Not now I'm going outside

 Just when the story was getting interesting

Can you recommend a book on the history of Nintendo?

This was also the thought before MS came to the industry. MS was about productivity software and OSes, not gaming. Then they decided to branch out into it. Why wouldn't Apple desire to enter the largest industry out there? If you think about it, the Game Cube ran on a PowerPC, so technically Apple has had their hand involved in at least a small part of the industry so far. I think with the way they are expanding, it would only seem logical.

 While I admit my reply was a little ignorant...I firmly believe ignorant topics deserve ignorant posts. :)

Bad for some of the companies maybe, but good for the consumers. The Genesis/SNES period was in many ways a golden era for gaming, with a lot of innovation as well as perfection of known formulas. Zelda 3, Sonic 1-3, Super Metroid, SMW and Yoshi's Island, Donkey Kong Country, Mario Kart, F-Zero, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Contra III, Star Fox, Pilotwings, the list goes on.

Sega got its first big break the following year when Namco, the number one third-party developer in Japan and creator of the classic arcade game Pac-Man, abruptly joined the MegaDrive fold. Up to that time, Namco was one of the few companies to enjoy a sweetheart deal with Nintendo, made during the early days of the Famicom (NES) when Nintendo was trying to sign anybody and everybody they could to code for the new system. Namco's lucrative contract ended in 1989, at which time Nintendo's Yamauchi bluntly informed Namco representatives that they would have to sign the same standard development contract as everybody else. This would cut Namco's profit margins and severely restrict the number of Famicom titles it could develop, as well as making said titles exclusive to the Famicom. In other words, no more side benefits. Namco CEO Masaya Nakamura is said to have exploded into a fit of rage when given the bad news, and he promptly decided to do what no other Nintendo licensee in Japan had yet dared. In a carefully worded interview with Japan's top-selling newspaper, the Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Nakamura accused Nintendo of holding an illegal monopoly on the Japanese videogame market, quick to silence any company that dared question its judgement. To question Nintendo would be the same as committing virtual suicide, claimed Nakamura - and some in the industry wondered if Namco was about to do just that.

The resulting war of words was quite predictable. Yamauchi promptly gave his own interview, in which he publicly chided Namco for not being gracious about the profits it had earned as the Famicom's very first licensee. As a result, Namco's "privileges" would be withheld in any future contract. Namco quickly responded that they would support the console market's newcomer, the Sega MegaDrive, instead of Nintendo's aging warhorse. Nintendo said that Namco's threat was hollow and again accused it of welshing on its exclusive privileges. Namco then responded with a federal lawsuit filed with the Kyoto District Judiciary, charging Nintendo with anti-competitive behavior and monopolistic practices. Yamauchi laughed it off. "Frankly, Namco is envious of us," he said in a published interview with Zakai magazine. "If they are not satisfied with Nintendo and the way we do business, they should create their own market. That is the advantage of the free market." The comment was not entirely truthful - the market was not free no matter what Yamauchi claimed - and Namco was forced to face that sad reality soon enough.

It did not take long for Namco to go crawling back to Nintendo. They had a half-dozen or so arcade ports already under development for the MegaDrive (Phelios, Klax, Burning Force, MegaPanel, and Dangerous Seed), but none of them would be ready for market until the middle of 1990. In the meantime, Namco's bottom line took a royal pounding from the loss of its Nintendo license. Several months after the fireworks had first commenced, Namco quietly withdrew its lawsuit against Nintendo. Masaya Nakamura sullenly instructed his staff to make arrangements to secure a standard Nintendo development contract. There would be no argument - he had Namco's latest financial returns before him in all their dismal splendor. Namco's new contract would include Nintendo's standard restriction clauses, severely limiting Namco's ability to develop for the Sega MegaDrive and other competing platforms. The behemoth of the industry had flexed its muscles. Even so venerated an outfit as Namco, one of the founders of the arcade videogame industry, had been forced to toe the Nintendo company line. Nakamura would never forgive his humiliation at the hands of Yamauchi, nor did the latter particularly care how Namco perceived his company's behavior. The affair would come back to haunt Nintendo in later years, however. As soon as it was able, Namco dropped out of the Nintendo fold and openly developed software for the systems of its competitors. It is a grudge that has separated the two companies to this day, and it is a rare and notable event whenever a Namco title makes an appearance on a Nintendo console.

@celine
Interesting read.

Didn't namco make Star Fox for gamecube and mario sluggers for wii?

No bad in general. Nintendo stoppped to grow the market and started a bitter and empity war against Sega using pathetic marketing campaign revolt toward teens. There was many great games at that time ( Snes best console ever ) but problem with 3rd party weren't never truly addressed and both Sega and Nintendo were severly damaged.

Ironically Genesis was Sega msot ppular console but also the beginning of the end for Sega Enterprise itself.

With Snes Nintendo proved to not understand the marke at that time, its blind mentality caused the company demise.

The general rule is that grow the market is good, competing is bad. 

They made Sluggers, I don't know about Starfox.