Well, if it was a mistake on Nintendo's part they sure haven't been suffering for it. People are buying it in large numbers. We will have to see if they can keep it up.
Except for the Virtual Boy, Nintendo seems to make money hand over fist on every system they make. Sega usually had the opposite (mis)fortune. Too bad they didn't parly their succes with the Geneis into another succesful system. Oh, the Dreamcast started out very strong, but Sega just had too much debt and too many competitors with deep pockets.
Mark