On the flipside, I do understand what Zenfolder is saying about the "right genre," but I think it's explained in a confusing fashion. Instead of right genre, I'd say Nintendogs has the right audience. Which is to say, any demographic other than males age 16-35 remains almost entirely untapped, even to this day.

As a similar example, consider a toy store that has 10,000 G.I. Joes and exactly one Barbie. Assuming there has been no apocalypse and there are still just as many girls who want to play with toys as there are boys, what is going to happen in that Toy Store? Obviously, the one Barbie will sell like hot cakes, and the G.I. Joes will collectively sell as well, but each individual one will sell much less.

Now, apply that to video games. How many video games fit this description:

1) Are well made, quality products
2) Appeal to girls and young women

I assume you'll agree the list is astonishingly small. The few I can think of are: Nintendogs, The Sims, Spore, Wii Fit, and Bejeweled. Probably a few more I'm not thinking of, but that's about it. And whaddya know? All of the games I've just listed are monster sellers, with each selling well over 10 Million copies each (We don't know for a fact that Bejeweled has, but trust that it has. It's likely in excess of 20 Million now). This is because, despite the fact that there are as many women in the world as men, virtually every game with solid production values is made for men.

Now, apply this general concept to the adults (age 40+) and the elderly, both of which are demographics that are also hugely underserved. Any quality game that appeals to these demographics will sell extremely well, because it has virtually zero competition.

It's all about the killer app, but it's just weird now because the killer app is the app of kids and people who don't really play video games. People I know in RL that talk about the Wii...

My boss who doesn't play video games (he's played a few in the past, diablo, etc)
My coworker who doesn't play video games and in fact hates video games
My girlfriend who hates video games because I play them
Some guy at work in tech mfg, I don't think he's ever been into video games
My girlfriend's friends who all hate video games
My friend's wife who hates video games (they actually bought a wii, but returned it because they never played it. She scolded us previously for playing streets of rage 2 when she was away at target)
My nephew and niece each have a DS and also have a Wii

Oh ya, Ive also heard my girlfriends Mom and come to think about it my Mom talking about it (My mom actually played easy games on GB and Solomon's Key and Wrecking crew on NES)

For me, I'm too old and think standing up and playing games is weird :P.

First, I had Wii games in mind, and I wasn't trying to apply every one of these to every first party game. This was just a list of reasons why Nintendo first party games sell, and it's accurate in that sense.

To resond to number 10, "choice of genres."

I mean that Nintendo's sucessful first party games(most first party Nintendo games) fall into genres that Nintendo fans traditionally like. Like casual games, platformers, and adventure games. Not all companies do that. Sony, for instance, has began focusing heavily on FPS games, not necessarily a traditional genre for Sony fans.

Of course Nintendo does this as well, with games like Captain Rainbow...however like Sony, they have yet to meet with much success with non-traditional 1st party genres on their console. You've got to slowly develop these genres on your console. Like, for instance, if Sony keeps piling FPS games on the PS3, eventually, FPS gamers will start to buy PS3s to play them on.

The perfect example of this is the "casual game genre." Nintendo sees that Wii fans love casual games, so they have now started making more casual games, and they sell a lot. Games that don't follow this trend, don't sell as much.

10. So, sticking with traditional proven seller genres on your console helps your software sell.

Easy, peasy.

Are you serious?

You can pretend that Nintendogs, Brain Training, New Super Mario Bros, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Wii Sports, Wii Play and Wii Fit are all in the same genre if you like, but they are clearly all over the map in terms of gameplay, and by-and-large they aren't being followed up with a torrent of similar games from Nintendo.

"[Nintendo] have yet to meet with much success with non-traditional 1st party genres on their console." That statement is just too much.

Heh, "casual game" genre. Let me name all the genres of games then: Casual Hardcore That's it! Every game is in one of these two genres. Did you know that Zelda is in the same Genre as Mass Effect? That Braid is in the same Genre as Resistance 2: Fall of Man? It's true: they're all in the "hardcore" genre!

One thing that this generation taught me, is that cognitive dissonance is a powerful tool for the mind.
It started with the DS, but since the 2 years of the Wii, the entire gaming industry is falling for it left and right.
At least it's entertaining, like this tread's derailers.

Zen didn't say loyalty though, he said preference.  I'd agree there isn't any real brand loyalty going on, but Nintendo's been able to associate their name with gaming to a lot of folks who don't game on a regular basis.  They may not be determined to buy a Nintendo product when they leave their house, but they certainly know that brand more than any other and when they have it narrowed down to 2 or 3 that Nintendo logo is going to mean a whole lot more than any music publisher logo ever would because of that widespread association.