Nintendo? I don't rate a company too much on success. That would make Activision the *chuckle* greatest business of all time *laughs out loud*.
But Nintendo has an off relationship with the industry, one can't talk about Video Games without talking about the influence of Nintendo, the hidden Sage that has seen the rise and fall of more video game companies than they'd like to admit.
They easily have the strongest selection of first-party games of all time, sure Microsoft has Halo, Gears, Forza, and Fable, and Sony has Uncharted, inFamous, Killzone, and Demon's Souls, but Nintendo destroys them with Smash Bros, Zelda, Mario, Kirby, Metroid, Pokemon, and even more add into this lineup to give Nintendo the best first-party support of any of the Big Three.
The thing about first-party games, however, is just that, they're not made by auxillary means. They're published in-house and are far-and-few high-quality titles. (ex~ Twilight Princess was an '06 game, Skyward Sword was an '11 game, that's SIX Cod's and ALL FOUR Assassin's Creed's!)
Why people look down on Nintendo nowadays starts way back in the Gamecube era, where 3rd party support THEN was pretty bad (mind you, not as atrocious as nowadays, but still bad), when Wind Waker was released with a cel-shaded aesthetic, a far cry from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask's timid steps towards a bit more serious degree in the fashion of Sony's first-party titles. The fans were mad, and Nintendo started to be deemed the "kid's video game company".
With the release of the Wii and the piles upon piles upon PILES of bad games, crap online, and horrendously over-hyped, over-simplified motion controls, only a handful of games stood out, making Nintendo just seem like the definition of "Diamonds in the rough". For every one "Super Mario Galaxy" or "Red Steel 2" there were three "Cooking Mama's" or "The Conduit's" or "crap Ghostbusters the Video Game port". It was bad, but games like Skyward Sword, Galaxy, Epic Yarn, and that newer game Xenoblade prove the untouched prowess of Nintendo.
So we look to Nintendo 2012 with open hopes and open arms, ready to take the Wii U in with a little less confidence thanks to the 3DS fallout, but as Gamers, we owe it to ourselves to see this Wii U thing out. (Seems like Nintendo won't have trouble with 3rd party support here, YOU CAN PLAY BATTLEFIELD 3, ARKHAM CITY, AND DARKSIDERS 2 ON IT???? ZOMMMGGGG!!!)
Just a last comment, everyone knows the two Rocksteady Batman games, right? "Arkham Asylum" and "... City" right?
They can be described as shining examples of modern games, stunning graphics, shiny animations, deep stories and ACTUAL VOICES IN THE VOICE ACTING make them some of the best games for your PS3 or Xbox. The funny thing is, when reviewers got down to the core of the two games, Asylum (2009) was praised for using the Metroid (1986) formula to the fullest advantage, while City (2011) was given perfect scores left and right, all the while mentioning how much the game played like a Zelda (1986) game.
Give credit where credit is due gamers. We've all killed the 16 colossi, but there was always one more that no one can ever touch.
-Chillz
