Right in many cases, I'm specifically criticizing Nintendo. They have abundant capital and willing manpower (internal or contract), but their c-suite has a track-record of wanting control over their consumer base. If Wii online was burdensome to maintain, it's because they had an entrenched engineering culture that made patching the Wiis less sensical than the fitness of a stereotypical US Southern inbreed. Uii and 3DS discontinuation was Nintendo wanting to milk customers within an acceptable level of negative publicity.