Agree 100%.

Nintendo even gets to shave training budgets compared to competitors by making their own hardware; most other companies have to react to what the console manufacturers do. Nintendo's internal dev teams know years in advance. They probably even had input on them.

It's not just the explicit costs keeping Nintendo in the console biz.

It's kinda funny reading these Threads, watching people debating about "Nintendo will go Third Party" and partly signed Nintendos fate. But, non of us know what's going on behind closed curtains. Nintendo made a lot of money with the Wii, the DS and yes, also the 3DS after a slow start. Everyone is bragging about the Wii U. Most likely, the Wii U won't sell any better compared to the GameCube. It's sad not because of the Sales (well kinda) but more because the Wii U is a great System. After Smash Bros. the Wii U received another Drought when it comes to Games.

But I'm kinda wondering. All these "Nintendo will/maybe go Third Party" Threads. But will Microsoft release another Console after the Xbox One? The System is dead in Japan, not relevant in Europe like the 360. Is it enough for Microsoft to be relevant just on the US Market? I know this Threads is about Nintendo, but, talking about irrelevant Themes, we should talk also about other Companies. Also: Will my beloved Vita find a successor? We simply can't answer all these questions and I have to admit, it's pretty annoying to see all these Threads because the Debate is always the same.

We should ask Iwata...I think he disagrees with that!

Who gurantees that mario kart would sell on ps/xbox as much as is needed  to outdo the profits of being on it own hardware,which means not sharing the money!

Come on,only gta,gt and call of duty sell more than 10m on playstation,as for xbox,xbox360 great days passed,halo 5 might to do.10m all the other major games will be at 5-6m and this is extremely generous,it's actually double/triple the most games of original xbox(I mean the fuck,gta v is stuck at 2m and call of duty at 4m without showing signs of dramatic growth) i.e less than what mk8 will sell on wii u,why mario kart a nintendo game would sell 10-15m on both when the most games with the xbox/sony factor even not come close to that(Particularly for xbone!)...

Why go third party and share the money when you have a very good and in some cases impressive attach rate and some of your games are same or close or not that far away to games on a way bigger installbase,also risking to lose those who buys it on your hardware?Sorry but mainly xbox doesn't help your suggestions,you don't talk about xbox360!Compare the top games(At least the mario ones) of wiiu with the top of xbone games...

No from Me again...Sorry!If Mario kart 8 sell 10m on a 20m userbase,what should sell on xbox and ps to exceed the profits?Not sure,if it could as much as is  needed...

Can you gurantee me that mario kart will sell as much as is needed?

You haven't convinced me of such. Their games sell pretty well on a console with under 10 million sales, and would presumably sell great on a console with 30 million. 30% more sales is not the amount needed for a huge increase in profits, it's the amount needed to break even on going third-party. A ten-million seller would have to sell at least 15 million to justify the shift. And they would lose the potential of hitting it big with a Wii-like (or even NES-like) success. Giving up the control they have over their ecosystem and the possibility of reasonably popular hardware is a risky endeavor.

Interesting read, I'll be tagging this.

Iwata talked about how it's hard to port from Wii to 3DS and 3DS to Wii U due to the completely different architectures. Going forward, they want to adequately "absorb" the Wii U architecture, while not necessarily being the exact same, for their next devices in order to have a successful transition from generation to generation similar to how they were able to have a successful transition from Gamecube to Wii.

Based on that, I believe it will be much easier for Nintendo to port/scale titles to/from their next generation devices without having to make significant downgrades. Basically u could have a handheld that's somewhere between Xbox 360 & Wii U in terms of performance that plays games at 720p and the console version is 3 times more powerful that plays those games at 1080p with some extra graphical effects. Depending on the individual title, games could be made with the console in mind and downscaled to the handheld or vice versa.

I think a scenario like this is plausible and either device could probably cost about $249.99 at a profit at launch.

The attach rate off their games would scale even if the console sold 30 million. I know Mario Kart 8 has like a 50% attach rate to the Wii U, but it wouldn't have sold 15 million if the Wii U had sold 30 million. How many 10 million sellers do Nintendo have (for home console)? I can't think of any. I can think of plenty that could be if they released them on more platforms.

The question is, are people too polarized to buy Nintendo games on a competing console? I know this isn't like the old console wars but I don't think...well Mario Kart might be able to break the barrier you might be right about that.

The console you've described there is the Gamecube, which launched for $199 dropping massively in price later (i.e. cheap), had a decent amount of 3rd party support and had some of the best Nintendo games ever made. GC sold a total of about 22 million. It was also a console without any gimmicks.

The point is, no matter how cheap Nintendo makes a console, there is only a finite amount of die hard Nintendo fans in the world (topping off at about ~20 million atm) who would consider buying a console only to play 2-3 good games per year. Most people, even if the console was $200 at launch would just spend that towards one of the bigger consoles which has substantially more amount of games they want to play.

Interestingly enough, if you look at the sales of N64 to GC to Wii U (not takin the Wii into account since it targeted a very different market), you will see that there is a definite sales decline in each successive console, meaning that the number of die hard Nintendo fans willing to buy a console just to play Nintendo games is decreasing. At this rate Nintendo will have a hard time ever reaching GC like sales even with a cheap no nonsense console with good 1st party games. The only way they get massive sales is by making another Wii and targeting an audience outside of the die hard Nintendo fans with games like Wii Sports. But that kind of blue ocean strategy is very hit or miss compared to Sony/MS, who always have a massive install base of current and future fans who are willing to buy their next console when it comes out due to the large number of games on there by both 1st and 3rd parties.

Also, I don't think if Nintendo went 3rd party the die hard Nintendo fans would stop playing Nintendo games. They would just buy one of the other 2 consoles and keep playing them. So sales to a first order approximation should at least remain the same in worst case scenario. But in reality now a LOT more people would have access to these games and hence they would sell much more, especially the more well known franchises like Mario and Zelda.

I'm not saying Mario Kart would sell 10 million on only Playstation or only Xbox, I'm saying it would sell 10 million + on all platforms combine. And there's plenty of franchises that can pull of that (or come close to it), and those franchises aren't as big as Mario Kart.