Alternate history: N64 goes with CDs instead of cartridges

[Nautilus]

Soundwave said:

Nautilus said:
You guys need to remember that the games format wasnt the only problem Nintendo had back in the day.Sure, it was probably one of the biggest, but not the only one.They had bad relations with developers(due to the cuts and restrictions that they imposed if Im not mistaken) and bad relations with retailers, even if this final point was due to the high cost of the cartriges.

Probably there is more, but you get the gist of it.Having said that, the PS1 won because of the many developers that jumped ship and went to the PS1, like Square.

Even this is not entirely true. By the N64 era, Nintendo has already started to repair their relationships with companies like Namco and Capcom. 

Namco had a long grudge against Nintendo, but they ironed that out and agreed to let Nintendo even make a Ridge Racer game (RR64, developed by NST for the N64). With Capcom they started to woo them back by getting RE2 ported somehow onto a massive cart and then a deal for Resident Evil 0, which got moved to the GameCube and they made a bigger deal for RE exclusivity.

Developers don't make decisions based on "like" or "dislike" this isn't junior high, this is a business. If Nintendo had CDs, they would've kept Final Fantasy most notably and dominated Japan at the very least, which makes it virtually impossible for any Japanese developer to keep their games off the system not matter how much they like another company. 

Oh, they do.Even if only on a small level.Square had been wanting to leave Nintendo for a while back in the day, and while the business decision is the one that really made them jump over to the PS1, their grudge against Nintendo not only helped, but probably incentivized them on trying to find a better deal somewhere.In a way, having good relations with developers is like having good customer support in a supermarket.Good customer suport can win over new buyers because its less of a hassle to go shopping there.But yeah, as you said, if the competitor has better prices, then they will go to the competitor, no matter the situation.

A classic example of this was RE 4.Shinji Mikami hated Playstation.So much so that he tried his hardest to keep RE 4 away from the PS2, and the game only came over because the PS2 was a roaring sucess and the gamcube a giant failure.