In 2 childish words: "OMG YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Of course it would of helped. Garnering Square's support for major projects would of immensely helped out. It would of taken Japan, done better in the US, and made some ground in Europe. IMO, the sales would be around 80,50,15 for the N64, PS1, and Saturn.
Remember the big games: Japan had no big games except for Mario 64. Outside of that, every major J-game was Saturn or PS1 (for the most part). In the US, there were plenty of west-centric titles in Turok, Goldeneye and such. They helped the N64 still get a staggering 20m units sold (which is good by any standard, IMO).
IMO, had Nintendo not been snooty, and put a CD-rom in there, devs would of stayed on the Nintendo platform, and I would of greatly benefitted, getting my precious FF4 on N64.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
