I loved the N64, but the reason it was possibly the most colossal failure for Nintendo was simply due to the fact that it opened the way for Sony to enter the market.

If Nintendo had not been stingy with cartridges and broken the contract it had with Sony to make its next console have a disc drive, they would not have nearly as much competition today.

It had some great games, but as the successor of the SNES, it was a massive failure when compared to the PSX.

Sorry but it's very telling that pretty much everyone has taken Sony's DS1 design these days.  a diamond of buttons on the right, dpad on the left, 4 shoulder buttons, 2 ergonomic handles, 2 joysticks, and a couple buttons in the middle.  That's what works as evidenced by the most refined controllers (the most recent gen) all having it.  DS4, X1 pad, and WiiU Pro controller (which is infinitely more comfortable than the gamepad because handles are better than squares) all know what's up.

It's all relative. Compared to SNES it lost about 20% of its market, which itself lost 13% of its market. So it was charting a course to failure rather than recovery. And of course selling 1/3 of the gen winner was also a failure given it had never lost a generation up to that point.

Sega was never a force to be reckoned with in the hardware game. At best Genesis meant Sega showed promise, on which they failed to capitalise.

Xbox was the worst new console brand launch in the modern console era. If it had been any company other than the deep pocketed MS it would never have been greenlit for a second turn. And 360 would have done about as poorly as Xb og if Sony had been less adventurous with PS3. So it caught a lucky break.

The last great Nintendo console in my opinion.

My first time playing an N64 was a problematic one...  I could not understand the "c" buttons.  The analog stick in the middle, the directional pad on the left... wasn't there a Z button in the back of the controller too?  It was too much for me to take in, and then still have to learn the rules of the game we were playing.  I remember that controller and me having issues with it more-so than the actual game we played.

Sega Genesis is Sega's only real successful console, and as people have been saying, the N64 did not out-sell it.

And then, we get to those game carts.  Sure, they're better for taking a beating from kids.  But, they are more expensive to produce/destroy.

I think of the N64 as a "failure," as you say, because of the controller's confusing button lay-out and Nintendo's lack of desire to move to discs.

The 64 controller and the majority of the 64's game library was horrible. So yes, it was a failure as a console and the beginning of nintendo's disconnect from gamers.

It's a failure where I'm from...no matter how insignificant it may be. The use of cartridge made it the more expensive choice. It didn't make sense, unless you're a die hard Mario fan.

I'm actually surprised to see it sold that much overall.

As of when? Cause surely they've got to have decreased the overall loss since then as I assume the PS3 is pure profit now.