I've always maintained that Nintendo going third party would kill them since I've always felt that Nintendo work better when they're developing their own games on their own hardware. However, from what I've seen of this so far, it appears there is potential for them to make this into something really good. If Nintendo make a truly cross-platform experience and stay true to their word about making games optimised for each different type of device then this could be awesome. But knowing Nintendo, it's as if they're always intentionally a couple of steps away from perfection.
It's without doubt that Nintendo has needed a response to the mobile games industry since handhelds simply aren't going to be around forever, I'd be surprised if we see a dedicated successor to the 3DS. However, the type of response that people have been calling for, for Nintendo to just publish their games on the Play Store and App Store, that definitely would be a bad move for them because it just brings down their status.
As for them publishing older console titles to mobile devices and/or PC, I'm really not too sure if they're going to do that since they must be well aware by now of the breadth of emulators available for these platforms, the mass availability of old console game ROMs and the fact that there really isn't much more Nintendo could do to offer a better experience than that already offered by using emulators. Maybe offering achievements and online play for old retro titles could give a Virtual Console service on Android/iOS the unique edge it would need to make it worthwhile, but as I said earlier; Nintendo always seem to intentionally keep themselves a few steps away from perfection.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
