This is a great post, and I would love to hear more opinions from consumers who are actually stuck in the middle like this. It does bring more into perspective about the situation. I do wonder, what's the point of wanting a franchise if you're just going to get the lesser version? Why would you or other consumers still support it?
Well up until the Wii, I bought the version of their sports game that would be released on N64 or Gamecube. They were straight ports and played exactly the same. Even the Gamecube version was excellent and only "lesser" in that it didn't have online functionality.
But it was my preferred choice and allowed me to remain a one console consumer. Since the Wii, I have been forced to buy a secondary console. Actually to think of it it, its not too bad since I am in a financial situation (now) where I can afford more than 1 console, the PS3 doubled as my blu ray player, and it opened me up to far more games which were never released on the Wii.
Ideally I would want a Nintendo console that is at the least on level with the other two, so at worst it gets all the multiplayer games while I can also 1st party Nintendo games. But seeing as how things are going I am going to have to decide between X1 or PS4 as my secondary console, or if things don't improve for the WiiU, my primary console.
Also the statement by EA says "Nintendo consoles". Could just mean handhelds for now. Who knows. If they release a Madden on WiiU this year it better be exactly as good as the PS360 version and then and only then will I buy it.
Fixed.
So, Nintendo won't have access to 10-20% of the market. Which is anyway quite out of their reach due to the fact they are far behind PS4 from power point of view (I still don't know why XB1 should even matter for this market, but probably the marketing will make sure it will).
Why should Nintendo go after this part of the market given their whole console philosophy?
Nintendo's philosophy is to go after as much of the market as possible. With the Wii and WiiU they aren't banking on cornering some niche market. They want as much as possible. They almost had it with the Wii when they attracted the mass majority of casuals, but eventually even with the dominance of that system, most 3rd parties ported down and threw garbage at the system. What Nintendo failed to realize is that most developers, develop DOWN from the most powerful system. And by the end of the life of the Wii, it started losing ground and the WiiU has barely made a dent.
Nintendo also failed to recognize that the casual market is very fickle and will only move on if you fail to amaze them over and over. The Wii amazed them, Kinect did more, and the WiiU failed to do it again so they moved on whether its to the other consoles, tablets, or phones.
Nintendo wants EA, Activision, Ubisoft, and all the other top 3rd party game developers and their top games. It would only help Nintendo to fill the void between their own games. Hell I bet they banked on the 3rd parties flocking to them after the Wii and with the 1 year advance with the WiiU. It didn't happen. They are completely delusional if they don't realize why or how they ended up in this situation. At some point while they were at the top with the Wii, when they had caught up, they needed to say to themselves "OK we made it, we are here, not lets strike!" Meaning using the revenues you made with with the Wii and the handhelds to produce a very powerful system which would attract ALL- casuals, core gamers, and most importantly the developers who are always sitting out Nintendo consoles.
