Xbox actually outsold GameCube.

Branding. At least in Europe, I can guarantee you that in most countries it would fall flat on its face, even if it had the same specs, same price, and all the same 3rd party games as the PS4.

Most people in PAL regions don't even know what a console is. They go in a store to buy Playstation. 

Retail support is also heavily biased towards Sony. Entire rooms are reserved for PS4 and even the Vita, yet just a few shelves are for the Xbone and a shelf for Nintendo in its entirety.

Case in point, Nintendo should stick with the hybrid idea, and execute it to perfection with a constant stream of games, whilst having some form of 3rd party support.

A traditional home console like the Wii U or GameCube? Not a chance. Not so long as Sony and PlayStation are still in the industry.

It's hard to say, simply because Nintendo wants to chase new ideas as opposed to competing with MS and Sony. From an Hardware standpoint as time goes on the differences in hardware will be more and more subtle so I think it's possible they could achieve making a machine that can get regualar third party support while not spending as much money on R&D as Sony and MS do, that being said it really depends on wether they'll drop the portable aspect of their market, which seems unlikely for now and the foreseable future

Nintendo could've beaten Sony in the PSOne era if they weren't stupid and compromised on the CD-format with their SNES third party partners. Mario 64 + GoldenEye + Zelda: OoT + Final Fantasy VII + no game droughts because of CD format = game over for Sony. N64 was outselling the Playstation well into 1997 even, it only started to fall behind because of terrible game droughts brought on by the cartridge format.

With GameCube they made a lot of other dumb errors, not one single huge mistake like the no-CD on N64, but a lot of really stupid unforced errors like launching too far behind the PS2, even though the GameCube hardware was ready for 2000 (should have shifted development from N64 earlier), made the system look like a child's toy, used DVD basically but no DVD playback (I mean you're paying for what is a damn DVD drive anyway, why purposely shoot yourself in the foot?), not having a new Mario game at launch and instead banking on a small scale title like Luigi's Mansion, going from GoldenEye and PD to ... uh Geist? Losing Rare and then replacing that with nothing, etc. etc. etc. etc.

After the PS2/XBox/GCN gen Sony/MS were too established. Never should have allowed MS at the very least to gain a foothold in the industry. The GameCube at minimum needed to kill the XBox, but Nintendo's execution was way too sloppy and gave MS way too much room to take advantage of.

Traditional console business is really about making the fewest mistakes. Nintendo's not really good at not making mistakes, even with successful systems they to occasionally want to do stupid things for whatever reason, you can't really do that. The only console Sony has made that had big errors in it was the PS3, and the main problem there was the high price tag which could be alleviated over time. The PS1, PS2, and PS4 all were on point, price wise, tech wise, marketing wise, developer support wise, and very rarely ever have game droughts (because every developer on the planet is making games). There's just not much room Sony gives to competitors, they make very few errors so if you want to beat them head to head you can't be sloppy. 

The answer is of course YES.

But they will have to overcome a few hurdles. To be really successful they will need to cater to all the varied tastes of gamers. Multi-player now is a huge thing and Nintendo will need to build an online system that works well with MP only or MP oriented games. I still see them having difficulty in this area and correct me if I am wrong but I don't believe many MP based 3rd party games are coming to the Switch. Voice chat will need to be better andtrophies etc will need to be implemented as an example.

Looking at single player, their games are really really good but they will need more mature games. The age of the average gamer is increasing and imo they generally look for more mature experiences and games. Yes Nintendo games are a step above and everyone plays their own games but i am talking generally. BOTW was great and Bayonetta good too but they would need more deals witb 3rd party and more games. 

Look at the SNES mini. It's very traditional.

A traditional Nintendo console is different from a traditional Sony console.

Nintendo’s philosophy is simplification and expansion: they add new interface options (whether d-pad, portability, shoulder buttons, analog stick, extra ports, touch screens, motion controls, or unique combos of each. The Switch is heavily revitalizing and expanding local multiplayer while keeping it simple.

Sony’s philosophy is updating hardware.

While the markets are the same, each company has two different traditions.

ignore, wrong thread

4/6 of Nintendo's traditional consoles were large hardware upgrades from what was available prior (NES-SNES-N64-GameCube), it's only post GameCube that for two gens (Wii + Wii U) they went a different way.