If a movie studio makes a movie and uses a song from The Rolling Stones musical catalog without paying royalties, you bet your ass Mick Jagger's legal teams will be knocking on their door. Yes there are companies that allow free usage but this is a privilege, not a right. I'd suggest Joe stick to those companies and cross his fingers that those companies don't follow suit.

As for Nintendo hurting itself via this policy, I'm not sure about that. Nintendo stuff can still be put on YT but not without going through Nintendo. This move can generate ad revenue for Nintendo so that might offset losses due to reduced publicity.

You cant be serious.

Only if compared to DS/Wii, which were by far the most successful handheld and console Nintendo has ever released.

NES+Game & Watch-about 100 million hardware, 500 million software

SNES+Gameboy (89-96)=about 100 million hardware, 500 million software

N64+Gameboy (97-03)=about 100 million hardware, 500 million software

GC+Gameboy Advance=about 100 million hardware, 500 million software

Wii+DS=about 250 million hardware, almost 2 billion software

See how Wii/DS aren't really the standard for which we should compare Wii U/3DS?

Wii U+3DS (lifetime estimate)=80-90 million hardware, 400-450 million software

Nintendo this generation will be down 10-20% from their pre-Wii/DS baseline, this is while being the most expensive generation they have ever had and having horrible advertising/marketing (3DS mistaken for DS revision & Wii U mistaken for Wii add-on). If they can fix these problems next generation than it is completely feasible that Nintendo returns to their 100 million hardware & 500 million software baseline.

I dont see why this is your problem? do you work for nintendo or something?

But during this time (NES thru today), the overall gaming market ( for consoles) has grown while Nintendo s base line is in a downward trend (except the Wii and DS)   Depending on weather or not you consider the mobile market  a "handheld"  then the handheld market has grown too-   I can see the argument of calling mobile a handheld or excluding it from being called a handheld-  but either way mobile IS competing w the handheld market 

Who cares if Nintendo sales stay stagnant? 100 million hardware and 500 million software is no number to scoff at. Let's also consider that from fiscal year 1991-2006, Nintendo averaged about $1 billion annually. As long as Nintendo has a large enough install base to sell Nintendo IP to and is making consistant profits than they are fine.

But they have not been making constant profit-  they did for many years but the last 3/4 years they have been losing money and this gneration they won t make it to 100 milion/500 million-      So if they stay at the Wii U/3DS levels they will contine to lose money- if they drop from those levels it will get ugly quick -  I think we both want them to continue to make the quality console and handheld games they always have but if they dont do someting to change the trajectory they have been on they will start putting more resources in other areas, perhaps like mobile or some other areas and even less in the console market/games

I would rather see them invest a bit more of their money to thrive instead of using it to survive -   If they had committed to the type of Wii U possibilties they talked about pre launch, incluinding doing better w 3rd parties, the Wi U could have been amazing and sold far better but they just were not willing to comit the resources to it 

Ur counter points are things I have already touched base on.

3DS+Wii U won't make it to 100/500 million due to being the highest price hardware Nintendo has ever released. Here is the price of 4th/5th/6th gen hardware in the middle of each gen.

1993, SNES-$129.99, Gameboy-$89.99

1998, N64-$129.99, Gameboy Color-$69.99

2003, GC-$99.99, Gameboy Advance-$99.99

Adjusted for inflation, that averages out to about $300 to get both the Nintendo handheld and console.

2015, Wii U-$299.99 New 3DS XL-$199.99, total $500

That along with horrible marketing/advertising can explain why Nintendo will fail to reach the 100/500 million baseline and will instead sell around 80-90/400-450 million.

As for profits, yes Nintendo lost money for 3 years in a row, this also happens to be the first time that Nintendo was selling hardware at a loss for 3 years in a row, is that a coincidence?

Next generation, Nintendo needs to offer lower cost hardware with better marketing/advertising (no more confusion like 3DS being a DS revision & Wii U being a Wii add-on) along with selling at a profit day 1. Of they can do this than their is no reason to believe they can't return to the baseline they held for over 20 years.

They were losing money before the Wii U was released so the higher priced console was not the primary reason for loses-  if they had sold more Wi U s they would have lot more money earlier i its lifetime but made it back on better economies of scale and higher software sales-   right now they are not selling many consoles but the software sales for the Wii U are even worse-   

I agree if they "do better" next time it will surley help but the overwhelming trend has been a losing one-

If Nintenod had faith in the Wii u earlier in its life cycle they would ahve lowered the price more  and sooner that they did

they could still lower it (and may now thaat they are ina new fiscal year) but they just don t seem to have much faith in the console, therefore the market hasn t either

my point is they need to make some fundamental changes in how they approach the next gen,  they need to be willing to invest enough in their own products and they need to start making better longer term decisons and stop the short term menaility-      

Iwata has been telling Investors for several years that they will be making "Nintendo like" profits "next year"   but they have not materialized, nor wil they next year-   

They lost money before Wii U launched because 3DS was sold at a loss from August 2011 to August 2012. I didn't say price had anything to do with losses, I said it had to do with their devices not selling as many units.