I conclude, after looking at the sales of NIntendo past consoles, that people have not given up on Nintendo. I have come to the conclusion that people are not stupid enough to buy a product they do not want (Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Wii U) based on name brand alone. However, people will buy a product the do want (Wii, SNES, NES, 3DS, DS, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy) no matter the name on the box. People are too sophisticated these days to completely gve up on Nintendo; according to console sales trends.

At least that was my take away from the numbers.

I understand statement being based on sales, but i definietly don't feel stupid for buying a 64.  One of my favoriet controllers of all time with some of the best games on the market at the time period.  Best shooter; goldeneye, best wrestling game; any wwe/wcw thq game, one of the best star wars games (sote), and probably the best adult themed game (possibly of all time) in conkers bad fur day.  Best fighter (arguably) killer instinct gold.  Best adv game- ocarina of time.  Even had the multiplat sports games back then (madden, nba live, etc).

      I think the lack of some KEY 3rd party games killed them that gen (namely FFVII), plus the arrival of the xbox into the race.  Mos def a bad idea going with cartridges though since that, apparently, scared off said 3rd parties.

Its interesting to note that N64 sold very similar to SNES everywhere but Japan, the loss of JRPGs & fighting games was huge in Japan.

so if you keep making hardware and that hardware does worse and worse over time, it makes sense to continue? 

Edit: NVM i saw the other post

Of course. Just look at FFVII! The FMV from that game wouldn't have been possible on the N64 due to the silly cartridge limitations.

I love Nintendo 64. I am not speaking for myself. As you know, I was merely doing as the poster said; looking at the sales numbers. There seems to be no concrete trend except that buyers will purchase what they want no matter the brand name. This lends itself to a wiser market and presents an awkward opposition to the people that say this is a casual driven industry. I like Nintendo 64 way more than I like Wii but this is about sales trends and not about personal feelings.

I also did not imply that people that bought a Nintendo 64 (was the first console I bought with my own money) felt stupid. I was exclusively talking about the people that decided NOT to buy the console not being stupid enough to buy something they did not want simply because Nintendo's name was on the product.

The N64 actually sold basically the same as the SNES in North America and Europe.

Japan basically accounted for the entire difference in end userbase, that's what happens when you cut off Squaresoft and Enix games (and that's why not using CD-ROM was stupid).

A CD-enabled N64 would've outsold the Super Nintendo. Maybe even the NES. I've always felt that. If you wanted cartridges too, just include a cartridge slot, no big deal, the Saturn had one.

not a good example considering how that system faired

Ya because thats totally what caused Saturn to fail........

Well Saturn had 300 other things wrong with it, it might be the worst handled major system roll out in gaming history (yes, even worse than Wii U). 

N64 was primarily actually a very good system, that was crippled at birth by a very stupid format choice. It would've sold more than the SNES easily and probably more than the NES too had it had the CD format at a minimum too. At a max, I think it would've just won that generation outright.