Of course it is. The real question is will it's success automatically carry over to the Wii U? As for that I think that is an iffy proposition.

Nintendo's cash cow has always been and will always be its mobile division. The majority of its profits is earned from there, so throwing up a chart with "Wii launch" when there are multiple drivers of profit growth for Nintendo is disingenuous. That said I have always been critical of Nintendo and alot of their hot starts and the Wii had just that, a hot start. I personally felt people were buying Wii's for the wrong reason, more of a profit motivator (i.e. I could buy a system that has chronic shortages and resell it at a higher value) than for a actual video game system. Once the novelty of the rarity of the system wore off and it had to sell by the merits of its game, that when the break happen and Nintendo has never been able to recover. Sure their first party titles were selling gangbusters but that crowded out 3rd parties who never had the opportunity to achieve the level of success on the Wii platform. Nintendo had the #1 device in the living room and lost that battle of the living room and is finishing up this generation on a horrific note. That wont translate well for the WiiU.

Though I agree with most of this, there are lots of points that are ambiguous.

First of all, on a general look at Nintendo's vg history post NES, Nintendo has always had the issue of stealing the limelight from 3rd parties. It's not a novel issue. That's one thing cleared up.

In terms of profit/revenue, Nintendo has always had high returns off its software. The hardware that really helped Nintendo was its portable hardware, for that you're right. But in general its revenue came from software. Think of the profits made on a 40$ game where 30$ are cashed in by Nintendo, then it sells in the 10s, 20s of millions! Then multiply that by a number of blockbusters. Here they were for the Wii:

http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&publisher=&console=Wii&genre=&minSales=0&results=50&sort=Total

Here they are for the DS:

http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&publisher=&console=DS&genre=&minSales=0&results=50&sort=Total

If I see clearly, the Wii beat the DS on the software front this gen. So, in terms of the greater portion of profit (software), the home console actually beat the portable console this gen. So your point about "Nintendo's cash cow has always been and will always be its mobile division." didn't hold true this gen. As for previous gens yeah it did hold true. But the Wii's software performance is the reason for the boost in the graph our buddy brought up. Now you'll counter-argument with the software bundles, but that only accounts for a MAXIMUM 95million software units bundled over 418Million total sold (top 30). It still beats DS's 309Mil units of software. (Top 30s) Add to this that the console games have a higher markup and margin, and the point is really driven home.

As for Nintendo being a "burst" or "hot start" company, it wasn't always the case. The Game Boy lasted many many years, and the Game Boy color helped keep it alive. The NES was a 10-year console. Granted the strategy was, regrettably, different for the Wii. But it's not a Nintendo habit per se, if you know what I mean. To your advantage, I agree that Nintendo did a bad job at handling the lifeline of the Wii. The remodel sucked, and the new models for xbox and ps this gen really helped boost HW sales for both platforms. But then again, the attach ratio for HD consoles is lower YoY (not 100% sure), so can this really be considered total success on the HD side in all judgement?

Lastly, the Wii never lost the battle for the living room, since many people still watch Netflix on the Wii (guilty as charged), and some will still turn it on to play their games (guilty again). All in all I can't agree with the general sentiment of your post, but I do agree with sporadic points you make here and there.

Lets see here. Gamecube lifetime sales were 21.74M. Wii is over 90M and still going. Of course the Wii is a success. Why are people still posting threads asking if the Wii is a success. Wow no wonder we have stupid threads.

I think it probably did what Nintendo initially intended. Maybe a little more. In that sense, yes, it is a success.

But dammit, on the other hand, it fell victim to nothing more than ennui, which is squarely at Nintendo's feet. It could have been more successful, more successful by far, but didn't have the support necessary to make it.

I think people who use Netflix as a guage of the living room are kinda behind the times.  Netflix wont be around in two years, the content cost skyrocketing alone will drive this company to merge with another or go away.  Microsoft is expanding their use of the Xbox kinda as a replacement of the standard set top box adding content providers such as ESPN and Verizon, expaning use of the kinect to drive no gaming activities, you know expaning their living room presence.  Sony still commands 25% of music and movies so their content will be unlimited in the services they can create.  Nintendo doesnt have any of that and is trying to shape it with Wii U and will fail doing so.  No new games on the horizon means alot of Wii owners will be going off nostalgia as opposed to new game content.  The list goes on and on...

If you are chasing a ever higher price, at some point you will be left holding the bag, ie buying a system that is worth 250 for 600 and finding no enjoyment in it, knowing you cant get any more for it.  It collects dust as the main reason you bought it has no function anymore.

Simple logic indeed

The Wii is a resounding success..It has killer first party titles,some of the best games of this gen (and all time),a diverse library of games (and core games,yes it has core games,monster hunter,xenoblade,goldeneye etc),it doesnt suffer from the most shameful ,embarrasing hardware failure ever (like a certain console i wont mention) and it has never been hacked putting millions of peoples personal details at risk (like another console i wont mention).Sure it is underpowered,but "hardcore gamers" or whatever they call themselves shouldnt find this a problem as it is about the games right??.Lots of shovelware i hear you say?? then ignore it,there is plenty of decent content on Wii,plus the vitual console for the classics.Full backward compatibilty for those delicious gamecube titles.And last but not least its sold bucket loads,honestly i have never seen a console create such a divide,but then again it has had everybody talking about it.And we still are.............x

For the better part of a year and a half here in the US until the end of the Wii's second holiday season, you were hard pressed to find a stand alone Wii for $249, the majority were bundled through retailers driving up the price or invidual sellers were selling it higher that the MSRP, I dont need to change the subject on a subject so trivial.

I look at success based on three major categories: Number of total sales compared to competition, profit made by the company, and strength of game library. Wii covers all of these bases IMO. So yes, it's a major success. Some might argue about the game library, but for me at least, the Wii has dozens of games that I thoroughly enjoyed, so I'd be lying if I said it didn't have a great library. It is also home of arguably the greatest Mario Kart game to date, a new 2D Mario game, and a new Donkey Kong Country game, nuff said..