I have to put this to rest. Let me first say that I've been first and foremost a Nintendo fan but I am an avid owner of Playstation products since the PS2, and Xbox since the 360. So I'm not some Nintendo fanboy that thinks Nintendo can do no wrong. They have done wrong, they have made mistakes like any other company. So for me, I have no issue identifying all the crap decisions they've made in terms of past hardware and software.
But however, in recent news, most notable the IGN discussion, the internet has blown up about Nintendo fans and what games they invest in. Comments were made about how Nintendo fans don't buy 3rd party games. I disagree with that, I say that they don't buy western 3rd party games. And of course it goes even deeper than this. Of course games in Nintendo's target demographic, made by western developers, do really well (i.e. Rayman Legends, Minecraft, etc.) But the western 3rd party support that Nintendo has recieved, the games generally don't perform well.
However, I've encountered several people that still believe that the average Nintendo fan buys western 3rd party content. If that were true, I think we'd see those titles perform much better on Nintendo consoles. And of course, we can say that the Nintendo platforms get gimped versions of these games and that's why they don't sell that well, but then the same people will turn around and tout Wii and how several call of duty games sell millions of units. There's like some odd double standard going on here, but more than anything it boils down the the fact that this isn't so black and white. There's a lot that goes into support from a developer, and if a developer recieves a decent enough return to continue supporting a device, especially if the device requires more input due to its lack of modern attributes.
I guess my thing is, Western developers can develop for Nintendo platforms but, has the damage already been done by that point? Are they willing to downgrade their vision to make a game that might not even sell well? There's so much to consider. In the case of DS and Wii, the consoles were so successful that if you put a decent game on either platform, it would give you a nice return and sell rather well. And that's what I think it comes down to. If Nintendo platforms are highly successful, western 3rd parties will take interest and their games might sell well, like Activision and Ubisoft experienced during that golden era of Wii and DS.
Then again, you have to think, take away the success of a console. A console like Gamecube or Wii U for example. Those consoles aren't as successful as other Nintendo platforms. And the western 3rd party sales drop off, very badly on those platforms. Where are all the people who bought call of Duty on Wii right? I thought that they'd support western 3rd parties from Wii to Wii U! You see how this thing is just so twisted as can be and people are making conclusions off of it! It's very confusing to me.
My hypothesis? If Nintendo consoles are successful, than western 3rd parties have a higher chance of selling decent amounts of software. And that's really true with any console the truth be told.
Nintendo fans, do you even care about western 3rd party games like FPS and Sports games? What do you guys think?