Yep really. Game cube had 3rd party, solid games and successful new IP's sold 22million and made a small profit. How is it not moderatelybsuccesful? Whereas wii sold a shit ton, made a ton off money, appealed mainly to grandmas and parents. Most of its IP's are dead see wii fit wii sport. And it pretty much destroyed Nintendo rep as a serious alternative to PS/Xbox. To me thats a failure.

You forgot to add "most gamers between 16-24 hate this console" While the rest of the gaming world seemed to be perfectly fine with it, or learned to like it with time. It's pretty hard for the "core gamer" (read anti-social human) to accept that the Wii was such a succesful device, despite it's below par graphics for the generation it was in.

I think it's more of the social bubble that people in that above age demographic struggle with - they think they are the core of the world, but when you hit 25 (in most cases), you realize that you are an insignificant speck in this world, and that what you thought you knew, was actually simple arrogance, and that you really don't know much of anything. This will continue as you continue to age and eventually seek the answers and realize that the crowd mentality (read console war fanboys) is actually quite destructive.

Isnt the Wii the third most selling console of all time? I dont see that as a failure.

And oops, i thought you were talking about both Consoles and Handhelds, because in the handhelds market, they basically dominate. 

OH WOW!!!! 

I'll tell you the true reason. Over the years, core gamers have just lost interest in Nintendo's home consoles. The same old IPs, even with slightly different takes on them, is not enough for them. They went elsewhere for different IPs and experiences. This only leaves the big Nintendo fans to buy their systems, which there seems to be maybe about 18M or so. Unless the NX is WAY better than the PS5, I see the same fate for it.

I think MS is starting to see the fruits of pumping out the same old franchises, too. Sure, they have a couple new IPs coming, but they made sure to get their big hitters out, first. Again, this really only helps with the big Xbox fans. Fortunately for MS, they still have good 3rd party support.

The market Nintendo has always had cornered, was filled with casuals to begin with, which is why they have always been successful there. Unfortunately, the casuals are starting to switch to smartphones. This is why the 3DS will fall incredibly short of the DS, even though it has little direct competition from something like the Vita.

Agreed. 3DS is getting owned by the Vita.

I'd argue Nintendo's unique approach, while often preventing them from winning a generation for reasons quirky or economical, is the primary reason they're still around while all other non-giant-conglomerates have stepped out of the console business.

Nintendo is certainly no small company, but they're the only one left that's essentially a gaming/toy company thats still finding a way to stay involved and make money. I don't think going mainstream is necessarily the answer.

This....this makes no sense. The only console developers of note from the past thirty years that have stepped out of the console making business are Atari because they never fully recovered after the video game crash, and Sega because they screwed up and buried themselves.

Just out of interest where in my OP did you see handhelds?

There is nothing inherently wrong with being unique. The problem comes about when you're trying to be unique for the sake of being unique, not because it's a good option. If what you're offering consumers is less enjoyable or offers less value than what your competitors are offering, then you will lose and it will be your own fault.