wfz on 06 December 2009
For the record (from wikipedia):
"The SNES-CD was to be announced at the May 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment."
I wouldn't necessarily call that "low balling" by Nintendo, considering the plan details.
