Xxain said:
No. We already know that at the time 3rd party developers had nearly broke necks to move away from Nintendo and their policies at the time. N64 failure was not just a tech thing.
EDIT: This is a old tired topic. How many times have we had discussion on this topic and how many more times can anybody stomach it?
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Even so, the one and only reason that Square walked away was the format. Square admits they viewed themselves as a 2nd party publisher for Nintendo at the time and only began developing for Sony when Nintendo didn't follow Squares advise about making sure the N64 was day one CD-ROM capable.
Hironobu Sakaguchi
Producer and executive vice president, Square Japan; Chairman and chief executive officer, Square USA
PlayStation games being on CDs was the biggest factor. The biggest problem was, of course, memory. Based on our calculations there was no way it could all fit on a ROM cartridge. So our main reason for choosing the PlayStation was really just because it was the only console which would allow us to use CD-ROM media.
Shinichiro Kajitani
Vice president, Square USA
At that time, Square was really close to Nintendo — we were basically like a second party for them. So when their new system was in development, we gave them lots of advice, like, “You’re going to need a CD-ROM drive for it,” “You don’t have enough bandwidth to do what we’re trying to do,” and, “With what you have now, we’re not going to be able to make an RPG.” We gave them lots of advice. But [Nintendo president] Yamauchi-san at Nintendo basically refused to listen to any of it. And that’s when Sakaguchi-san and the management team at Square decided, “OK, we’re going to go with Sony now.”
https://gonintendo.com/stories/289651-square-enix-opens-up-about-trying-to-make-final-fantasy-vii-for-n
If the N64 had been released with CD-ROM as its launch software format, it's a safe bet that Konami would have also released Metal Gear Solid on it as well. Then, there goes 2 of the PlayStation's biggest 3rd party exclusives. So yes, basically 1 change in development decision could have had a massive impact on the way the 5th console generation played out.