I don't see the gamecube as mediocre at all. I mean, there have been some truly beautiful games made for the console that I just don't think would've worked on the X-box or PS2. (Resident Evil 4 jumps to mind, but certainly isn't the only one)
As for Nintendo going the third party route, I think I would sob like a little girl, if I was forced to play Link, Mario, or Samus on another console. Which begs the question, what lack of original titles? Luigi's Mansion, Sunshine Mario, Super Smash Bros., Metroid Prime(s) 1 & 2, a re-vamp of Link in Wind Waker and the aforementioned Resident Evil 4. Now they're definately sequels to existing character franchises, but certainly original games by themselves. The on-line thing probably hurt them a bit, but not nearly as much as it would have if The Revolution wasn't going on-line, so, not a big loss. I mean, let's remember the on-line hoop-la was just starting and wasn't all that big until Microsoft put some serious dough behind Live, at least, in the console arena. All the big three have proprietary disk formats, so I don't know where that's coming from.
I said it before, I'll say it again, I don't think Nintendo is going to be out of the console business for a while. They've got revenue from other areas when it all comes down to it. So, as long as the gamer community out there is willing to let Nintendo experiment all they want, I don't think they'll be going the third party developer route for a while.
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