Which, ironically, is very much bringing back their games to Nintendo's roots. The biggest problem Nintendo has had is basically that they've spent too much time marketing to adults, rather than to families and kids. That marketing was a big part of what made them so ridiculously successful in the 90s.
Also yeah, porn of Splatoon is kinda disproportionate to other Nintendo products, but again, kids are ultimately what drove the sales of Splatoon.
Indeed, but that flop/sell cycle is also like Star Wars. Capcom spends a ton of money trying to market these games and they typically don't see the returns they used to. I'd argue it's largely because they kinda shot themselves in the foot when making Third Strike, because the game was too good. And the professional community often leads what games are popular for fighting games. SF4 took a lot of iterations before it really took off, and even then every person I've met who plays fighting games with any frequency will tell you Third Strike is the best game in the franchise - or if they don't, they still won't question that it's got the best gameplay - that EVO moment of Daigo vs Justin Wong will live forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS5peqApgUA
Still, while I understand your response to major IPs vs minor IPs, I still think the fact that those family-friendly IPs have been doing gangbusters lately is indicative of the consumer market not being as interested in games specifically for the otaku crowd. At least, it's clear to me there's a huge untapped market in making games with a more universal flavor. Colorful, upbeat and (though I hate the vagueness of the term) fun, seems like it hasn't been driving the market, even though it's clear that it could - were the major developers not spending all their time on muted or dark colors and dour, earth-shattering scenarios.
And honestly? I think that's part of the appeal of some of the sex games as well - just that they're happy and generally assume a tone that indicates the play is all in good fun (the problem with it is that it obviously comes at the expense of female autonomy - which is extremely shitty).
Unfortunately, it's kinda taking over the market right now. After all, from a business standpoint it's the best thing - low barrier to entry, easy to sell, easy to develop, low cost to start up. And that's... kind of a problem for games that aren't gacha. It's even more problematic now that people are looking at it more critically as gambling.
Lately I've really been enjoying Might and Magic Clash of Heroes and Cosmic Star Heroine. I know they're old but the strategy of Clash and the writing (and vibes of Chrono Trigger) from Cosmic Star Heroine have been... I dunno, relaxing I guess? I wouldn't say it's nostalgia per se, more just my own brain's acknowledgement that non-shitty games also exist.
