Splatoon was a really successful new IP by Nintendo. I know my little cousins rave about it. They also love Pokemon just as much as I did in 1999. Which is hilarious because everyone was <i></i>certain<i></i> it was just a weird fad ala beanie babies. But nope, Nintendo knew how to roll with the inertia and the franchise is bigger than ever.
I think Nintendo is doing just fine. They're definitely a conservative company but they know what they're doing.<p>They've been in the gaming industry since the 19th Century.
As a parent who has the old nintendo gamer nostalgia, let me just say that I'm quite happy that I can buy my son Mario Kart for the 3DS and not have to deal with him asking what a "faggot" is.<p>Yes, Nintendo dragged their feet with online play and hasn't been as adventurous as they could be, but I'm quite happy about how they've kept focus on the fun and made an effort to keep the horrifying sides of gamer culture out of their games.
I can't comment on the marketing situation, but as a parent I'm very glad there is a platform that is focused on fun and playability rather than graphics performance.<p>I hope they are around for a very long time.
I'm glad Nintendo still exists. It allows me to buy games for my kids. If all we had was Xbox and Playstation, the main source of kid friendly games would be on mobile.<p>Yes I know Skylanders and Disney Infinity are huge, but I don't want to pay more in plastic toys than I do for games and hardware.
I think the smartest thing Nintendo could do would be to release all the old games for IOS and Android...<p>For the majority of people who don't want to invest more than a few minutes in a game before it becomes fun, 2D side-scrollers are a fantastic approach to game design.