Conspiracy Theory: Is the World Out to Get Nintendo?

The following is an opinion piece and will most naturally offend anyone with even the slightest bias against Nintendo from recent events. Call me a fanboy, call me whatever you need to rationalize your position, this is my stance on the subject title.

After the very disappointing cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3, a project that wasn't even greenlit yet, and the less-than-stellar sales of the Nintendo 3DS, critics and fans are not hesitant to doom Nintendo. You can't frequent a message board or internet forum without people sending doom and gloom to the Nintendo 3DS. Already people call it a failure? Really, now? Jumping the gun, wouldn't you say, or do these people actually want Nintendo to fail? It's not that crazy of an idea to imagine actually.

With the Wii Nintendo introduced an entirely new faction of non-gamers to gamers, yet the usually whiny group known as the "hardcore" stated that Nintendo "turned their back" on them. If turning their back is releasing a console 2D Mario, two 3D Marios, a new Zelda, revived classics like Punch-Out! and Sin and Punishment (the original sold in the thousands, so why did Nintendo even bother? Oh, that's right. For their fans.), revived Donkey Kong Country, and put out new Kirby games, then yes, they turned their back on their fans. Let's face it. The "hardcore" is not happy unless 100% attention is focused on them. They're manchildren-- plain and simple. I imagine a fat, sedentary nerd is reading this article, raging at these words. Proves my point. However, when Microsoft literally abandons the core for non-gamers with Kinect, little of these "hardcore" gamers bat an eye. Funny how that works.

A new Donkey Kong Country isn't good enough for some people.
They need attention 24/7 like crying little babies.

Then there's the whole "Operation: Rainfall" project that was doomed to fail. Companies are not your friend. If they bend over backwards for you, you will then take it as carte blanche to repeatedly bug them for any and every game under the sun. Face it-- Xenoblade and The Last Story are not coming out to the Americas... yet or at all. You have to wonder after the many temper tantrums and fits that the "hardcore" had over this whether they're still bitter and using this as fuel for hatred of Nintendo-- wanting them to fail. Oh, it was SO funny when Wii Play: Motion and The Malgrave Incident didn't sell up to snuff. "Screw you, Nintendo!" Yeah, it's funny when small companies' games don't sell. Small companies (like Big Fish Games in the case of The Malgrave Incident) made those games and they were published by Nintendo. Who knows if they'll stay open now that their games failed to light up the charts?

"Manchildren? Not my problem."

The 3DS situation is just sad. Fans are quick to call it a failure and damning it to Hell. However, the original DS had even less content and was in far more serious trouble and we all know how that situation unfolded against the PSP, the behemoth that was supposed to crush it. Now the Vita is set to crush the 3DS, but the scenarios are different. The Vita is the better deal here, clearly. However, the software is where it mostly matters disregarding how many bells and whistles your machine has.

Already the 3DS is dead and the Vita is champ.
Sound familiar?

A gimmick is not a bad thing. It is a selling point. It separates yourself from your competition. People call the 3DS' glassesless 3D a gimmick like it's a bad thing. It's a selling point much like Nintendo's incredible stable of games. I'm personally looking forward to owning both a Vita and a 3DS whenever I scrap up the money (never). I won't, however, harbor a grudge for a company because they won't translate a game for me or because they put out content for someone other than my core demographic.

Nintendo tried a new strategy with the 3DS and allowed third parties to take the spotlight. They failed (as expected) to take advantage of the situation. They cry when Nintendo outsells their games, and they cry when there's no install base because Nintendo didn't put out any system sellers. Nintendo can't win either way. They can't win with consumers either. The 3DS costs too much, and the lack of games caused from said third parties is really killing the system from having great success. We'll see if Mario Kart, Super Mario 3DS, among others will put the handheld in a better light come this fall. All I know is this hatred for Nintendo is pathetic, whether it comes from the Call of Duty all-I-want-to-do-is-play-rehashed-shooters crowd or the bitter and frustrated "hardcore".