So, speaking seriously and not to mock anyone nor any platform. I've been gaming since the '90s, I've been there when Nintendo was THE gaming manufacturer that could only be rivaled by SEGA. When Sony arrived at gaming with the PSX and the 3D was a whole new world.
The early 00s when Microsoft arrived to the console and gaming market with its Xbox. Etc etc etc.
I've known Nintendo for its great and polished games, and their awesome and always innovative hardware.
Fast forward to 2021, present day. And it's today that I've watched the Nintendo E3 Direct, in the hopes that something brought me back to adopt a Switch or future Switch Pro. To see something that makes me go back to the awesome N64 days, the powerful GameCube days, or even the innovative and fun Wii times.
But geee. Now I'm here trying to understand why Nintendo is one of the most successful companies in gaming today and why it has such diehard fans. I just cannot understand what's the thing that this company has that can make so many people excited.
All I saw was zero innovation, zero new IPs, zero graphics nor new ways to awe me. Only rehashed IPs, re-re-re-releases, HD's ports, third party games running at 15fps with graphics straight from the 7th gen.
All I could take home was a little Metroid game that seemed cool.. But nothing more than what indie companies and its games have been giving me for 10 years already.
It's the pure nostalgia of playing old games? It's the 1 or 2 in a generation game such a Mario Oddyssey or Breath of the Wild? It's that you just like the same IP's over and over and over and over and over and over...? It's just that you are so die-hard fans from the old days that no matter what Nintendo puts in your face you'll consume it anyway?
I'd really like to know why Nintendo seems like a company totally stuck in time to me, while so much people cheers over it like it's the second coming of Jesus for whatever they spit out.
You start by saying you aren't mocking anyone or any platform, and then you kind of go on a bit of a run with the possible reasons you think people like Nintendo. FWIW, I can do that to Playstation, too. I find the games industry to be in a bit of a sad state with much less in the way of competition within genres and games taking almost an entire console lifespan to be created. It's not great.
I can answer a few of your questions though. You said you'd like to know why Nitnendo seems like a company totally stuck in time. I think that could quite possibly be because we're still gaming on like 4 GameCube's duct-taped together or something. The Switch is only a little more powerful than a Wii U. That's how far back they are in terms of graphics performance. The Wii U was a little better than PS3/360.
What sold me a Switch was Breath of the Wild and the fact that most people I know, when we hang out and stuff everyone always wants to play Nintendo (Mario Kart, Mario Party, Smash Bros., etc). It's kind of an easy choice.
Where I kind of start to draw the line with them is when the hardware they make can barely play the software they're publishing. That really irks me. I pay $300 for their game box unit and another $60 for the best RPG adventure exploration game (referring to Xenoblade Chronicles 2) and the game chugs at times. It's 2021, don't give me a blurry slideshow. Frankly, BotW did the same damn thing. That was a launch title, and their hardware could barely run a Wii U game.
I can be a bit forgiving in that Iwata designed this platform and he devoted a significant chunk of the hardware costs to those Joycon controllers with the HD rumble. It was a nice enough gimmick but for my $35 or whatever I would have skipped the fancy rumble for the standard rumble and found a way to pump higher clockrates and added 2 more GB of memory.
They will hopefully realize the shortcomings of the hardware they're releasing because many of their own ideas are becoming limited by it.