Nintendo signed the deal with Sony in 1988, you kinda have to remember Nintendo was still a fly by their pants small company that was just making shit up on the fly, they had only really been in the console business for 5 years, that means think about the time from 2021 to today, lol. That's nothing. There was no real blue print to follow either, Atari had some success and had drove the game business into the shitter as well in the span of about 4-5 years.
Someone screwed up the deal big time, Sony getting licensing fee rights to all CD games was a laughably stupid deal that couldn't be allowed to come to fruition, whoever didn't fully read that contract should have been fired.
Nintendo had to bail on the deal, in hindsight what they should have done is just release the SFC CD-ROM in Japan only (like the 64DD), let it flop, thus getting them off the hook and then locked Sony in to a CD deal for then next 2-3 generations of Nintendo consoles with a non-compete clause, lol. Of course everything is perfect with hindsight.
Nintendo didn't know what they were doing in the 80s, they were just making shit up as they went. Have a hit game like Super Mario Bros? Just make a sequel that's basically the same exact engine remixed (Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan) ... oops, that didn't work. OK lets do Super Mario Bros. 3 (ding ding ding). They had no idea what they were doing with the Game Boy either and at one point Yamauchi ordered the project cancelled but the team behind it simply didn't listen to him, lol. Totally chaotic environment.
Last edited by Soundwave - on 23 January 2026
