The fact that 60% of their profits were from hardware.

Why leave it? why not just make the games for Nintendo handhelds, Nintendo has proven they can sell handhelds in a market that has iphones and Android all over the place why not just port the Vita games to that, and get some Halo going on their too, no one is gaming on windows phones.

They don't need to.

Another Nintendo port-begging thread. Pass.

uhh Dreamcast and X1 are more of a screw up than the N64.   N64 was still profitable.   X1's are going at a loss with the drastic price cut, still not winning globally and the Dreamcast was the nail in the coffin for Sega.

They shouldn't because Nintendo was 3rd party around 1982 for Colecovision, Intellivision and Atari 2600 with games like Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye.  Since the NES they've made unique games with loads of IPs and going 3rd party again would take away their unique quality.  Also their portable division is profitable as is the Wii U division now.  They're on their own schedule so they make complete games that work and don't need huge patches right away.  I think Sony and Microsoft are the ones that need to go 3rd party long before Nintendo returns to where their gaming division started.

Well Microsoft is not making money with XONE, it is not successful on a business point of view. Selling a product under the real price point is not winning a race, its losing it... You need to look at the market with a business point of view, not with gamer goggles. There is no way that a company's shareholders will accept an eternal loosing money cycle or just breaking even. The Ps4 is doing great, making money, but Sony is loosing money. So in one hand you have the XBOX brand not making money and on the other side Sony not making money, that makes your 2 successful next gen consoles constructors not that successful financialy. On the other side you have Nintendo that is now making money with their games and hardware even if it is not that successful in raw numbers of console sold. Tell me now why should they risk going third party on consoles that do not have a garanteed success in the long run when they are making money doing what they do now? Nintendo's next console may be what everyone will want? We don't know, but one things for sure, Nintendo is a money making business more than Sony and XBOX. So the main reason they won't go third party goes with the fact that they are in control of a profitable business because it's not in the hand of a third party console constructor...

It really does just come down to this doesn't it :)

For that matter, the Gamecube was far more successful and profitable than the Dreamcast. And it was far more profitable than the Xbox and was only a little more than a milion units behind the Xbox.

Scanning thread. Not detecting any actually good arguments. Agree with OP.

There are a ton of reasons they should go third-party that are backed by actual numbers and consumer trends, and a lot of reasons why they shouldn't made with sweeping generalizations and blind speculation. I've yet to hear a legitimately good point against it.