also like to add that SOny and MS do a LOT more to curry 3rd parties. Whether we call it money hatting or not is irrelevant.

when was the last time a western 3rd party released anything of significance on 3ds? Launch? they dont even do the annual sports games on 3ds.

I really think with a unified platform, Nintendo can be self-sufficient without the absolute need of major western 3rd party support. 100% of Nintendo's support+strong Japanese support+strong indie support+strong kid/family friendly support would give such a device a strong software library, any mainstream western support would be icing on the cake.

ok...that didnt answer my question at all

It's a combination of Nintendo's hardware and their marketing / industry philosophies. Sony and M$ are both willing to push powerful hardware while either barely breaking even or taking losses on said hardware while working in tandem with 3rd parties to prominently feature their software on their consoles.

On the other hand, Nintendo makes hardware that suits Nintendo's purposes and to feature Nintendo software geared toward a (dwindling) audience that mainly cares only about Nintendo products and little else.

The reason Ubi helped, was because they heavily dissed the wii at the beginning (because of the gamecube's success), saw the success and made a HUGE amount of money on Just Dance and raving rabbids. 

After having hated on Nintendo, only to have Nintendo forgive them and make tons of money with them, they were the most supportive and decided to help Nintendo (2 launch exclusives) with nothing in return.

nintendo messed up by being complacent. They should have given Ubi more funding and publicity. Compared to the money that Sony and Microsoft pay, Nintendo wouldn't pay that much, and they would have received more support from a huge publisher

I wasn't trying to answer the question you asked him, but what I said is relevant to what you're discussing. U asked when the last time a western 3rd party developer released a significant title for 3DS, I'm stating that I think with a unified concept the lack of western support is negated by the fact that Nintendo's ecosystem would be full of 100's of games not found on competitors devices making it a viable platform despite the lack of multiplatform releases.

it's really not dwindling nearly to the extent people act like it is. Only if directly compared to Wii/DS are Nintendo hardware/software sales down significantly.

Mario Kart 7+8 has sold significantly more than Mario Kart: Super Circuit+Double Dash.

Smash Bros 3DS+Wii U is on track to sell more than Smash Bros+Melee.

3D Land+3D World are on track to sell similar numbers to Mario 64+Sunshine.

Pokémon X/Y is on track to sell similar to Ruby/Sapphire & Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire have sold similar to Fire Red/Leaf Green.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon has sold more than the original.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe has sold on par with Amazing Mirror.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf has sold more than the N64+GC+Wii versions combined. Even Happy Home Designer which is a spinoff has sold over 3 million.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star has sold more than the original and equel to Thousand Year Door.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is the best selling entry in the franchise.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team has sold similar to Superstar Saga.

Zelda on 3DS+Wii U has sold more than Zelda on GC+GBA.

In terms of hardware GBA+GC did about 100 million while 3DS+Wii U will sell about 80 million. It's a decline but not nearly as bad as many pretend it is.

It's obviously bad but the one positive is their own software sells more with less competition and they can keep the prices high.

Having 3Rd parties come in and steal their audience could be bad. For instance I believe yokai watch is damaging pokemon currently. It would be bad if all their big titles had competition.

So while there's a lot of negatives there's at least 1 positive.

Weaker hardware with a gimmick or two tends to present their own set of problems for Nintendo and they have been doing this for a number of years now, though most 3rd parties have also done less for Nintendo unless Nintendo themselves fund said game or foot the bill for some.

Also if we're talking about "they go where they can make money", I can only scoff at such a notion due to the fact that most big 3rd party studios out there keep inflating their budgets and carving their games up into tiny pieces to try making more money on the fact they keep blowing up their budgets, having to ignore Nintendo somehow counts as a benefit because they don't want to blow their load on a system that won't give them much in returns for their overblown budget.

Have I mentioned that their budgets and overspending are getting sillier by the year?.

That said Nintendo should at least try pushing for more power and making online play much more interactive and viable, keeping it free in my eyes is always going to be better than paying a sub for online play, same as with my main platform, though they could do with dropping the need to tack on some sort of gimmick because those tend to increase the cost of the hw along with forcing devs to adhere to said gimmick which clearly doesn't always produce the best desired results let alone gathering more devs around it.