I agree that the N64 was only competitive in the West.
That's not relevant to the topic over analog sticks though.
Sales only got brought up because someone (erroneously) claimed that Sony only developed analog sticks because nintendo was "eating their lunch". and got reactionary.
This never happened. Sony was WELL ahead worldwide, and this was still an era when both Sony and Nintendo were still pretty japan-centric. Stuff launched there first and maaybe the west got it later if it was popular.
Sony's analog devices were obviously in development alongside of, not a reaction to the N64, and aren't really similar to what Nintendo ended up doing. Namco's JogCon and NegCon are completely wacky analog pads that don't look like either but exist for the same reason- analog simply works better for certain polygonal games and 360 degree movement.
Sega I would probably agree was late to the party and reactionary though. they barely bothered with their analog pad outside of bundling it with Nights- but then again the Saturn was a disaster all around.
So the N64 analog appeared out of thin air? No prior production took place?
The N64 controller was shown completed before all this, when it was still called "Ultra 64".
Sony announced the flightstick in 1995. the dual analog was shown "completed" in 1996 before the N64 was on shelves (but delayed to launch alongside tobal in 1997). both were in development long before this, controller development and prototyping isn't trivial.
It doesn't matter that the N64 was shown "completed" in 1995 when it was still the ultra 64 (and I'm not certain on exactly when the controller was finalized) because analog joysticks were not new ideas. Again mattel had made one all the way back in 1982, and you could find them all over arcades.
they're just not practical if all you're doing is playing simple sprite based games. D pads work more than well enough- hell, D pads work well enough for a good chunk of the PS1 library.