Alternate history: N64 goes with CDs instead of cartridges

[curl-6]

DonFerrari said:

curl-6 said:

Unlicensed NES games wouldn't have been such a prevalent thing if there was no money to be made from it. I'm not saying this was a leading reason for them sticking with carts, it was just one of many factors.

Nintendo's relationship with third parties was strong enough that even with Sega offering a competitive alternative with the Megadrive, SNES still got top-shelf third party support with the biggest third party games of the generation like Final Fantasy, Street Fighter II, and Dragon Quest. There's no reason for that to change if they went with CDs for N64.

Time, attrition and continued strain can change everything.

Sure unlicensed NES games would only happen because there were money to be made (which doesn't mean it was made), as much as HW piracy was quite common for it as well (in Brazil there were plenty more non-Nintendo NES than otherwise).

Plus the idea Sega had with the CD was exactly to combat piracy, because at the time the CD manufacturing structure was much more expensive than for cartrdige (at least that is what I heard).

I dunno about that, CDs are a much simpler medium than cartridges which was the main reason they could be produced so much more cheaply.

At any rate, I think the 4th gen showed third parties were willing to stick with Nintendo even when there was a competitive alternative. Nintendo simply gave them no choice but to leave by only offering an expensive medium that couldn't really support the games they were making.