I think its unfair to say Nintendo products are derivative and mediocre because Nintendo has never tried to lead the way from a technology hardware aspect. Nintendo knows their customer base is primarily made up of nostalgia first party addicts so they play their role. As you stated
@Truck_1_0_1_ they have sound business acumen/practices which Sega did not.
If Nintendo tried to match Sony and Microsoft with $500-$600 consoles they would go the way of the dodo like Sega. Nintendo 3rd party support has historically been atrocious further limiting them. I think Nintendo has really figured something out from a hardware perspective with the Switch. They now have a flagship console with AAA games thats portable, so genius. I'm interested to see what they do going forward.
Nintendo has had some failures like Sega: Virtual Boy, N64( great system), Gamecube(great system), and the Wii U but Nintendo was always able to at least stay afloat instead of completely drowning.
@Seaman I agree that Sega now needs Nintendo but I have to disagree with the part of Sega coming back to destroy Nintendo. Its because of the fanboy/arcade wars that also hurt Sega in the long run. When Sega was on their last leg and needed consumers to support their products you had a entire market of Nintendo fanboys that wouldn't dare support Sega. Moving forward we have to stop division and support those doing right by the consumers.
Sega was forward thinking, ahead of their time, trailblazers but they lacked brand awareness, brand identity and the weren't in touch with their consumers. When they tried to turn a new leaf with the Dreamcast it was damn near to late. I hope Team Blue can find success again one day and comeback to hardware market, Lord knows we need it.