I don't want Nintendo to die but I would like to see their software available on other platforms. Nintendo hasn't produced an appealing console to me since the SNES. :(

Nope.

Keep Nintendo games on Nintendo hardware.

I don't care if you don't want to buy another piece of hardware to play Mario if you want to play Mario then you have to buy Mario's machine.

I'd rather see them take all their IPs to the grave then sell them off to other companies and seeing as how there hasn't been a good Sonic game since Sega went the software route I'd rather they not "pull a Sega" either.

Yeah, I'm a sucker for tradition. Nintendo always seems to pull through, though, so I'm not worried.

Not true, there have been quite a few good Sonic games since then.

As for the OP, no I don't want Nintendo to die.

Hell no.

I enjoyed many of their products especially the Mario and Legend of Zelda franchises as well as their handhelds and many of their consoles. I enjoyed playing the Nintendo Wii and while I don't see myself buying a 3DS or a WiiU in the near future but I wouldn't sell them if I got them as contest prizes or gifts.

As I get older, I find myself less into video games than ever before so I don't play Nintendo games as much anymore but I would not want to see Nintendo die. I like the idea of three major competitors in the video game console business. I know that some people have some valid arguments for a single standard for video games similar to the single standard for DVD movies or CD players but it also undermines innovation and competition involving innovation.

Do you have any evidence to support that alleged cause and effect? Seems to me there haven't been any good Mario games since the 1990s either and it would be difficult to pin that one on Sega exiting the hardware market.

No.

No, not in the slightest, and I don't imagine they will. They'd probably become a third-party developer/publisher before that could happen. One would hope that if they did go third-party, they wouldn't be Steam exclusive on PC/Mac/Linux, or entirely exclusive to any given distributor, for that matter. I'd certainly appreciate DRM-free NES, SNES, GB, GBA, and N64 games here on GOG. :)

One thing I worry about with Nintendo going third-party is the possibility of their newer content not having the same quality control or passion behind them. I hope that wouldn't be the case, but you never know...

You are very wrong there. Colors is good, Generations is the best since Sonic 3, All Star Racing Transformed is the single best mario kart game ever made.

Not before releasing their entire back catalogue onto Virtual Console and trying reorganization that wasn't headed by a cripplingly old man.

...

Nintendo is the most innovative console company, hardware-wise. For that alone I hope it stays around.

No one should have to fork out hundreds of dollars to buy another platform/console just because there's a few exclusive games on it they want. It's nothing but stupid corporate politics which hurts consumers just so a company can have their own bit of closed hardware "turf". Let games and software stand on it's own and be judged on it's own, separate from whatever hardware it's played on, don't obscure it by promoting fanboy-ism and company mascot games (Zelda, Mario, etc). If Zelda or Mario games really are so great, then they would be great enough for anyone to buy/play them, even on PC.

My only position is that games should be universal and played by as many people as want to play them, instead of fragmenting the gaming community into little exclusive clubs based on what device/console you own, which does nothing but hurt consumers and damage gaming as a whole.

There's a heap of console games I would actually buy if they were somehow made available on PC via virtual emulation, or a direct port. Instead they aren't and I find myself having to sail the seven seas to TPB and using an emulator like Dolphin, ePSXe, Higan, etc. So it's these companies that are actively refusing to take my money (and the money of many other PC gamers) just to maintain their silly little hardware turfs.

-Drop useless figureheads who do nothing for the company.
-Loosen the chokehold that NCL has on other regions.
-Don't make non-management into management. Iwata and Shigeru were just fine where they were before.
-Make your contracts a bit less draconian.
-Consider buying out companies that are clearly attached to you already. (Sega and some second party.)
-Consider dropping out of the stock market.
-You have a massive system to guarantee backwards compatibility and profit. Use the Virtual Console. And don't drip it either.
-Grow with your consumers. Using the Fleeting Demographic can only last for so long if parents don't think that Nintendo games are worth it, since they're the ones paying.
-Grow with your consumers. We aren't children anymore, and you are no longer a new entry to games. Stop treating both like children.
-Grow with your consumers. We wouldn't mind seeing more E10+ and above games, rather than the same 'safe for kiddies and christians' shlock. Live a little!
-Communicate with your consumers. Remember that awesome forum you had? That was better than Miiverse will ever be. Bring it back. You'll get more than the ear.
-Grow with your consumers. Don't hire a man that look like he fell out of the worse part of the 90s management and was raised in New Jersey.
-Don't falsely embrace the west. Speaking slow and broken engrish is cute, but you'd get the point faster in your own language.
-Don't meddle in the affairs of a country you have no idea of the culture of.

...I'm sorry, I'm afraid I'll have to reattach my bottom, it fell off during a spasm of laughter.

This is the same company embraces the idea of using lateral development, right?

True, becoming a sotfware company was certainly good for Sega, just look at all the amazing games they made after the Dreamcast, such as, uhhhh, hmmmm, nevermind. Haven't all console companies been doing the same thing since the Atari? That's unlikely to change as long as consoles exist.

Stretegical mistakes like making the best selling console and the best selling portable of the last generation? Strategical mistakes like making the DS which is on it's way to be the best selling gaming device of all times?
Fun fact: Mario 2 wasn't designed as a Mario game. When the second Mario game was released in Japan, Nintendo thought it was too hard for americans and decided to take a random game and slap the name Mario on it. The japanese Mario 2 is actually known as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels in the west, and was released as part of the All Stars collection for the SNES.

Are we still on that?

Let's make one thing clear, Nintendo hasn't blocked ANYONE from making LP videos, they'll just take the revenue from the ads. Guess what, whoever uses the PS4 share feature will probably not get any money either. Can you see that there's absolutely no difference?

True, but there's way to deny that Sega isn't as good as it was before. Don't get me wrong, i'm a huge Sonic fan, but Sonic Adventure is still the best 3D Sonic game in my opinion. And where are the great games such as Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon, Shining Force, Phantasy Star?

Sega lost it's "magic" when it abandoned the hardware market.