But there's not much they can do about the 3rd parties. Its like you have a Birthday party and its a given that your close friends and your family are going to be there, but as for everyone else, you can send the invites but they have no obligation to attend. So you might end up with a really lame party, but what the hell can you do?
The thing is that Sony, MS and Nintendo don't offer the same type of birthday party. Sony and MS rent out a hall and have music and lots of food and drinks. It's very flexible and allows for anyone to enjoy themselves. Show up, grab a drink and have a good time. Nintendo is like one of those party hosts that has everything planned out meticulously and it's all stuff that they would find interesting but other people might not. So instead of a hall with dancing, food and drinks, it's held in Nintendo's basement and the party will consist of everyone cooking their own crepes and listening to all of Pink Floyd's albums in their entirety in order of release. It's super fun if that fits your very specific tastes but totally lame if it doesn't.
Nintendo is hosting a party that is going to be lame to begin with. That is the problem. That's why it is mostly their own fault. They host a party that caters specifically to themselves but is of little interest to everyone else.
It's ironic that a company that is so focused on making "everyone games" that everyone could like makes virtually no effort in designing hardware that every developer could like. I mean the correct approach is right in their face at all times.
So no matter what Nintendo does they can't win with you, because even if they do everything you feel they should you've already moved on to the PS3 and they've basically lost you for good.
No, that's not true at all. I'm annoyed that with the Wii that I felt I eventually had to buy another console. I like the PS3 but I really like Nintendo's first party games. The third party situation just eventually got to me and I couldn't take it anymore. Plus I don't like the direction Nintendo has gone in with this casual stuff. I feel it has negatively affected the quality of their games, particularly the controls.
I see myself as a fan of what Nintendo was. It's like I'm still a fan but they've changed in a way that pushes me out. I don't want that. Frankly it sucks. But if they got their **** together I'd be right back in a second. I WANT to be a fan but that doesn't mean I blindy tolerate everything. I want them to make it worthwhile for me to be a fan. Being the casual shovelware console that is completely segregated from gaming culture ain't what I'm interested in. Essentially Nintendo has made a console that I think just blantantly SUCKS. It has a few great games but overall I really don't like it and will not remember it fondly.
But Nintendo is very capable of making a great console and that's what I would like them to do. It's too late with the Wii. It was too late years ago. But I would love it if they could make the Wii 2 a great console. But that means having hardware that can compete with the other current systems, and designing control schemes entirely around what works BEST, and making the best games they can and not lazy glorified mini-game comps that sucker in casuals that don't know better. I feel like the Wii gets almost EVERYTHING wrong in regards to the goal of making great videogames. Great videogames exist on the Wii despite it, not at all because of it. The Wii seems like a con, from its repacked last gen hardware, to its gimmicky controller, to it's glorified tech demo Wii Series games. It's like Nintendo's goal was "how can we release a new console without actually going to the trouble of making a new console and still get people to buy it?"