In Nintendo's case, you might make the argument that it's their exceptionally good first party software that allowed them to survive those years of not being nu

In Nintendo's case, you might make the argument that it's their exceptionally good first party software that allowed them to survive those years of not being number one. First party software is also the reason (in my opinion) that the Wii was so successful. There were only a handful of titles that were actually good, with the free pack-in (Wii Sports) being arguably the killer app.