Nintendo's 3 Biggest Mistakes - Gaming Historian

Gaming Historian goes over the top 3 biggest mistakes Nintendo has ever made. Recently Nintendo unveiled their 'Nintendo Creator Program' for YouTube. People are calling it one of their biggest mistakes. A mistake? Yes. Their biggest? Hardly.

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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[AmaranthOriginal]

Nintendo was afraid Sony would go after the market. So they kicked them out, leading to them going after the market.

Brilliant!

[marplatense]

No mistake can be bigger than creating your own rival. Great video Norman!

[saints]

This show is basically like watching PBS documentaries just far more interesting. The learning is powerful

[TheAstrologyPodcast]

Please do a full episode on the falling out between Nintendo and Sony, as I'd love to hear a more detailed analysis of the sequence of events there and wtf Nintendo was thinking

[InuMiroLover]

Sony: *"Im gonna make my own system! WITH BLACKJACK AND HOOKERS!"*

[PaleoSteno]

So Nintendo was like, "oh man, let's not let Sony enter the console race by backstabbing them" which in turn, just made them want to enter the console race even more.

[jayb]

Nintendo's relationship with 3rd party developers was never the same after the N64.

[ant-fan]

"It's fair to wonder what [Gunpei] Yokoi would've come up with next..."
Actually, Yokoi made another video game console before he passed. It was called the WonderSwan and it was a pretty good mobile console, though it never made it over to the states.

[curtismoore]

I think worse than the 64 cartridges was the GameCubes weird mini-discs. It was a strange half-measure.

[ConnerTheWaffle]

Oh man, I had no idea the PS1 and N64 sales were that drastic! Awesome video Norm:)

[GrievousDu]

"You could not live with your own failure.
And where did that bring you? Back to me."


Sony 1994

[Randomark]

SNES-"I am your Father."
PS1-"That's not true! That's impossible!"

[Phicheee]

Honestly, I'm amazed you don't have more subs. You're easy to listen to, and the information you give is quite in-depth without being overwhelming. This channel is awesome!

[giobikefans]

I remember cartridges were a big deal at the time.  I will say, though,  all of my old N64 cartridges still work flawlessly.  My PS1 discs on the other hand.... we were too rough with them as kids.

[IanSane]

As I was watching I was initially thinking "what could be worse than sticking with cartridges" but then you nailed it. Creating your own rival is pretty much the stupidest thing you could do. In fact that kind of combines with the cartridge decision. If Nintendo went with CDs on the N64 then third parties would probably stick with them from the assumption that they would continue to be the market leader. Going with carts essentially sent the third parties to Sony. So not only did their actions create their biggest competitor but they then immediately helped that competitor gain an advantage over them. And this is all around the same time that the Virtual Boy was on the market so there was a span of only a few years where Nintendo had their biggest brainfarts in their entire existence one after another.


And this is the same time period where Sega had the whole 32X/Saturn debacle. So Sony entered the market and basically just did things competently while the existing market leaders tripped over themselves to see who could be the bigger idiot. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. If Nintendo and Sega merely didn't screw up at that time would Sony have been able to establish a foot hold? What reason would third parties, and thus gamers themselves, have to switch to a newcomer if Nintendo and Sega were continuing to do as good of a job as they did with the Genesis and SNES?

[jamesdixon]

I know others have noticed this and may have even mentioned it, but I love how during your narrations and story telling, you can hear subtle instrumentals of certain games and their levels in the background. Case in point with this video, you can hear Dire Dire Docks playing from Mario 64. It's just a nice touch.

[ProtoMario]

Yokoi is definitely one of my  Hero's, Rest in peace!

[edusszfx]

The fact that cartridge games couldn't be just port from PS1, made for so many interesting and experimental games on the N64!
Maybe not a good business decision, but as a gamer I love it!

[matc]

I like that your videos look polished and take time. Your narration isn't rushed either so many you tubers seem to always be in a hurry.

[TheGunmanChannel]

Truth is we'll never really know if it was a mistake for them to ditch the Sony deal, it certainly wasn't a mistake as far as I'm concerned because it keeps Nintendo original and we all love our PlayStations.