The same can be said of Nintendo.

You could argue Sony and MS have both of these things.

I don't think Nintendo necessarily needs to beat the PS4 ... if NX (as unified platform) can successfully outsell the XBox One while being a reasonably decent platform for third parties ... that is a reasonable goal.

Maybe MS kinda back pedals out of the business in that case. The goal with NX should be to push Microsoft down into third place while successfully unifying Nintendo's two platform lines. If it can do more than that then that's just icing on the cake. 

They need to be able to combine their portable userbase (which is still decent) with the major third party games on that said platform. 

there is a great point to be made that Nintendo still differentiates themselves STRONGLY from computers and and computer gaming 

the reality is that through the last few years PC gaming and Xbox/Playstation have been sort of heading for a collision course, especially as PC gaming gains traction

things like the capabililty of streaming PC games through the TV are making this even so more. also Microsoft pushing to sort of collide their Xbox brand with Windows in a way (multimedia)

Nintendo struggled with the Wii U but their games and IPs are still the most unique. we have a lot of third parties doing the same thing as each other and frankly Microsoft and Sony don't have a lot of unique gaming series. I mean what does Sony have? Gran Turismo?  a lot of mistakenly label things like Ratchet / Clank and Crash Bandicoot as Sony IP's when I believe they belong to Universal or Activision

if Nintendo makes a solid dedicated video game console they remain the most unique in comparison to PC gaming becuase of their brands. they need to stop with the gimmicky stuff

in the end not a lot is differeniating Xbox/Playstation from PC gaming at this point

I do think Nintendo could be the sole holdout gaming console in the future if they just simply focus on keeping their tech as up to date as possible and stop going in too gimicky directions

when you have the likes of Zelda, Mario, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, etc.- you don't NEED to go for gimmicks

Nintendo is pretty much the only totally unique experience in gaming at this point and it will likely remain that way. if you play Call of Duty on the computer or on an Xbox its just not THAT different

All I'm going to say is comparing a 2013 Ps3 game to a 2016 in beta game is fallacious. Games visual improve as the gen goes on. You should  compare 2008 Ps3 and 360 games to 2016 ones, and you will see there is difference. The difference isn't as sharp as from between previous generation but it is there. Furthermore, there are improvements besides graphics, like better AI for example.

If we're going on critical success, Nintendo has already proven this gen that they do infact have high quality games on par or better than anything this industry is putting out right now. 

Note how you said "critical success". That paints a very different picture to the real world ...

There's plenty of "crtically successful" games that have lost millions and millions of dollars that were bought by relatively few people, and never made the platform it was on more interesting to the average gamer.

Nintendo needs to beat Microsoft, having three console manufacturers is just not sustainable, it forces the third manufacturer to have to rely on home-run miracles (like the Wiimote), and you can't realistically run your business assuming you can pull one of those out of your back pocket every few years without fail. It's asking too much of your R&D, it's hard enough to make great games, but creating hardware gimmicks that become huge break out crazes on top of that is asking the impossible. 

Playstation is Playstation, that's fine, Nintendo could still carve out a very profitable spot but they need ideally to be at no.2. Ideally actually for Nintendo is that NX beats the XB1 into submission so much so that MS just goes away and focuses on PC games again.

Europe needs to be a strong focus for Nintendo with the NX. If they can do well in Europe, that will likely bring XBox to its knees because its really only been able to gain traction in one market. 

The two least graphical are the best!!