wii U selling at a loss for $350, the Wii U is now selling at $300 and is probably loosing more money now per unit than it did when it launched & people are still asking for another $50 price cut.

I'll particialy withdraw my original statement, but if we are including licensing revenue then isn't Sony making more money on it's hardware?  Isn't that "65% of it's revenue from hardware" claim dependent on 3rd parties actually publishing & having success with their games on the Nintendo system?

I don't need to read the reviews, I own both Galexy games & they are great, fantastic use of limited technical resources.  Sega was in trouble long before they went third party.  Their software took a dive after the Genisis, long before they started to develop for other companies hardware, not that thier own 32X & Saturn did them any favours in the interim.  Simply going third party doen't mean you are going to end up like Sega or Atari.  Both Sega & Atari were forced to become third party after they burnt all their resources fighting against it.  If Nintendo gracefully accept a new direction they could be bigger than ever.

In order for Nintendo to be better off as a software-only company, it would have to tripple its sales, plus another 20% to make up for licensing fees they are now charged (or not earning) on their own software.  Plus the usual 25%+ profit they usually make on hardware (Wii U was a abboration and a mistake).  So if you really think Nintendo could sell 110 million copies of MarioKart on PS + Xbox... yeah, OK, sure.  They would be lucky to see any increase... I would wager many titles would go down as they would no longer be looked at as "flagship" system titles (see Sonic, Crash, etc). And they would lose the synergy of bundles, of promotion of titles on boot screens, of hardware designed around their own games, etc.

If you're thinking they could make massive sales on Smartphones... sure, if they are willing to sell titles for a few bucks.  FYI, Nintendo made more money off 1 title, Animal Crossing New Leaf, last year than Rovio made as an entire company - including selling Angry Birds, one of the most successful multi-plat mobile titles ever.

As far as Sony goes, the Playstation brand hasn't made money since the launch of PS3.  However, they do take in a most of their revenue by being a hardware platform maker.  Their 1st party software business is small, but if they do return to profitability with PS4 it will because they are a platform holder making money off licenses on 3rd party sales.  Same as MS.  And same as Nintendo, despite their larger in-house games division.  There is a reason all of them are in this business.

Really? They won't buy one for "the same 4 -5 key franchises," but they'll buy a PS4/XB1 for 2 "core" games? This console generation already sucks.

X,SSBU,Mario Kart8, DKCTF,Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2 < CoD,Madden, FIFA

This console generation already sucks.

The PS4/XB1 simply offer the consumer the choice to play the widest variety of games. Which Nintendo used to do in the NES/SNES eras. 

Their consoles have simply gone in another direction since the N64, but I think we all know that and it's been discussed to death here. 

Dream on. More likely Nintendo could drop home console entirely and completely focusing on handhelds. All Nintendo-games handheld exclusive.

Well, Nintendo could do some sort of dockiung-station to make a handheld- home-console-hybrid.

WiiU is done confirmed.