If the N64 had a CD-ROM Drive, would've Nintendo won the generation in sales?

[The_Liquid_Laser]

haxxiy said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Nintendo would have won with a CD-Rom.  Playstation was not selling well until it got Final Fantasy 7.  It was doing ok, but not nearly well enough to beat Nintendo.  The main third parties that didn't like Nintendo were Western devs like EA, but Western devs were not that important during the Gen 5 era.  Plenty of third party games still ended up on the Gameboy.  This idea that devs wanted to flee Nintendo is extremely overstated.  There was no mass exodus from Nintendo handhelds.  The main reason why third parties switched on home systems was 1) CD's were a much better format and 2) Playstation was selling well after FF7 ended up on it.  If Nintendo has CDs and FF7, then Playstation doesn't do nearly as well.

Nah. The PlayStation had demolished the Saturn on launch, and had loads of third party titles coming up. The positive relationship Sony carved with developers back then was unlike anything ever seen in the industry. I'd say even now Nintendo hasn't quite climbed to the standard set back in 1994.

Besides, you can bet there would have been some uniquely Nintendesque BS if they had opted for CDs instead. Like having to buy a million units of their proprietary kid-proof plastic or something.

Sony would have definitely finished ahead of Sega, even if Nintendo had included a CD-Rom.  However they were also in a situation much like NEC with the TG16.  Both were big electronics companies heading into gaming for the first time.  NEC had their share of third party games on the TG16, but it wasn't enough to gain much traction in the marketplace.  

Sony was in a similar boat.  The PS1 was not selling terribly well before Final Fantasy 7.  They didn't have a real killer app, and they didn't have a compelling reason for most Japanese devs to commit to the system.  If Nintendo had a CD Rom, then Sony would have ended up a lot like NEC, maybe a little better, because the Saturn was so terrible.  But Nintendo would have still secured the #1 spot.