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Mandalore76 on 04 September 2020
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DarthMetalliCube said:
Soundwave said:

That makes no sense. The media matters when it prevents likely hundreds of games from being on the platform. 

If Nintendo had used CD-ROM the N64 would not have had any droughts and likely doesn't lose Squaresoft or Enix as there isn't much incentive for them to leave.

Sony has no chance if they weren't allowed to basically poach all of Nintendo's NES/SNES support and that only happens because of the format choice. 

Saturn had CD Rom. Hell 3DO, CD-i, and Neo Geo CD did. why weren't they successful?

Not that media format wasn't a factor, but it's a vastly overrated one. 

Sony was poised for victory regardless. Sega had completely shot themselves in the foot by the mid-90s and Nintendo's lack of software, steep prices, and harsh third party restrictions set the conditions for another company to swoop in and disrupt the industry.

Maybe the dominance wouldn't have been as significant but they still would have come out on top - between the low price for their hardware, far looser third party restrictions, and the massive quantity and diversity of the library. Third parties were looking for a console that they could play a larger role in and have more leverage and Sony offered that with the Playstation. Nintendo did not. 

It's pretty well established what happened to these systems.  Sega had burned relationships with developers, retailers and consumers with the expensive and under supported 32X add on for the Genesis right before the Saturn's release.  The cherry on top was Sega bumping up the Saturn's launch date without giving prior notice to retailers and developers.

The Saturn and the NEO GEO CD were both $399.  I feel like too few people remember what a bombshell it was when Sony announced the price point of the PlayStation would just be "$299" moments after Sega's E3 presentation ended with Saturn's announced price being $399.

Speaking of launch prices, 3DO launched at $699.  That would be like Sony releasing the PS5 today at $1,275.  How many consoles do you think they would sell?

Everyone here is mentioning Nintendo's lack of software for the N64 as the reason Sony's Playstation dominated the gen.  Yet somehow, at the same time, are completely ignoring that the N64 being a cartridge based system was the biggest contributing factor to that software drought.  We have interviews with executives at Square who came out and confirmed this.  It's like people are acknowledging the symptoms of the illness, but are completely ignoring the causes.