I remember being in the back of the Demonware Limo in San Fran at GDC chatting to Demonware’s sales guy at the time (a good anecdote is worth burning bridges for!) and he was expressing a lack of confidence in Nintendo – the NDS, it was a Hail Mary pass. He explained this – it’s the last pass of the ball in American football – where out of desperation, someone kicks the ball down field and prays something good will happen. Similarly, the NDS was a sign of Nintendo getting towards the end of their game and hoping for a lucky break. Looks like Nintendo’s prayers were answered.
One of the truths in many businesses is that not taking risks is riskier! Also Nintendo are very shrewd business people – they develop strong i.p. and then carefully milk it. They’ve also never made a loss on their hardware. EA evil? God no, Nintendo are evil for making me want to buy their highly quality goods time and time again.