Nintendo turned their back on CD-ROM, and in effect alienated the entire third party community and their closest allies in the Famicom/Super Famicom days (Squaresoft and Enix).
They should have compromised on the N64 and bumped the price back to $249.99, but added a 4X CD-ROM to the console and the RAM Expansion built-in (in addition to the cartridge slot) and shelved the 64DD concept entirely (waste of time).
They still had a CD-ROM partner in Philips that wanted to supply them with CD drives, so that wasn't the issue.
N64 with Mario 64, Zelda: OoT, GoldenEye, Wave Race 64, Mario Kart 64, Star Wars Rogue Squadron, and Resident Evil 2, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, etc. (even if the third party stuff was just multiplatform) would've routed the Playstation (sorry Crash).
