But for two generations, they did try and keep up with their contemporaries.
Wii U would like a word.
What a turnaround!
(My Wii U is collecting dust, though I did enjoy it)
As a huge Nintendo fan who loved his GameCube and Wii and didn't really care that it was just my 'nintendo machine', because I had an Xbox and a pc alongside it.
Somehow I completely missed the WiiU and always assumed it was a peripheral for console that I was already a bit meh about. it fit right in with their other 'accessories' that I never cared about.
Eventually I bought one with a whole bunch of games second-hand...
Like, what did the other 90 million people buy a Switch for? There's nothing else on the console that's worth the trouble, at least up until a few hours ago.
Nintendo kills it with first party exclusives.
The PS2 was the cheapest DVD player that also could play games, but GC could not play DVDs - its games were released on weird mini-DVDs that could store only ~1.4 GB.
Joe Schmoe doesn't know and doesn't care about hardware. Ohled? Gigglehearts? Flame rates? WTF are you talking about, he'll say to you.
What Joe Schmoe does know and does care about is whether the game he's playing is fun. This is where Nintendo focuses their energy.
A successful film director needs to prove their ability to deliver powerful experiences on next-to- no budget at all before anyone puts them in charge of a $150 million dollar blockbuster.