Nintendo should've just called an 11th hour meeting on the N64 with third parties and compromised on the CD-ROM issue. Yamauchi was insane to go cart only and IMO a lot of the N64 decision to go cart-only was fueled by Mr. Miyamoto who didn't like loading times.
You shouldn't let the creative fetishes of your designers dictate your business policy. Business is business. Miyamoto should've been allowed to make Mario 64 however he wanted, but otherwise he should've sat down and kept quiet.
The system was originally supposed to cost $250 and launch in 1995, but Nintendo cut the price to $199.99 before launch. What they should've done is added a CD drive to the system (you can have both carts and CDs, no law against it, the Saturn did it) and gone back to the $249.99 price point.
It would've opened the door to tons of third party support for the console.
