I'd argue that the weak hardware on their consoles is exactly what the consumers want. Weak hardware lets them focus on making the equipment rugged while still

I'd argue that the weak hardware on their consoles is exactly what the consumers want. Weak hardware lets them focus on making the equipment rugged while still cheap, keeping them in the lead with younger gamers. I bought my son a 2DS. He's 7, I would never trust him with a more expensive and fragile piece of equipment. The 2DS has anemic hardware and a resistive touch-screen (admittedly the best resistive touch-screen I've ever used). Do you think he gives a crap that it doesn't have as many gigaflops or shader channels as the next guy? No, he just freaking loves playing Mario Kart. I'm actually worried about Nintendo's modernization. They are figuring out free-to-play. Their embracing of Amiibos and their launch of Pokemon Shuffle (a Candy Crush-style free-to-play cash-sucking skinner box) is very worrying as it shows they're moving to the modern approach of "suck money from players any way you can" instead of the traditional "sell really really good games at a high-ish price that never goes down because the game is so good it retains its value".