If Nintendo were to end this console cycle in this range of hardware sold:

3DS: 90-95 Million (DS sold 150 million+)

Wii U: 30-35 Million (Wii is at 99 million)

Would you consider this a successful console generation or a failure on Nintendo's part? Just curious what people would think if things shake out along these lines.

I'm assuming they would be profitable, though with higher development costs associated with the current generation and likely smaller software sales from the DS/Wii days, it would be less profitable.

No for 3DS, Yes for Wii U. Over all a huge reduction from Wii/DS so I'd say Nintendo would be pretty disappointed.

For 3Ds those would be excellent numbers. Wii U not really...

They would be failures.

It will mean both have lost market share compared to the DS and Wii.

for 3DS NO
for WiiU SURE

Lol... right. PC was once more prominent in gaming, is that a failure? Is the PS3?

Profit matters more than sales. You're 27 ffs...... Market Share is awesome but it isn't all important. Ocarina of Time, arguably the greatest game of all time wasn't on the winning console of that respective gen either.

Welcome to VGChartz.

Edit OP: No. WiiU could be seen as one but if the gaming market was so predictable Atari could be still around rolling heads. MS and Sony wouldn't have entered the gaming thing at all except for making components (Sony) and they pc thing. (M$) Nothing is set in stone. The war isn't over yet, WiiU could still destroy the ps4 and neXbox combined....

3DS would be good (that's still better than the Game Boy Advance)
But the Wii U is quite bad, abit like the N64 days. It deserves to do so much better, even if it was just for Nintendo's games

Yes, I consider the PS3 to be a failure. The PS1 sold extremely well, the PS2 did even better. The PS3 has lost Sony market share to Microsoft and Nintendo.

With the PC it's more difficult since it's not a single company's product, but I guess you could call the PC a failing product as well. The PC gaming market has been shrinking ever since consoles became more popular.
(Although I do believe PC gaming is currently gaining market share and popularity)

But you're right, market share isn't all important. I enjoy PC gaming the most but it has the smallest community of all platforms. My favorite console is still the good old N64 with GoldenEye 64, Ocarina of Time and Perfect Dark and other exceptional titles. My response was more of a business point of view response. For gamers it shouldn't matter too much what a console does in relation to its predecessor as long as it gets the games gamers want to play.

The 3DS actually has a better marketshare than the NDS since the Vita is an absolute failure compared to the PSP. Marketshare are the sales of a product relative to the sales of the opposing product. Marketshare of the DS: Somewhat over 50%, Marketshare of the 3DS: 87% I think, you can see it on the front page.

True, but shouldn't we factor in mobile platforms as well? I don't know the numbers for the amount of handheld gamers using an Android or IOS device though.