how do they do this exactly?
What clued you in? The past 20 years?
Well... let me see. Playstation is known for delivering all kind of experiences, they have japanese games, western games, kids games... you get what I'm saying. They all have different themes and appeal to all kind of people.
Nintendo just relies on the same franchises for the past 25 years, putting Japanese people at the top of their list while leaving the rest of the world with the known franchises. Games that aren't even released outside Japan (lots of them) and strong japanese centric games show that they're not even interested in delivering something different.
I get it: Nintendo is different so is it's community but that's a barrier. The Wii was a lucky shot and they tried it again with the Wii U (even gave the same name - just added U at the end) ... as you can see they're failing. I just hope they wake up.