My argument is one of software, though. People keep saying Nintendo would be a successful publisher by putting their software on other consoles, but people like Hideki Konno have multiple responsibilities on OS design, hardware design, and games like Mario Kart. Are they going to keep him on board to make Mario Kart PS4? Is he going to be satisfied just doing that and not leave to make his own studio? How much downsizing will they have to do? How much of their talent do they keep?
They don't have to fire anyone! Everyone can make games on the glorious PS4. Even the hardware guys.
Especially the hardware guys.
Based Cerny will surely give them a sweetheart deal on the royalty rate, and when EA or Activision comes knocking asking for a similar sweetheart deal he will just say, "Come on guys, it's Nintendo" and they'll all nod their heads and agree and wonder what they were thinking, of course it's Nintendo and they deserve a better deal than they are getting.
Plus as an added incentive Sony will bow out of the handheld hardware race and Iwata will wipe his brow, thinking,
whew, we dodged a bullet there.
Miyamoto will work on the best 3D Mario of all time, saying to the press "Thankfully Sony has a great internet service which allows me to work on the games I've always wanted to work on. When I first created Mario, I thought that maybe 16x16 pixels were enough, but now I know that I truly needed 8GB GDDR5 RAM to render Mario in the way I imagined in my mind." Iwata will do an "Iwata Asks" where every designer and engineer says they cried with joy when they were freed from the shackles of working on "shit hardware." Iwata will say, "But you designed the hardware, didn't you?" and they will nod and say, "I am ashamed to say so, but yes. We were really holding ourselves back!" and Iwata will laugh.
When it comes time to decide which games to make, Nintendo will say, "Sure, I know Mario would sell millions, but Sony really needs help getting this console into a wider audience. Let's try out this wacky 'Friend Collecting' game, and really push to that audience. It will help out Good Guy Sony a bunch, and if it fails, well, at least we tried. The #1 thing is that we support the PS4 as though it were our own hardware."
Nintendo will sell a billion copies of the next Zelda game, with a gruff bearded Link leading a young Zelda (mocapped by Ellen Page) out of a ruined Hyrule and into a new land. Metroid will score only an 85 on Metacritic but will sell 10 million copies, with a seemingly endless parade of people coming out and saying they always wanted to play Metroid but never had the chance because it was on Nintendo hardware.
Nintendo will make more games than ever, in all kinds, including all your favorite long dormant IPs like F-Zero and StarTropics and Ice Climbers. Itoi will come back to work on Mother 4 because he always secretly wanted to make a game on better hardware, as he believes a great story can only be told on the best hardware that can be packaged into a $399 retail console.