The problem with Nintendo

The Problem with Nintendo
I really want to like Nintendo. I really do. However, lately they’ve been making questionable decision after questionable decision which concerns as to whether or not they’re going to be heading the way of Sega within the next couple of years. With the upcoming NX ousting the Wii U in less time than most Nintendo Consoles and their arcane censorship practices from the era of the NES making a comeback,
I already established my thoughts on Nintendo releasing the successor the Wii U this soon, but to reiterate my thoughts ever briefly, the Wii U as whole is a failure. While it does have a few stand-out titles such as Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Wonderful 101, and Bayonetta 2, the number of retail titles comes it at under 20. This is not counting ports of last-gen PS3 and Xbox 360 titles or Indie games. Another concern is the fact that Nintendo chose to focus all of their development energy on the 3DS and while I don’t hate the little handheld, it ultimately resulted in the Wii U having almost no first-party titles. Couple that with the fact that Nintendo has chosen to focus on a select group of first party titles and it’s clear to see that the poor little console never stood a chance. It didn’t help either that third-party developers were hesitant to provide support for the console. While I’m still hopeful for the NX proving to be a successful successor for the Wii U, I hope that Nintendo learns from their mistakes with the Wii U and applies them here. I’m less hopeful, however, for the company’s sudden censorship policies.
In this regard, Nintendo has proven to be more of a problem than many other video game companies. The issue seems to have arisen all of a sudden with the releases of the Fire Emblem Fates, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and the upcoming release of TMS #FE. Most notably, Fire Emblem Fates had several of the characters aged-up, the removal of the face touching mini-game, and some other risqué content. While I don’t mind the aging up of the characters or the removal of the one scene where the character was given a drug to make her like men, which has really creepy implications, what does concern me is the removal of the face-touching mini-game which actually had an effect on the gameplay. It had a similar function to the Pokemon-Amie in Pokemon X and Y which, as a result, affects the gameplay and also encourages you to develop a relationship with the characters on your team. The most damning form censorship, however, comes in the form of TMS #FE. While most of it comes in the form of content, my concern is the fact that it was done without understanding the source material. The game was created as a crossover of Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem and while I can understand Nintendo wanting to censor the content for the sake of appealing to younger audiences, this game already had a very niche audience, that Nintendo is alienating by choosing to censor it. Not only that, but the Shin Megami Tensei games were well-known for utilizing sexuality both for fan service and to challenge gamers’ comfort zones as they would frequently give disturbing features to things that were originally intended to be sexy. By eliminating that, the game loses the Shin Megami Tensei element and becomes more in-line with games in the Atelier and Hyperdimension Neptunia series that seek to use bright colors to attract players without having any substance to them. Furthermore, Nintendo choosing to censor many of their game’s more risqué or challenging themes harkens back to an era when video games were seen merely as toys as opposed to a brave new medium that was pushing the boundaries of storytelling and entertainment. Not only that, but if Nintendo continues with these practices, they will continue to push their audience away. So while they may hold on to the younger demographic, my question is, is it really worth it to lose the older demographic that has been so loyal to Nintendo for so long?