Does "side-load any content" mean unlimited piracy? Otherwise I don't understand your argument at all. But adding side-loading does not enable unlimited piracy.

Piracy isn't the issue here.

It's the fact that Nintendo, Sony etc wouldn't be able to enforce any licensing revenue since users could just install any game directly.

For Nintendo it would decimate the company since it's their primary revenue stream.

Look at all the games that are sold through Steam, just for convenience and stability.

I think the benefit of being in the Nintendo store is far higher than that, and they'd do fine. And they have lots of first party games too.

Nintendo makes a ton of money on first-party games, and they could easily continue releasing their games exclusively on their consoles. They'd lose very little.

Random sideloaded games are just irrelevant when people are buying the systems for Zelda and Pokemon.

> They'd lose very little

Nintendo charges 30% on the sale of every game sold.

Looking at the current best sellers [1] they would stand to lose a significant amount of money.

Easily in the billions based on current revenue.

[1] https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/games/best-sellers/#sort=d...