d21lewis said: Basically, we had a PS2 vs Dreamcast scenario. Except, not. -Thanks to the prior console being so good, Nintendo convinced gamers to wait for "the best" (instead of buying a PS1 or Saturn. When it arrived it didn't totally deliver in several ways. They lost the gen because of several poor decisions. - Because the PS1 was so good, Sony convinced gamers to wait for "the best"instead of a Dreamcast. When it arrived, it delivered in most ways. They won the gen because of several good decisions. |
Actually nothing like that at all.
N64 sold 6.4 million in the US in its first year ... that is unbelievably successful even by today's standards where the industry is arguably 2-4x the size. Dreamcast couldn't have (well pun intended) dreamed of sales like that. Super Mario 64 was a legit "holy shit" moment. Even GoldenEye I would say is basically the precursor to the modern game console
The numbers the N64 put up in its first year are obsene. I would say arguably they're better than any game console's first year in North America, even the Wii when you factor in the era they were produced in.
After a year unfortunately people started to realize the N64 wasn't like the Super NES and wasn't going to have a wide variety of games and then it all went south for Nintendo. But they had it, right there, right in their hands, everything they needed to win and win easily. Basically they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
It's unreal how much Nintendo had in their back pocket at that time (circa 1995). Squaresoft, Enix, home console FPS shooters ... shit even DMA Design, the guys who made GRAND THEFT AUTO were working as a Nintendo 2nd party, lol at this time. They could've had GTA exclusive if they really wanted it, DMA approached them about it first, lol. Like how the fuck do you have all this going for you and you EAD operating a god tier with Mario 64 and Zelda: Oot and Rare operating at near god tier and still ... somehow ... you screw it up ... lol. It irks me to this day, it's kinda unbelievable to me even now.
Like Sega's fall, ok was somewhat predictable, they never really had any of the stuff Nintendo had. Didn't have EAD, Rare, didn't have FPS shooters just as that genre would become arguably the most important in the console business, didn't have DMA Design, hell Sony even worked for Nintendo before.