No company sets out to screw people over (not even Sony o rMS) but don't think that Nintendo won't screw you over for some good money. I'm getting screwed over by Nintendo as well (Still waiting on that SPM release date, not to mention the fact that games cost an extra $30 over here for no reason at all)

However, in general, Nintendo used to have some nasty business practises back when they were the king, but they've since removed the troublemakers and been humbled. You can bet that if Nintendo decides to start screwing people over again now that they're in the dominating position I'm going to boycott them like I have for Sony and Microsoft.

I think the reason why people will be more likely to trust Sony is that they simply don't know what Sony are capable of. 

Nintendo owns.

I know there's precious little I can say about Nintendo that won't sound like pathetic fan worship, but the fact of the matter remains that their new business strategy seems to revolve around the customer and what the customer wants. Sure they want to make money, but I think they've learned from their darker days the price they pay for arrogance.

This board is a perfect example of people only hearing what they want, you can illustrate every facet of Sony's poor decision making to them with proof and they'll still call you a damned liar.

if they focused on what the customer wants we wouldn't have region coded games and friend codes (ironically, two of the very few things that Sony have gotten right)

Nintendo have shown new colours because they used to be the big bad meanie of the block and have since learned that videogame consoles are one area where you can't rely on monoply control to keep you in a good position. I like to believe that people are rewarding Nintendo because they have learned from their mistakes and are looking like treating the customer and business partners with respect, and that customers are punishing Sony because they can't trust them. In reality I'm a cynical bastard and realise that the reason Nintendo are winning is because they have a great product that everyone wants.

This board is one example of people showing blind corporate trust. I won't say no company should be trusted, otherwise you'll never be able to buy anything, and there are some companies that I trust will do the best to help their customers (Google, Nintendo, Sun, Red Hat), and while none of these companies have a perfect track record I can see from their history that they are companies that see that public good will means more to a company than short-term profits (Google has made it their motto, "don't be evil")

I just wish that people would punish companies who treat them like shit. Vote with your wallets, and Sony and MS will be forced to stop screwing you over or go out of business. Unfortunately, MS has been screwing people for 30 years and clearly people are just letting themselves be walked over.

I'm talking about the many varied illegal and unethical tactics Microsoft has used to maintain dominance in their Software division, you know, the division that is keeping gaming afloat. I haven't had any bad experiences with the Xbox mainly because I never owned one ;)

As for Apple, to be honest, I never had any love for them. In fact,I was rather outspoken in terms of their media monopoly. However, I was forced to eat my words when Steve Jobs actually went ahead and allowed thesale of DRM free music on iTunes. If I was able to access the iTunes store on Linux then I would go ahead and buy some ;). While it's not a complete solution, it is a step in the right direction and certainly seems to be one swayed by customer interest rather than profit (since DRM enforces vendor lock-in). 

It never ceases to amaze me when people try and use the whole, "Sony and MS sell their consoles at a loss, so they care about the customer" line. Give me a break. They sell it at a loss because they're limited by prior agreements within their conglomorates as to whom they can outsource production of parts to preventing them from finding the cheapest bidder out of the sea of possible contractors like Nintendo can. One of the biggest contributing factors to the PS3's price is that very little of its parts are outsourced at all. And with both lacking any clue as how to make gaming inovative (aside from turning console gaming more and more into PC gaming) they simply compete the only way they know how by making bigger and ever more graphically outlandish systems that have to be sold at a loss or else the consumer won't buy them. And God forbid a company make a profit of any kind off the console, darn that Nintendo. Because you know, Sony and MS are non-profit charities.