What do you think is the dumbest business decision ever made Video Game wise?

 I think the dumbest or atleast one of the dumbest things was Nintendo selling Rare. It wasnt just that they sold Rare (which would be stupid in its own rights since they helped them during the N64 era) but its that they sold it to Microsoft one of the three company's which they are competing with. Plus they had some big hits with Rare like Donkey Kong 64, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Blast Corps, GoldenEye, Diddy Kong Racing, Star Fox Adventures, Conker 64 (my favorite game of all time), and many more.

Sticking with cartridges, and 599 US dollars.

I'm sorry...not trying to flame...but it needs to be said...$600 console.

ET?

(the business decision being that atari thought they could put a popular name on a crap half-ass game and it would sell)

 to those of you unaware, ET on Atari was one of the main cause of the video game crash of 1983

They didn't really sell Rare though, they sold off their shares after Microsoft bought the Majority of Rare. So even if they hadn't sold their shares, Rare would still be making games for Microsoft right now. I think Nintendo did the right thing. They got money out of the deal.

I'd say the biggest screw up was Atari not putting backwards compatibility in the Atari 5200. They went from completely revolutionizing videogames to being absolute nobodies with lightning speed.

Nintendo backing out of the arrangement with SONY for the SNES CD-add on and the Nintendo Playstation stand-alone console. At the time, it might have seemed like the thing to do, but in hindsight, probably the worst business decision.

I have to disagree on the rare selling decision. They had stopped making any really good games before Nintendo sold them, and the Gamecube didn't seem to suffer (more than normal) in the post Rare era.

I am going to have to echo the sentiment that a $600 pricetag on a console was the biggest mistake. I suppose that could possibly be proven wrong by the end of the generation, but I figure it will be the second biggest at best. The other one that might be the biggest (depending on how this generation plays out) is the sticking with catridges on the N64. As much as I love them for sticking with it (I hate load times and FMV cut scenes) it certainly cost them the position as the market leader.

It wasn't thinking it would sell, as lots of crappy game sell due to their license. It was assuming that the game would sell much higher than even the bestselling crappy license game does.

Yea, and even though it may have seemed foolish back then what games has Rare made for microsoft that were successes like on Nintendo platforms? That will probably change come Banjo 3 though.

600 dollar system

N64 and cartridges

HD-DVD player costing 200 dollars

No AAA games coming out until mid-late 2008 (you know what I am talking about)