Building a sustained relationship with developers and publishers is impossible if you're unwilling to compromise and adapt; you cannot expect the majority of developers to customize their efforts around a minority that refuses to adapt to market movements. Nintendo and Apple are the foremost "create your own demand" companies in consumer eletcronics and both are adept at streamlining their products for the market; the problem is that Nintendo are hopeless at reading and responding to the Western markets, which make up the majority of the global revenue in the traditional segment of the gaming industry and this happens to be where the major powers of modern game development and publishing are seated and concentrated. Apple, on the other hand, are masters at reading the Western markets, as evidenced by their marketshare there compared to the other markets (trust me on this; I really, really dislike Apple but their grip and hold on the Western markets is simply undeniable).
Sony had also had some duds; Betamax, UMD, Mini-disc and so on but they have also adapted to markets remarkably well and managed to tap also into lasting trends rather than only fleeting ones (DVD, Blu-ray, Walkman, CD's etc) and are willing to compromise in order to meet the end user and distributors. MS have also shown a great degree of flexibility and snap decision-making in many ways; they were pretty quick to drop the Kinect and they did one hell of a job securing 3rd party support in the beginning of the 360's life.
Nintendo may very well be sunk in the end by their narrow scope of ambition and their slavic adherence to tradition; they need to accept that in today's market it takes a lot more to rule than it ever has and they have to learn how to adapt to the market rather than insisting that the market adapt to them. The sheer fact that a concept like the Gamepad was green-lighted in the modern market shows how out of touch they are with the global movements in the consumer electronics market; their incredibly late arrival to the online scene is another telltale sign. They can keep trying like they have and hope to win the lottery and create another Wii phenomenon or they can rearrange their entire premise of consoles and gaming and try to carve out a position they can keep and get some much needed and stable nourishment from. I'm not so sure that their Fusion project is anything of the sort; if anything, it sounds like an ever bigger attempt at forced market convergence, one that could very well fail entirely in today's hostile and fast-paced market. It's insane to think that the same company that gave us the incredible and simultaneous success of the Wii and DS are the same that gave us the massive mistake that is the Wii U; this shows beyond a shadow of a dobut that the market has outrun them and their heads are still spinning. Nintendo and Iwata know what they're doing, you say? No, they haven't got a clue, especially in the West. The first step to major improvement must be to realise that it is required; let's hope they have that epiphany before it's too late.
Nintendo are clearly good cooks but they need to start focusing on selling wholesome meals to a stable customer base rather than attempting to wow with great risks at every turn and blending such odd tastes and colors (Gamepad); some new recipes wouldn't hurt either (incredible reluctance to develop any bigger budget franchises outside of the 30 year old one's).
PS: Iwata should not delve into the subject of price wars when he fronted the launch of a console that was forced to slash the retail price by about 30% in its first year in order to start moving...
PSPS: Nintendo will never move on if they listen to their retinue of appologists who always insist that the fault lies with the 3rd parties and needs fixing on that end.
