The problem here, is that people are talking about this in terms of sales success or not. That is near impossible to talk about because each respective company has their own metric and expectations for success on any given title.
What we are talking about here is the process and limitations involved with getting a game out there. And given the scenario that beamdog talked about in the OP it should be understandable why if given a choice beamdog chose the latter.
When bringing up companies that have a long history of dealing with nintendo, simply means that the devs in question has accepted the process as a matter of course. Talk about success and failure shouldn't even be thrown around as much as it has in this thread. I mean even from rengade kids post....
So, when looking back and deciding if your time and effort was well spent, the process pays a big role in this and the perspectives shift especially when talking about a dev that aims for multiplatform versus one that sticks to a particular company.
I don't even know why I'm typing this, because it should be obvious, but this process is what every dev and publisher should do (and in theory does) for every game in every platform, it's not limited to Nintendo consoles and whatever restrictions they might pose. Every game needs to have a target audience in mind and the costs of development and publishing should take in mind the possible outcome to selling the product to that specific audience.
You also need to take into account whatever the platform owner throws your way: size limits, quality checks, royalties, hardware limitations, controller you name it.
This is the case for every platform and you need to choose wisely and own up to your mistakes. And the lowest common denominator to measure success? Profit.
Renegade Kid did all of this so far, which is why they're a good example of how it's possible to have success on Nintendo platforms both in the physical and digital market.
Team Meat or rather Edmund McMillen in particular is an example of someone who couldn't make it, but didn't act like a spoiled kid. They really wanted Super Meat Boy on WiiWare, it wasn't possible because of size limits, they talked about it, said it was too bad, moved on.
McMillen tried to put The Binding of Isaac on 3DS it didn't get it approved (not a shocker) and
he took it like a champ.
I don't see how examples of level-minded and successful small devs who can take success and failures like grown-ups aren't relevant to this discussion. Hell, I can't think of anything more relevant.
I see no problem with the latest statements from Oster though, he comes across as short-sighted, but asides from that he aired his complaints in a reasonable manner. His tweets on the other hand showed the way he thinks, which is more befitting of a random forumite than of someone who's running a business.
The reason I'm typing all this when it's been mostly covered to death is because I'm avoiding studying
