Back when the Gamecube was about a year off Nintendo had a reputation, particularly among Playstation fans, as being a kiddy company. I hated that and I felt it was unfair. The N64's weak third party support, which at the time I thought was entirely because of its use of cartridges, contributed to that perception because most of the notable N64 games were first party and Nintendo tended to have more 'E' rated games than 'M'. Of course even that didn't seem fair because Rare had provided titles like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Conker and although they received an 'E' rating the Zelda games didn't come across as being aimed at children. Sony had done a good marketing job in painting Nintendo as a kiddy company and their fans, which was pretty much everyone who wasn't a Nintendo fan, bought into it. Every fanbase has its braindead stooges that regurgitate company line as their own opinion. Nintendo had ones that said crap like "quality over quantity" and Sony has the "Nintendo is kiddy" crowd.
I defended Nintendo back then but eventually I couldn't as they seemingly went out of their way to play up to whatever negative image their detractors painted them with. When Ubisoft says that Nintendo gamers don't buy Assassin's Creed and the underlying message is "Nintendo is kiddy" or even worse "Nintendo is casual" (yes, Nintendo somehow found a way to create an even worse image for themselves) I don't disagree with them. I don't feel like I'm part of Nintendo's fanbase anymore. Years of Nintendo's goofy self-sabotage has raised a new generation of Nintendo fan that doesn't buy third party games and doesn't buy mature games because why would they? Nintendo offers slim pickings in those categories so if you're the age I was when the Gamecube came out why would you ever have become a Nintendo fan in the first place if third party games and mature games mattered to you? I'm a geezer clinging to this 8/16 bit image of Nintendo that is now so old that the years of crap third party support now exceeds the amount of years where Nintendo had good third party support. Enough time has gone by that Nintendo has created a fanbase of loyalists that are primarily only interested in Nintendo's own games and those that want more buy two consoles and use their Nintendo machine primarily as a way to get the first party games. A Nintendo console is like HBO, this extra cost that gets you access to exclusive content. A Wii U owner either doesn't give a **** about Ubisoft's mature games or they own another console that they would rather play it on.
It all makes sense. Most of the Nintendo fans of my age group that have the same values as me would have left Nintendo, at least as their sole console, years ago after getting sick of the same nonsense. I'm this moron that didn't notice that everyone else left and the room is now full of strangers I don't fit in with. Hell, *I'm* the type with two consoles now. I bought a PS3 during the Wii era. If I was interested in Assassin's Creed I would have bought it on the PS3 because the Nintendo versions of games are always compromised in some way. Last gen I switched to someone that only buys first party titles on Nintendo consoles and I didn't even notice it. I think it's because my desire is to only have to buy a Nintendo console so last gen was a temporary arrangement out of necessity. But then there might be a lot of fans like that but we're still not buying non-exclusives on our Nintendo console, though those are exactly the games we need to be there to switch back to just one console.
Nintendo talks about being an "everyone" company. Well if a major third party is saying "Nintendo customers don’t buy X" then they're not an "everyone" company. They're either a company serving a specific niche of customers and should be upfront about that or they need to change to become a truly "everyone" company.