Nintendo What-If? #4

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Peh said:
Nintendo sometimes don't think really straight. While they push into one direction, they still throw stones in their path. They did so with the cartridges on N64 and did the same with these mini discs on the Gamecube.

I just don't get it why they are limiting themselfs all the damn time.

Yeah, similar limitation to Xbox 360 using DVD's. The main issues with the medium relate to piracy. Piracy was what killed the Dreamcast in the end, PS2 did not have similar piracy in the early years that the Dreamcast had, because DVD-burners weren't a commodity yet, unlike CD-burners. The mini-DVD has certain size related limitations, but I'm not sure how many games actually needed more space.

Bandorr said:
Didn't the Playstation come around because N64 refused to use CDs?

If Nintendo didn't fall behind the times they wouldn't have lost Final Fantasy most likely. Would have helped it keep third parties and get more.

Probably would have been a monster of a success.

The CD based devices weren't really popular at all on the market (Amiga CD32, Mega CD, 3DO, CDi), so it made perfect sense not to include a CD drive. But not only that, after Nintendo's partnership with Sony and Philips had crashed and burned earlier, I don't know if Nintendo had the time to look for a new partner to develope a CD drive (moreso if N64 was developed the high-speed cart port in mind). The only problem with the cartridge in the end was it's high price.