"Worst mistake is when you rush games to completion while hyping it as the best ever, without having it fully done. No names needed we have all played one or two or ten of them."

One name is always needed when talking of such games and that name is of course:

DAIKATANA

Because John Romero is gonna make you his bitch!

Nintendo sticking with cartridges with the N64.

Sony using Blu-Ray and Cell with the PS3.

Microsoft not fixing the RROD problem before the first 360 came off the assembly line.

cartridges ofcrs,

if nintendo didnt do that mistake there wont be a console named PS2

i think selling rare to microsoft was one of the smartest moves nintendo did go c why they sold rare to know why

Dumbest business decision?

Changing the initial specifications of the Sega Saturn from a single-processor unit, to a dual-core, dual VPU unit, effectively hamstringing easy programming for the system.

Not only this, not attempting to create a better SDK for developers, of which, the Genesis was great.


Those 2 decisions destroyed Sega as a console maker, effectively. A knee jerk reaction by a stupid Sega CEO caused one of the best systems to effectively crash. The Saturn would of been under-PS1 pricing, but instead, was $100 over.

The Saturn was just poorly designed period. Given their pioneering of the 3D gaming in the arcades, it is inexcusable for Sega to have been caught with their pants down by the PS1. They should just took N64 chipset since it was offered to them first. I mean can you imagine the N64 chipset with a CD-ROM drive. The Saturn would have been a beast, in a good way, to say the least.

I see a lot of people who are using the N64 cartridge as the problem with the N64's support but that (really) wasn't what hurt them in that generation ...

After the SNES's (and Gameboy's) success Nintendo was very arogant and thought that people would buy any system that had 'Nintendo' written on it. At the same time Nintendo talked (openly) about how they wanted to produce a system that only had the highest quality games on it; there are lots of rumors of Nintendo's behind doors meeting with third party developers and Nintendo's attempts to accomplish this goal.

Ultimately, these discussions offended a lot of third party publishers (and to a certain exted scared them) which resulted in a very strained relationship.

Had Nintendo maintained better third party relations durring the N64 generation they probably would have had better third party support, and many of the "classic" third party games people believed couldn't be done on the N64 would have been produced with realtime cut scenes rather than pre-rendered FMV.

Basically, the mistake was hubris and arogance which is true for most of the biggest mistakes inside the gaming market.

Edit: There were many more problems in third party relations durring the N64 generation, and it was the combination of all these problems that killed support.

It will be interesting to see this list once (if) DNF comes out...

What are the biggest big-budget flops in movies anyway? Battlefield Earth?

Nintendo sticking with cartridges with the N64.

Guys, look back at the time. Two CD console came out and failed. One was by Sega and I can not remember the name of the other company. It could be SNK with the NeoGeo CD but I'm not sure. Because of this Reps at Nintendo decided to stick with cartridges. Remember, Square showed the Final Fantasy N64 SGI Demo giving the impression that they were supporting the N64.

No one knew that the Playstation would be successful. It launched a year before the N64 yet the N64 was the fasting selling system when it launched it broke the previous launch records. However Square launched Final Fantasy VII on the Playstation because the expense of cartridges. 3D RPGs became a popular genre and helped the Playstation become the dominate Platform. What if Square would have supported the N64 with all their RPGs. Would we all still think that sticking with cartridges was a bad idea?

Sony, did what they had to do with the PS3. Their electronics business is falling to the competition. Before most electronics products had the name Sony on them. Stereos, VCRS, and portable music devices. Now there are so many quality products that are cheaper than what Sony can provide. That any technological advancement that they can develop means saving their struggling business. If they, Sony, can establish Blue Ray CDs as the next generation DvD then that means licensing fees, money, that Sony earns off each Blue Ray DVD sold. Sony has not made a lot of money off the Playstation or the Playstation 2. Well not enough to sell off their electronics business. They could have worked with Toshiba and developed the next gen dvd but I guess saving their electronics business mattered more.

Microsoft has to include Japan in their plans. In order to be successful in the console market, A console has to sell well in all three major territories, North America, Japan, and Europe.
Microsoft is going up against established players, Nintendo and Sony who are know in that region and a majority of publishers and developers have worked with them and know them.
Microsoft is unknown and has to work to establish its name. Its something that has to be done. Square-Enix recently stated they wanted to get a better return on their games from the western markets. They also stated that they were going to make games for the western market. The Last Remnant is an example of such a game and is in development for the PS3 and Xbox 360. If the Xbox 360 continues to sell well and continues to get support from Konami, Namco, and Square-Enix, there fortunes can change in Japan. Do not forget that Myst walker is developing games for the Xbox 360. One great game can make a difference.

I think there are some bad business ideas but they have to be taken in context. Was it a bad idea to stick with cartridges? Yes, Nintendo was obviously looking at CDs as an alternative to cartridges but failed to take the risk. Some risk are worth taking. The Blue Ray player could have been a stand alone attachment like the HD dvd player for the Xbox 360. This would have made the PS3 cheaper. Microsoft is looking for support from the top publishers in Japan but have failed to support the mid level and small publishers that would benefit greatly from their support and would have remained loyal to them. The mid level and small publishers can not afford to develop a HD game and lose money. Financial backing from Microsoft would help these companies increase their staffs and increase their market share in the Japanese and Western markets. Not doing this has cost Microsoft.

Nintendo backing out of the SNES CD add on deal with Sony to make the CD-I with Phillips, allowing sony to create the Playstation from the vestages of the canceled project.

You've got to be joking.. You think selling Rare was the stupidest of all time??? What has Rare even made since leaving Nintendo?? Crappy Perfect Darks, Kameo.... Viva 'no sales' Pinata. It's been a failure for Rare and Microsoft, both in quality and success. The acquisition by Microsoft was an attempt at ruining one of Nintendo's biggest developers, and it failed, since Microsoft's console doesn't have the right audience for Rare's type of games.  So really, it was a bad decision for Microsoft, but nonetheless no where near one of the worst in the industry's history.

The worst are the Dreamcast, N-Gage, Nintendo sticking to cartridges, Nintendo bringing out the Gamecube purple and shaped like a lunchbox, and $599 for Sony.

Though, really, the XBOX project is actually statistically the worst decision of all-time, as it has lost the most money of any console ever. Same goes for the 360.