I think it had a great life in Japan, but not a terribly exciting one either. Time and lack of plausible competition helped.
Still far from a failure, but not sure at which point you can call it "a success". Success in terms of software maybe?
mmh hard to say, I am probably very wrong (don't know the numbers by heart), but I think its JPN software sales are comporable to that of the gamecube? 1 game over a million plus several 500k and more 300k with most doing much less than that. Isn't that what PS3 has done so far, mostly?
NGC software must have been profitable for nintendo so PS3 SW business must have been good for sony too, I'd guess