Nintendo was never doomed

[Jumpin]

Nintendo's biggest disaster was the N64. It seems the generation did irreparable damage to Nintendo's partnerships - permanently losing most of their exclusive Japanese support, as well as Rockstar North/DMA over in the U.K., and they failed to get their grips on RARE, who then sold to Microsoft shortly after the generation.

Nintendo also permanently lost the most iconic RPG series, Final Fantasy. They regained Dragon Quest after a two game outing with Sony, but DQ10 and 11 are both Multiplatform.

Had Nintendo not gone with cartridges on N64, Final Fantasy, Xenogears, and all of those classic PlayStation games would have been on it. It's possible Monolithsoft would have remained Nintendo exclusive as well, even if the breakup with Square did occur... mostly because it's unlikely Namco would have left Nintendo either, but also because Monolithsoft would have been developing Xenosaga on N64. There might not have been a GameCube, as N64 would have been able to live strongly until 2003 - and by then, the Wii technology would have been in the picture.

Of course, it's also possible that Iwata may have never ascended to the top; but he would be near the top.