Topic: Nintendo as a console maker in the cloud gaming era?

Just read through that second wall of text @Shadowthrone so a couple of more points worth making...

1. Streaming requires no special hardware
This is true for music and movies but it isn't really true for games. You still need a controller to play games. The only titles that don't need a controller are either touchscreen based phone games, which by their very nature are played with less than optimal network performance, or very low interaction titles. And for the later interactive movies already exist on Netflix.....

2. People choose Netflix because a subscription is a "lower risk" way to consume
This is definitely a main part of the appeal of video streaming services. However this is more of a function of the subscription model rather than the fact that it's a video stream. The fair comparison here isn't between physically going to the shop and buying a movie vs paying a monthly sub, browsing Netflix and clicking play. The more accurate analogy would be the difference between the home and downloads tab in the Netflix app. The home page is game streaming, the downloads tab is an XBox Game Pass like model.

2a. But downloads aren't as fast as clicking go
Pre-emptive counter argument, and this is true. But at the same time the very infrastructure that would make streaming practical also reduces the download times. Eg a super low latency 1Gbps fibre link would be excellent for game streaming... but if you had a link like that you'd download a 100GB game in 15mins. Also if there's no risk involved you'd just pre-download any games you were into before release

3. Streaming wouldn't be tied to console cycles
Maybe so. But the way things are going consoles aren't really tied to console cycles much anymore either. If you look at what Microsoft is doing they're pushing for a subscription service that goes across PC and XBox with backwards compatibility. So this is already a thing even without streaming.

Even with the Switch, if they had a game-pass option you'd also have a library of Wii U ports at your fingertips. They already have SNES/NES classics as part of the subscription that already exists there. Presumably a post-Switch Nintendo online sub could carry over the classic games.

Nintendo's biggest strength is its IP. There is huge demand for Mario, Zelda etc. titles and always will be.
Right now internet infrastructure is nowhere near good enough to allow game streaming services become a "major" player. Certain parts of the world just cannot run this type of service yet and are a long way away from being able to. Straight away your player base is limited. But these services (Stadia, Luna) can definitely eek out a small portion of the market for themselves in the coming years and as the infrastructure improves so too will their player base.
Personally I see streaming as a great option and if Nintendo go down this route of having a fantastic lineup of 1st party games, quality indie titles and streamed versions of big AAA games, im all for it.
The biggest issue people seem to have is game ownership. I understand the stance on this but in a way this has been an issue for years now and people are forgetting it. I'm playing a Splatfest this weekend. I likely won't be able to play online matches of this game in 5 years time when Nintendo turn off the servers. Same goes for Destiny. Or Apex Legends. But nobody seems to care that they are "renting" these games. Yes you'll own Destiny in your disk or hard drive. But if the server is shut down, what's the point?

I don't see it affecting Nintendo and the reason is that mainly Nintendo publishes games that are single player only which means that customers (i.e. gamers) would want to buy them and keep them forever. After all most Nintendo first-party titles never circulate the used market as original buyers keep them due to their quality and developed affection towards them. Cloud-based gaming will become a sure thing in the near future and I'm not against it but when it comes to Nintendo buyers I think they would prefer to own the games they play instead of renting them like a Netflix movie. Casual gamers (i.e. teenagers who are heavily into FPS and MMO video games) are the primary targets of streaming services as they mostly care about leaderboards and when next "big name series" entry gets released they move on or life gets in the way thus making space for a new generation of players. Nintendo's player base is clearly different than Microsoft's, Google's, and Amazon's, and if they still manage to generate profit from their loyal customers (i.e. us with accounts on Nintendo Life) they will have zero reason to invest in Cloud gaming. In addition don't forget that there's a chance Microsoft will cooperate with Nintendo and publish XCloud on the Switch so that's how far Nintendo will go in regards to video game streaming.

And as @blockfight said above, game ownership is the biggest issue. What's the point of owning Destiny 2 or CoD: Cold War if you cannot play it or even if you cannot host a local server to play with friends or family?

I've tested the Ultimate Game Pass now for a while.
On my Smartphone and on my Android RV (through Side Load).

Streaming will become a Thing, but it will never be the same as playing on real Hardware.
You just feel the Lag in Games like Doom Eternal.
Games like Tomb Raider are very cineastic and have Animations in the Movement of your Charakter that hide such Lag.
But in Doom Eternal you just feel this input Lag.

Strangly enough:
I haven't played as much Games as i could.
Like there is no Interest and i see noe Value in them.
Seems like it is a psychological Thing that you play Stuff more you actually payed for it...
Or vice versa, if you see a Value in a Game you'll pay for it.

@NGNYS would take issue with your point about early adopters are loud and aggressive. The Stadia reddit community is a really helpful group with good tips and advice to help people get the best out of it. In contrast to that on the "gaming" reddit sub, anytime someone even mentions stadia in passing the are generally met with abusive messages and down voted like crazy.

I think there are three possibilities for Nintendo's long term future once streaming becomes the norm:

1. They would have to beef up their infrastructure and focus on more than just gaming in order to sell their own tablet/smartphones.
2. They would have to partner with a larger tech company like Apple, Microsoft, or Google to create specialty hardware that runs their games.
3. They would have to scale back towards developing unique peripherals instead of unique devices.

Gaming becoming hardware agnostic because of streaming would be a huge problem for Nintendo and would most likely kill dedicated gaming devices, so Nintendo would need to change their strategy in order to keep pushing unique hardware. Otherwise, they'd be forced to stop developing hardware altogether and becoming a streaming service like Game Pass.