If I'm not wrong, Nikon is the only company that went back on their Megapixel count in their flagship cameras and went nuts on increasing MP count on their "second best" cameras.
In the year 2008
Nikon released a 24.4 Megapixel Full Frame D3X Camera (at that time it was their flagship camera)
While their second best camera D700 only had 12.1 Megapixel
In the year 2012
Nikon decreased the megapixel count on their flagship camera D4 (replacing D3X) by over 65% to only 16.2 MP.
But their "second best" camera D800 (replacing the D700) got a 300% increase to a whopping 36 MP
During this period, (after all this crazy increase/decrease business), they screwed up their flagship speedlite SB900 and "third best" DSLR D600.
As much as I like using some of their products, their logic baffles me ... so I stayed away from their 36 Megapixel business and bought the D610 instead.
After having used a few brands, I feel the Canon 5D MK III is the most balanced camera of any manufacturer ... for me it is the PERFECT all rounder DSLR.