^Yeah, I'm finally starting to understand what Rol meant when he said that the 64 failed on its own merits.
He was wrong in the sense that Nintendo was crushed in the red ocean by Sony, and that wasn't due to software in any way but to many circumstantial factors we already talked about in the past.
But he could be right in the sense that had Nintendo adopted a blue ocean strategy as of the N64, they could've come out the other end unscathed.
Yet all hypothetical. The sure solution would have been to solve the other factors first (catridges, 3rs party relationships). Those were sure wins.
But a 2D Mario true, it could have been a winner. But as you said alternative history is hard to judge for things like disruptive strategies. It was a different time than the Wii, a different team. If Nintendo failed the Nintendo Difference mission on the cube, who's to say they wouldn't have failed on the 64? Maybe 2D Mario wouldn't have worked as well as expected, and a 30% drop off the series could have ensued.
The sure winners were solving the red ocean problems and also going after business risks in the blue ocean, but that didn't happen, so let's hope the WiiU can rewrite history in the present!
