Says who? Companies lose customers all the time, the point is to gain back a wider market. 

Honestly "hardcore Nintendo dude who's a grown 30 year old man buying Amiibo toys" is not the market Nintendo is most concerned with. 

If NX cannot stop kids from playing smartphone games and opting to go without a Nintendo portable ... then Nintendo is fucked pretty much no matter what. No amount of "loyal" audience is going to be able to sustain their hardware model if their portables continue to see large scale erosion. 

I'm not the one acting in an imaginary world where a fanbase will be pissed for a dual release when the last time that happened nobody was pissed and the franchise saw a rise in sales. Basically, the opposite of your premise.

And it didn't hold. Not even with the next game on the same system (Skyward Sword).

Sales would have been the same or worse for SS. TP being exclusive to GC was not going to make Zelda sales rise, but only goes lower as there will be less exposure to the general public.

Anyone who was interested in Zelda would have got Skyward Sword. Your statement is completely unfounded.

And anyone interested in Zelda HD is going to buy regardless of the console. You just keep proving my point.

When did I say they wouldn't? That's not the basis of my point.

And I think Nintendo is in the works to do that. Not with a new LoZ game (which by and large only appeals to those 30 year olds), but WITH their smartphone games and apps, anime and movies. Market saturation is a big step in what Nintendo needs being they couldn't market anything to save their lives. If everyone knows Mario, and Donkey Kong, and Pikachu, and Link, the need to advertise goes down.

And agreed the handheld business is eroding, so they are unifying the platforms (supposedly). Another great move.

What is it then? That they will be pissed and still buy the game? What's the point of being pissed if people will still going to buy it?

Lots of people know Mario, Pokemon, Donkey Kong ... I don't think that's so much the problem. 

The problem is a lot of people are not willing to pay $200-$300 to play video games based largely around those same 6-7 franchises, not with the other choices they are offered today. 

It's not like that kid buying a PS4 or those kids playing on their tablet don't know who Mario is or that Mario is even fun. I don't think that's the problem. It's not like the Wii and DS were 50 years ago, most people had one or both.