And you want to know why they kept pushing out new consoles which resulted in their ultimate demise? To have the most powerful hardware on the market! Kind of funny when you actually think about it.

Along with the list of other good points, I'd also like to point out that if you think Mario and Zelda is all they created before, going third party would pretty much make this concrete. As others have said the cost of making games for the PS4 and XBone are higher, shown by the fact that only a VERY few devs are willing to make games outside their comfort zone of what they know will bring profits. And if something they make doesn't sell what they want, they simply remaster it. The cost of making HD games is just to high, and we need a company willing to think outside the box. The number of PS2 to PS3 games should tell you that (there are over 3000 fewer titles on PS3).

Sega has inferior developers and less popular IPs.

I have many, many reasons Nintendo should never go third party. I'll elaborate on those later. For right now, I'll give one main reason. That reason is SEGA. Look at how great SEGA was when they made hardware. Look at how much they suck without it.

Its the same for Nintendo... but with the first party royalties :p

I can't find any, tbqh.
These days we see big publishers making a lot more money than Nintendo does, just because they don't have to produce hardware. So I believe Ninty would do even better and without taking as many risks, just pure win for both parties.

Which makes it anything but the same. If Nintendo sells their games on other platforms they still make money from each game sold, if Sony and MS don't make systems then they won't make the millions of dollars they make from third party royalties.

Thing is, MS didn't make money for about a decade but lose money. Right now they might be losing money again, even thoguh not as much as back then.

Sony lost tons of money in PS3's first years but could somewhat compensate that with a still solid PS2, good PSP sales and, maybe more important back then, pushing Blu Ray.

On the other hand, it doesn't look like PS4One gamers buy 'cute' games. So Nintendo would have to take their customers with them.

And yes, Nintendo has been losing money for some time, this fiscal year might be interesting.

XBONE and PS4 getting hacked nearly every week says otherwise.

That is utterly irrelevant to what I said.

Wolfpack wanted a reason why Sony or MS shouldn't go third party, the fact that the huge majority of software sales (where the real money in gaming lies) on those systems come from third party devs is a very good reason.