Refreshingly honest appraisal of Nintendo's issues in the modern game world and very insightful. Gonna save this one for future reference, great stuff.
I rather like the way Nintendo operates and I'm rather happy they're not chasing the same market as Sony et al.
I like that I can just buy a game pop in the disc and play.
I like that their games are the most polished and accessible in the industry.
I like that their games are varied and whimsical and don't ask me to stab people in the neck.
I like that in their games single-player comes first.
I like that their online experiences have no voice chat.
I like that they don't have invasive DRM.
Basically I like Nintendo just the way it is.
A lot of your bulletpoint list is no different from any other console manufacturer. Both Microsoft and Sony have tons of varied and whimsical games that don't require you to stab someone in the back and they all have very heavily focused single player experience products. The Order is coming out in just a few weeks now, for example, and that has no multiplayer to speak of. But what Sony and Microsoft tend to do better is also mix in OTHER products more often, games Nintendo simply will never touch at all due to their philosophy of game design.
Which means that while Sony and Microsoft have no problem building games like Tearaway and LittleBigPlanet and Knack and Viva Pinata and Banjo and Fable, they also are building games Nintendo won't ever touch like Bloodborne or Halo.
That variety not only is good for the systems potential market impact - greater variety and filling of idiosyncratic niches means more potential to grab gamers - but it's also good for the players, because they have a wider range of output out front.
And because Nintendo's outreach to third parties is so poor, they can't even rely on them to fill in the blanks with the games Nintendo won't touch. Which means that far from being a benefit, the Wii U is simply a wasteland for those products. The system is demonstrably worse off for it, because it's not like it wasn't always getting those Nintendo games... now it's just not getting all these other games with different tones and gameplay whatsoever. They're not gaining something in that exchange, they're
losing something.
It's the same thing with voice chat. In a game that has voice chat, you could just shut it off if you don't like it. It doesn't impact you at all. But voice chat indisputably has wide ranging strategic impact in competitive games. So again the market loses something that wouldn't have impacted you anyway, and competitive gamers leave the Wii U marketplace and go to other pastures, the system sells less, therefore less compelling software
you like ends up coming to the platform. You have to think big picture. These sorts of comments are amazingly shortsighted by any standard.
This following bulletpoint though is just insane frankly though. It just made me think maybe you should value your place as a consumer a bit more:
I like that they don't devalue their games into the ground with endless sales.
Because how in the world does it help you, as a consumer, to have games consistently priced high because Nintendo refuses to be competitive and give gamers price drop values? Do you work for Nintendo? Do you own Nintendo stock? Maybe you do own Nintendo stock and you feel that keeping prices high means the company might be in better shape for your stock returns. But outside of that, I can't imagine a motivation for such a statement. It's like literally someone stabbing themselves in the stomach just because they have a somewhat irrational preference for a particular corporation. It's just weird man!