The world and business also operated differently back then as well, so some of the things NiN did back then, weren't that big of a deal, at that point in time. The world is a different place today.

Yea, I don't think anyone complained about how Nintendo treated third party companies back in the NES and SNES days except maybe the developers/publishers themselves.  Pretty much zero gamers really gave a shit or even knew how Nintendo treated third party companies.

Perhaps people care now due to lack of third party support but other factors can add to that such as lower spec system or carts instead of disc (carts aren't even a hamper anymore compared to N64 days).  Like you said things are different now and Nintendo has been better at their third party relations (especially how well they embraced indies and changed their bad policies from Wii era such as sales threshold, having to have an office, etc).

I'm going to say this. If you don't want to believe me, that's fine. I'm here to tell the truth and to be done with this subject; hopefully for good. First, my history with Nintendo. Though, technically my first system was an Atari 2600, the 3rd generation of consoles is when I really got into games. That is the generation with the NES and SMS. We are now at the 8th generation. 9th if you count Switch. 

The Atari 2600 was a hand me down from my older brother. My first system that actually belonged to me was the Sega Master System. I got it at Christmas in 1987 or 88. My memory is a little foggy there. Why did I choose the SMS over the wildly popular NES? Well, I always tended not to follow the crowd. I always pretty much went with what I liked, not what my friends liked or what was popular. I'm still that way.

I had started frequenting arcades in the mid 80s. Games like Double Dragon really started getting me into games. These were a large leap ahead of the primitive 2600. Since the great game industry crash of 1984 took place, I hadn't thought about home consoles much. They had become obsolete and I played my brother's Commodore 64. Well, I stumbled across an article in a TV guide for the Christmas buying season about video game consoles. I was intrigued! 

It covered the NES and SMS. I read about both of them and looked at the screenshots. I thought the SMS games looked closer to the arcade games than the NES. I went on graphics over popularity. I have never regretted choosing the SMS. It had great arcade ports of Shinobi, Thunder Blade, Outrun, Space Harrier, and it even had a port of Double Dragon which I got for free with some promotion! My favorite game ever til this day, Phantasy Star was on it too. 

This all being the case, I did not grow up like most American kids that played NES and Mario. The kids that played NES in my generation passed Nintendo down to their kids and taught them to enjoy Nintendo games too. This nostalgic feeling of Nintendo games, and growing up with, them formed in the USA. So there is now a heavy emotional connection with Nintendo here in the US. Because I did not get an NES until many years later, which I returned because I got tired of blowing in the system and my games freezing, I was immune to the Nintendo Nostalgia. Therefore I can look at them from a completely non biased perspective. 

Now don't get me wrong guys. I have an emotional attachment to SMS and would feel the need to defend it too. In fact I stuck with Sega up until the Dreamcast. I stayed loyal until the end. Therefore I understand the attachment that Nostalgia gives. When Sega quit making consoles, I switched to Sony, since they were my second favorite. 

Anyway, I see all the wrongs from the game companies. I have a strong sense of right and wrong. The only real wrongs I've seen for PlayStation are the early abandoning of the Vita and the fairly hi PS2 failure rate. My first PS2 died in days. I got another one and never had a problem again. The Vita thing is bad and I've mentioned that here. Microsoft has done worse. They abandoned the original Xbox too quickly and forced publishers to switch to the 360 too quickly. This is after Microsoft said that the original Xbox had upgradable architecture. I almost bought an Xbox! Then they rushed the 360 out so quickly that it had the highest failure rate of any system ever, to my knowledge. The RROD nightmare. I heard of ppl going through 2 and 3 Xbox 360s and even more. There was a class action lawsuit that forced MS to extend the warrantee on the 360. Lastly, there was the XB1 wrongs. They tried to kill used games, forced the Kinect on ppl and said that it would be an integral part of the XB1. Integral? You guys know how that went. I think Phil Spencer and Aaron Greenberg are lying. I don't have proof, but I don't trust them. And now there is a 1st party game drought that not even the Wii U faced. 

Now, before I list the Nintendo wrongs I want you guys to know that I have bought and highly enjoyed some Nintendo systems. I have owned the SNES, Gameboy Advance SP, GameCube, DS, and a Gameboy player for my GameCube. I especially enjoyed the SNES. Nintendo was at it's prime then, in my opinion. GBA was my second favorite. 

Nintendo's wrongs are around as bad as Microsoft's in my opinion. I have already written off MS and Xbox. I have never owned an Xbox, and I never will. Please read and understand what I'm saying here and quit thinking of me as a hater. I just hate wrongs that are done. Is that not a good thing, guys? 

Okay, here are Nintendo's wrongs. Please don't hate on me. This stuff is the truth. Think past the nostalgia. In the NES days, Nintendo had ruthless policies with 3rd parties, in the USA at least. They would not allow 3rd parties to release their games on the NES if they released their games on any other system. I also think (I can't remember) that they took a large percentage of the game profit. Like higher than usual today. They were and still are highly snobish with their IP. I understand protecting IP, but they push it to an extreme. You can find lots of non profit fan made games for Sega for example. There are many Sonic fan made games and Streets of Rage. Sega seems to have no problem with this. They seem to appreciate their fan's efforts. In fact Sega hired some of them like Christian Whitehead to head up Sonic games like Sonic CD HD and Sonic Mania. Nintendo on the other hand punishes the fans and makes them take down the fan made games and projects the fans worked so hard on. If they were for profit, I'd understand. Furthermore, I just read today that they are not allowing live streams of gameplay. Why? 

I watched a video or two about how Nintendo sends free games to video reviewers. There is a catch. They will only keep sending the games and keep you as a Nintendo partner if you give their games good reviews. So if someone thought Breath of the Wild was only a 5 out of 10, for example, they could terminate the partnership even if the reviewer was giving their honest opinions. This is how  it was explained. If true, that is corrupt guys! I don't see why anybody would just up and kill their Nintendo free games coming to give a mediocre score. 

Oh to Virtual Console. I thought it was a great idea! I really like retro games. It was going so well at 3 VC games a week on average on Wii. Then support suddenly started dwindling. 1 game a week. No game some weeks, then months. What a waste of great potential! Now VC is barely supported on any Nintendo System and there may be no VC on Switch.

Now are the recent things. Switch peripherals are ridiculously priced. Their poor support of Wii U is apparent. They abandoned it too early at 4 years, in my opinion. I think any system should be supported for 5 years at a minimum. Even the Vita is still going to some extent. The reason that the Wii U had so few games in the last year is obvious to me. Notice how the Switch has hit game after game coming? I think Nintendo neglected Wii U for Switch development. Yes, this has worked in Nintendo's favor. It was the right business decision, but is it right for the 13 to 14 million Wii U owners? I don't think it is. I think business and morals can go hand in hand. Couldn't Splatoon 2 and Mario Oddeysey have Wii U releases and keep Wii U owners supported for a 5th year? 

Just a day or two ago, I read that the Wii store will be abandoned in early 2019. For some odd reason they will not allow any more Wii points to be added after late March, 2018. What is the point of keeping the store open til 2019 if you can't add any money many months before? I had planned on getting a used Wii U and slowly purchasing Virtual Console Wii titles for many systems. They are kind of high priced and would take much more than March of next year for me to be able to buy all the games. After the Wii, there were only Nintendo VC games supported. I want classic Sega Genesis, SMS, Neo Geo, and Turbo Grafx 16 games. I don't they should close it at all. At least not for a long time. There are around 115 million combined Wii and Wii U owners that could still purchase games for years. This also may send a signal for Sony and MS to abandon old stores too. I'm still slowly purchasing PS1 classics for my PS3. 

I I don't hate Nintendo, just dislike a lot of what they are doing. They seem too greedy even for a corporation. Why can't fans make games or live Stream them? Why do they tend not to drop game prices like other companies do? Why does a pro controller cost you a paycheck? OK I'm over stating that. But you get the point. I feel like they are taking advantage of your nostalgia instead of rewarding you guys that are fans. I feel that they are attempting to write some wrongs like rereleasing the NES mini and releasing more of the SNES mini, but they have a long way to go. 

In conclusion, I'm not the hater you guys think I am. I'm not lying about it. I am older, and I have the maturity to research and see what they are doing behind the scenes without the nostalgia factor. I care about other ppl. That's why I don't call out individuals and attack them. I don't want any corporation to take advantage of me or you. If Sony starts trying to rob us blind, I will call them out. If they shut down the store on PS3, I will be quite upset. They don't really have PS1 classics on PS4 like PS3. That is a third Sony wrong that I forgot to mention. Thanks for reading. 

IE No one else but like your closest pals get to actually play/experience it, no problem. lol

Honestly, Nintendo's attitude towards fan games is stone age at best. For one thing, almost no fan game is EVER going to even remotely dent or damage the sales of actual, official Nintendo release games, or hurt their bottom line, ever. And for all the talk "protecting their IPs", that honestly isn't a threat from fan-games either. They are what they are: homages and works of love for the franchises their based on. Nothing more, nothing less.

For another, quite frankly, Nintendo SHOULD have just arranged to publish AM2R as their "official" Metroid 2 remake, because it is a brilliant work (especially for just one guy doing it), and it's development cost them zero cents, yet officially publishing it on 3DS and Switch eShop would make them pure profit. Hell, even do a physical release, whatever. The point being, someone had already MADE a great Metroid 2 remake, far BETTER in fact than the "meh" 2.5D affair Mercury Steam made, it would have cost Nintendo almost nothing to produce as it was already finished, the guy who made it could have gotten some recognition and $$$, and Nintendo fans would be happy because they'd be getting a GREAT Metroid 2 remake.

That's sone strange logic. By that definition, the company that created the Ouya is more of a "true gaming company" than anyone else. Was Nintendo less of a gaming company when they partially owned the Seattle Mariners? I've heard many arguments on this site that Nintendo does thing they way they do is because they are a "toy company" above anything else, since that is their heritage and their roots. Remember, Nintendo is over 125 years old, and has only been making video game products for 40 or so years... and now we're going to call them a "true gaming company"? So which is it? Are they a toy company, or a game company, or does it change depending on how it suits the argument people are making?

Beeing unbiased is somthing to be proud of.