Has anyone who has criticized Nintendo for not vigorously pursuing the hardcore gaming audience stopped to think what would happen if they actually did that?

Maybe it would make certain fanboyss happier, but it would also further sub-divide the market creating less opportunity for the PS3 and 360. Is this what people really want? Three systems all competing for the same limited audience? That seems like a recipe for financial disaster.

Nintendo haven't really changed their Gamecube strategy that much regarding "hardcore" gamers. It's just that they are now pursuing the expanded market as well. The company has expanded itself. They have more money so they can have more staff to produce all those games. I think Nintendo fanboys are angry because they're not the center of attention anymore like the elder kid that get jealous when he/she gets a brother or sister.

It would have been a repeat of last generation but without the PS3 being able to break away from the pack due to it's pricetag. And a lot of smaller developers would have been going out of business or PS2 would be getting a lot of exclusives.

I think it'd be a whole lot more boring is what I think.

Best case scenario, they would be in a three way struggle with Sony and Microsoft for the market with no clear winner.

Far more likely they would have sold to the same 20 million people (not accounting for likely attrition) who bought the Gamecube.

Nintendo simply wouldn't have been equiped to go toe to toe with Microsoft or Sony on a purely hardcore front at the start of this generation, they lost support of too many developers over the last 2 gens.

In all honesty, they've released far more 'hardcore' games (I hate that word, by the way) in the last two years for the Wii than:

1. They did at this point in the Gamecube's life cycle
2. The total amount of games many publishers have made this entire generation.

True, but it wouldn't hurt them to buy some western developers to make more western friendly games.The best business plan is to attack both sides equally to futher improve profits and set your self up in the next generation as the market share winner in the blue ocean market and at a respectable position in the red ocean market as well.

Nintendo has released at least as many "hardcore" titles, as they have been doing in the past. Just because they added something to their line-up, does not take anything away from that, that's logic. I can only see you as dumb, if you feel otherwise.

Nintendo doesn't have the billions of excess cash that Sony and Microsoft do.  Yes, they've made a couple of billion on the Wii and DS, but that isn't money they can just toss around willy-nilly.  It's not like they've bought a ton of Japanese developers, either--the only one I can think of is Monolith Soft, and that's more of a controlling share than a buyout.

I dont blame them for going after the "casual" market, they made the gc awesome for core gamers last gen but most gamers lashed them and went with ps2. The ps2 was a rubbish system that was not that powerful and hard to program for. But sony hyped it up and got the user base, which got them third party support.