If you watch the documentaries with the original developers and CEO they expected the life of the system to be ~2 years. At that point they would refresh with

If you watch the documentaries with the original developers and CEO they expected the life of the system to be ~2 years. At that point they would refresh with maybe 100-200 games total for the system. But they realized they could play a different game and lock competitors out by buying up key components or tying up component makers and keep it going for longer. By the time 83/84 rolled around the mid 70s system was looking and sounding really dated next to a ti99 or c64 (with similar price points). It did not help that former atari devs were starting their own shops and cranking out games too. That 4-8 week cadence and they were blasting games out. Nintendo with its seal of approval was to keep the number of games down and the quality up. But most importantly get in a percentage of every single sale.