Guess what Nintendo's biggest mistake in history was. First person to answer correctly gets...nothing really, but we can then talk about it.

So any takers?

EDIT: Someone guessed it. Sony was trying to pair up with Nintendo to create a console called Play Station, but Nintendo dissagreed on the CD distribution method and Sony was out to make more money off Nintendo than was reasonable. Nintendo eventually refused to release a console using CDs and had a major disadvantage technology wise using cartridges. Nintedno lost important 3rd party support and their games were expensive. PlayStation is now a major brand name and a huge competitor to Nintendo, also holding the title as the largest selling home console of all time, the PS2. Could have been Nintendo, but they didn't know Sony would go ahead and make a console after their deal went sour.

Not going through with the contract was not the mistake, but not coming to a workable solution that would have made Nintendo's console #1 that generation was.

Virtual Boy? Or you mean an opportunity that never manifested itself?

Or maybe you're talking about Nintendo's falling out with Sony which led to it's future rival competitor, the playstation.

Virtual Boy? I don't know if it was a "mistake," but rather a failure..

Screwing over Sony for a CD add-on.

Yeah that's it, not partnering with Sony. That was quick... I guess this is about that now then. I know there was probably good reason, Sony wanted a cut on software using the CD and Nintendo probably just didn't want to do that, but looking back it was a mistake. Imagine the Nintendo PlayStation, it would have been huge, maybe Sega would have retained enough market share to stay, lol. Oh man.

So, did the GameCube's format have something to do with this as well? Do DVD's give money to some company Nintendo didn't want a part in?

The 3DS, caused their first loss in... ever.

Virtual Boy is a more important one. We have to remember that some of these mistakes are different than we might recall them

1) Sony was trying to screw over Nintendo with the PlayStation even during the partnership. Under terms of the deal being cast, Nintendo would have had to pay Sony royalties to place Nintendo games on the Super Nintendo PlayStation, and why would they have done that?

2) Nintendo understands that there's no reason to give a game-box multimedia abilities. It's a red-herring to suggest that it has ever helped a console company sell consoles. The MiniDVDs were a holdover from Nintendo's desires of the N64 era: loading times are bad, how do we alleviate them? That and the fact that full-size DVDs in the 6th generation allowed for as much waste as CDs did in the 5th generation and Blu-Ray discs currently. Unnecessary space for the vast majority of games.

3) 3DS Loss. Part of this is on Nintendo for not giving the 3DS enough compelling software early on so that they were unable to successfully employ razor-and-blade model, but much of it was down to the fact that Nintendo burns through expenses in strong Yen and takes up revenue mostly in piddly dollars and Euros. So much of Nintendo's vaunted loss for the year is to do with exchange rates.

The 3DS price was a horrible mistake yes. They should have released it at $200 and dropped the price of the DSi, well maybe not at the same time, probably before or a bit after the 3DS launch to prevent cannabalism. Anyway they racked up CRAZY sales after the drop and for the holidays, so wasn't the worse thing in the world at the end of the day, but it doesn't really provide a strong sense of what its future will be.

Yes the terms weren't the greatest but there must have been some good points in the deal that Sony could have provided Nintendo. Looking back at what PlayStation became, royalties sound like a small price to pay.