| the_dengle said: Nintendo's biggest mistake was how it treated third parties. They all abandoned the N64 for greener pastures on PS1. |
This. During the Nes, Super Nes, and Gameboy days, Nintendo was the biggest game in town. As a result, you played by their rules or you didn't play at all. As a result, Nintendo was able to charge high premiums to third parties. They could limit the amount of games a third party could produce. If Nintendo was releasing a game in a certain genre, they could force a company to postpone their title so that Nintendo's game had no competition. They could force censorship. In short, Nintendo of old was a tyrant company.
So, in 1995, they decided to stubbornly stick to the outdated cartridge format and attempt to force companies to continue to buy expensive cartridges from Nintendo. Unfortunately, for them, Sony was on the market and their Playstation console was easy and cheap to develop for. As a result, Nintendo mainstays like Konami (Metal Gear, Castlevania), Capcom (Mega Man, Street Fighter), Square (Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger), and tons and tons of companies that created classics for Nintendo consoles all jumped ship. To be honest, I never felt that Sony knew what they were doing during the early days of the PS1. The influx of AMAZING titles from third parties made the PS1 the place to be for all gamers.
So, with newfound freedom, companies were able to release the kinds of games they wanted to release without fear of censorship, expensive license fees, release date control, etc. And, of course, real gamers go where the games are. Nintendo (who was considered a more family friendly option, even during the 16-Bit era compared to the Turbo-Grafx and Genesis) just couldn't compete with the "cooler" choice. And, once Sony had a grip on the industry, there wasn't much Nintendo could do to take leadership back from them.
Even the Wii had the potential to fail miserably had Sony not made many terrible business decisions at the start of the gen. Nintendo's hubris brought about their dark times just like Sony's has now. If Nintendo has managed to mend the damage caused during their Golden Age, and third parties are willing to support them in droves, the Wii U will be unstoppable. If third parties are restricted by Nintendo, Nintendo is in for a rude awakening. The competition is tougher than it's ever been and other options exist.
