PSP outsells DS in Japan

[A Black Falcon]

Of course I say it because they succeeded. The success of an idea is not measured merely by it's own merit, but also by how it's applied. When you create something new, you must also present a valid reason for it to exist, a valid application. There are plenty of great ideas out there that never come to fruition because while they sound really cool, they are either pointless or lack practicality.

With all of Nintendo's successful contrivances, you'll almost always find some sort of accompanying application. The analog stick had Mario 64, the Zapper had Duck Hunt... and the others had broad applications. Now, having a good application isn't the only necessary ingredient, price, ease of use, practicality, and so forth also count. The failures always lack one or more of these.

By that standard some of the things you said "failed" were successes. Connectivity, for instance -- what would Pac-Man Vs., FF: CC, and Zelda: FSA be but successes? And as for the bongos, that's only meant to work with a few games, but from what we have seen those games (Donkey Konga and King of Swing) are pretty good... Yes, there is less good to say about the Virtual Boy and E-Reader (especially the E-Reader, because at least the Virtual Boy was a good idea that went wrong), but hey, noone's perfect. Nintendo's just better than most. :)

My point is that you are looking back and saying 'of course the things that were widely successful had valid reasons to exist and the ones that failed did not'. This is only even vaguely mentionable IN RETROSPECT! That is, when Nintendo was making any of these things of course they thought that it'd be successful! Yes, there were warning signs for some of the failed things. But most of them could have done a lot better than they did had circumstances been different. Or in short, your line of reasoning is flawed.

Oh yeah, and as far as Nintendo goes is the Zapper a success either? Yes, it had Duck Hunt, but almost no OTHER NES games worth mentioning supported the thing... is success measured by one game? If so connectivity would also be a big success, given that it has two or three games that show off admirably what it can be when it is used well.

Now, you do say that other elements are responsible too, and that is true. Connectivity? Price was the big killer I think. The VB failed several tests. But still... Nintendo has taken risks which looked to most people like certain failures before only to have them pay off hansomely, so saying that just because it potentially has some problem that might limit its success, while true, does not necessarially relate to how successful the peripheral actually will be. Certain successes have failed and certain failures have succeeded before. Nintendo isn't sure which ones will be which so they keep trying. And they should.