I would like to poll the gaming community and see what your personal sales criteria are for a console NOT being a failure.  For example, most people here seem to consider the N64 to NOT be a commercial failure whereas the Gamecube was largely considered to be a failure from a sales point of view.  The difference between the N64 and the Gamecube sales were as follows:

Do you feel that there is an static minimum number of sales that a console must ship in order to not be regarded as a failure?  If so, where do you feel that this line should be placed:

10 million:

This would place the Dreamcast into the failure category while a system such as the Wii U would not be regarded as a commercial failure.

20 million:

This would place the Wii U (likely to be less than 20 million, lifetime) in the failure category whereas the Gamecube (21.74 million) would not be regarded as a failure.

30 million:

This would place the original XBox in the failure category, while the N64 could be regarded as possibly being a success:

40 million:

This would place the Sega Genesis (40-45 million) above the threshold for failure while the N64 (32.92 million) would be a failure.

50 million:

This would make the original NES as a possible success while the SNES would be considered a failure:

Sources:

http://vgsales.wikia.com

Lower than 20 million. IMO

It depends on marketshare and sales not just sales. N64 had over 20% marketshare. Gamecube and Xbox did not. Wii U and vita don't.

30-40m and 20%+ marketshare is decent.

Personally I believe failure and success should be divided by profit and loss. Lest we count a war of attrition as a success. In terms of arm chair analysis 30 million makes the perceptual difference in the minds of gamers.

PS3 sold 80+ million copies and lost $3 billion. On the contrary GameCube sold 20+ million and made money. I will call GameCube a success. At the end of the day it's balance sheet that determines success.

I guess it all depends on whether they make a profit in the long run.. but at the same time, how it does when compared to other systems as well

30 million consoles and 20% marketshare is a relative success.

Depends on what the expectations for the console are as well, if the previous market leader only sells 30 million, then it's hard to spin that as a success.

I would say its a successful product if it sells past 40million, but a success if it has a net positive result economically, regardless of how many units it sells. Ofcourse there are other factors like how the low sales affect the brand long term.

It's relative, it is a failure relative to the sales of the current competition.

How I feel as well.   If someone entered the console market now and sold 15 million I think we'd all be impressed. Meanwhile we'd all expect more from three established companies/brands.