Best of ND 2013: Top Ten: Nintendo Blunders

Nintendo is king here at the Dojo, but it’s not all chuckola cola and mushroom pops at the house of N.

By Kyle England. Posted 12/24/2013 09:00 3 Comments     ShareThis

1. The Sony Betrayal

While Nintendo did not end up using discs in the Nintendo 64, the company did realize their potential. In the early 90s, Nintendo teamed up with Sony to create the “Play Station” which would be a disc-based add-on for the SNES. The new project was announced in 1991, but something happened shortly after the announcement. Nintendo turned around and said that the deal was off, Sony was out, and Philips was in. This came as news to Sony, who was given no previous notice about the deal. Apparently, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi did not agree with the revenue sharing and management in the business contract between Sony and Nintendo, so he pulled out at the last minute. Couldn’t they have worked something out? That’s scummy business practice to say the least.

This decision had a few results, and none of them went well for Nintendo. Philips never ended up releasing a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo, but the company still got some rights to use some Nintendo characters in some Philips CD-i games. You know what happened with those. Regardless, Sony had even made a prototype SNES CD-ROM, but Philips didn’t get the idea going anywhere.

The deal also resulted in Sony turning against Nintendo. Sony used the prototype and idea of the Play Station device to start its own line of consoles. When the new Sony PlayStation was released, it took the world by storm. Nintendo was left in the dust as Sony outsold Nintendo consoles for two consecutive console generations. Many developers jumped shipped and favored Sony. Nintendo had goofed, and goofed badly. By cutting the business deal with Sony, Nintendo had created its own worst enemy. What worse blunder could you make?


Well, that does it for the rogues gallery of Nintendo’s greatest mishaps. I love those guys to death, but man did they do some things I wish they hadn’t. But so it goes. Many of the entries here were infuriating and dreadful, but we’re still here. Nintendo knows how to remain resourceful in an environment of extreme pessimism. What else has made you disappointed with Nintendo, and why do you stick it out? I think the good outweighs the bad. Nintendo has done some things wrong, but never the games. Nintendo games are some the best you can play, and that’s all I ever need.

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