DonFerrari said:
curl-6 said:
On SNES vs Megadrive, another significant factor in the former's victory in the 4th gen was a little game called Donkey Kong Country.
Arriving somewhat late in the gen, it was a huge deal at the time with its mind-blowing pre-rendered graphics and next level soundtrack, and it was a major killer app for the SNES, giving it a real shot in the arm at a time when Sega was shifting their focus to new hardware.
When the Megadrive started lose momentum and peter out, the SNES keep steaming on beyond the release of the PS1 and Saturn, and DKC was a key game in keeping Nintendo's ageing 16-bit machine relevant.
It's worth noting that the game was also a collaboration with a then third party, Rare.
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DKC is great, but didn't Nintendo already owned half of Rare?
I suspect DKC and its great performance may have influenced on they not putting CD. Also there are stories about Shigeru being jealous.
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Nintendo bought a 25% share of Rare after being impressed by their proposal and demos for a pre-rendered game, and that gradually went up to a 49% share over time.
I don't think it's very likely DKC turned them away from CDs though, I think that was probably more their fear of piracy after how big a problem that was for them on the NES, and the failure of early CD-based consoles like the 3DO.
