Developers rarely keep as large a portion of their profits as Nintendo does (owning the content and means of distribution). "Pokemon GO" has certainly given them something to think about if the NX goes poorly.

I honestly think all of this publicity, plus a new Zelda, is going to make for a huge NX launch. If the system is affordable, Nintendo will clear the Wii U numbers in fairly short order. If the system itself is modestly profitable, the software profits will be "Nintendo like", as the new brass is so fond of saying.

It would be a easy way to make more money, but by doing this, their hardware will basically become non-existent so it may not work out so well

Would Pikmin, Kirby, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, and Xenoblade stand out if they're multiplats? Remember, Nintendo casts a different image compared to the other two. Plus, if they go third party, they would have less reason to make these games or revive other franchises like F-Zero, Kid Icarus, etc. Yes Nintendo has been criticized for not utilizing other franchises enough, but would that improve if they go third party? I'm not sure.

I think Mario, Mario Kart, Smash, and Zelda would see an uptick in sales if they were multiplat, but I'm not so sure about their other IP.

I've said it before but I think Nintendo now has a stronger position, if Nintendo wants to do something like this, I think they'd rather pick one of the two (Sony or MS) to ally with and the price for that support would be steep.

I'd ask for a lot. 30% of third party licensing fees, ability to make their own Nintendo branded XBox or Playstation model, free advertising, input into all future hardware designs, and other perks ... and then I'd sit back and watch the two of them try to outbid each other.

IMO Microsoft would bite on that deal right now no questions asked, so you offer it to Sony as well and pit the two of them together and you got a bidding war on your hands. 

But not before seeing how the NX goes.

I'd also consider an alliance with Google or Apple (do Sony or MS want any piece of competing against those two?) ... likely those two now see Nintendo in a new light. Nintendo has a lot of options now, they don't need to grovel at anyone's feet like Sega did. 

So you think fans of Nintendo games wouldn't buy any game made by Nintendo if they aren't released on Nintendo hardware?

Well, if we are talking about Nintendo fans they may as well get the profits from making hardware too. The whole point is would making software only generate more profit than they make now with no middleman and hardware sales as well. And even then, would it be worth sacrificing the creative freedom to add new ways to play and implement them with their own IP for more money (if making more money was even the case by going third party).

Nintendo will NOT make more from going third party than they are capable of from selling their own hardware and accessories. It just won't happen.

Nintendo ALWAYS makes money off of consoles and accessories sold. the same cannot be said about their other competitors.

Its a slipper slope to even consider going that route. Some of Nintendo's biggest IPs are built around them having the power and control of the systems that the games are played on. Pokemon on handheld, Mario on home console- as soon as you rely on another company's hardware you limit what you can do with your software creatively.

Bad business decision to leave the hardware market, that's for sure. And why all the talk about Nintendo doing that? they have a successful handheld and they have obvious reason why their most recent home console failed, it shouldn't be a hard fix. People should be asked why Microsoft is still in the home console market considering they basically never make any money from it :L

Yeah, they can just stick to handhelds if things get worse for them, but why should they stop making consoles? They made 2 bad consoles at most. That's no reason to just suddenly quit doing it. My point of mentioning the Wii is just a plus side on why they should stick to making consoles. If they can get back to having success with their consoles, why quit? Also, it's Nintendo's experimenting that brought them the big success of the DS and Wii, so that's why they keep experimenting, seeing what works and doesn't work. It's not just about them making games, but how to make the most enjoyable and creative ones.

As pointed out by those saying Nintendo loses 30% of Pokemon Go money to Apple, there is a great value in being a platform holder. If Nintendo is smart, they'll use mobile to push titles like Go (cheap, social) to as many users as possible. These titles would then be used to push consumers to their hardware platforms and core titles. Core consumers are fewer, but consume far more software. A perfect world for Nintendo would have mobile revenue, hardware revenue, 1st party software revenue and royalty revenue from third parties on their platforms. There's no reason for them not to strive for this.

Is it? What about the money they make from hardware? And do you all seriously think they would release the same quality content if they were making games to play everywhere? The reason they are so good is because they are committed to only one (or two) devices. And they make those games to sell those devices. If they don't have devices to sell, they will only produce crap like the new Metroid or the new Paper Mario.