It was the mid 1990s, and the 5th generation of video games were coming so soon to many loyal gamers. While the fierce rivalry of Sega and Nintendo still heated up, many people wanted either a Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, or the 3DO. As the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo came with its last legs around 1996, gamers wanted a better media to play their favorite franchises on TV. So by around 1995, most video game companies chosen compact discs (or CDs) for their new consoles. Needless to say, it was a massive success that flowed a lot of money for them. Not only was it cheaper for games to be produced, but it also didn't have the unnecessary uses of cleaning out dirt inside the mainframes.

However, Nintendo wanted to be conservative with their kind of media and stick with cartridges for the N64. Unfortunately for them, many developers were outraged including Squaresoft. With their reactions, they decided to go their own ways and switch to Sony. Despite their sales with many children around the world, Nintendo was harshly criticized with their choice of using cartridges. But they still had hope, as they revolutionized 3D platforming with Super Mario 64.

Financially, Nintendo didn't really do that well with the N64. Their sales were very low, with only selling over 32 million units worldwide. The Playstation on the other hand sold over 102 million units worldwide, as they had gaming masterpieces such as Final Fantasy VII, Crash Bandicoot, and Gran Turismo. It was very diverse with its third party support, and had many people praising it. They didn't really care about how much the loading screen took some of their time. They cared more about the adventure and high quality gaming that they succeeded with. Nintendo only had their financial gains with their first party games, along with having second party support from Rare.

So, what do you guys think if Nintendo went with CDs instead of cartridges in the mid 90s?

N64 would've been a better success. However, the N64 isn't the only reason developers left to Sony. You see the Nintendo 64 was actually difficult to program for. Developers had a tricky time trying to get their games to work. Nintendo purposely did this as they felt that they could get rid of incompetent devs and just have skilled devs. I can understand this, but I think they over did it. Also Nintendo was known for having a bad relationship with 3rd party developers. This was something hat existed since the 3rd gen. In the 3rd gen Nintendo was the one and only so devs had to deal with Nintendo's harsh rulings. But when the 4th gen came and SEGA came up they were able to take a lot of 3rd party devs from Nintendo easily since they didn't treat 3rd party devs as badly. Nintendo's harsh treatment to 3rd parties carried over to the 5th and 6th console gens. They eventually changed by the late 6th gen/7th gen as they had a new president ( Sotaru Iwata)  by that point. But the president of Nintendo during the early 6th gen and before was quite mean to the developers.

Not only that, but it was also Nintendo's image. In the 3rd and 4th gens gaming was mainly seen as a kid's thing. But by the 5th-6th gens a lot of companies seen that gamers were getting older and more mature. And they realized that older gamers could actually buy their own games while kids always had to rely on Mom and Pop. The Playstation 1 and 2 had the image of appealing to everyone while the Nintendo 64/Gamecube were seen as kiddy (yes, this was a legit issue). Sega made jokes on this during the 4th gen and poked fun on Nintendo's "kiddy" image. But in the 5th gen this joke became an actual problem in the eyes of gamers. Heck, this issue is still seen today. Gamers rather play gritty shooters than colorful racing games or platformers. The joke that started in the 4th gen got really bad by the 5th gen and spiraled out of control as time went on. We still have that issue today.

Basically there were several reasons to Nintendo's downfall in the 5th gen. It wasn't just the idea of using cartridges over CDs.

N64 would've been a better success. However, the N64 isn't the only reason developers left to Sony. You see the Nintendo 64 was actually difficult to program for. Developers had a tricky time trying to get their games to work. Nintendo purposely did this as they felt that they could get rid of incompetent devs and just have skilled devs. I can understand this, but I think they over did it. Also Nintendo was known for having a bad relationship with 3rd party developers. This was something hat existed since the 3rd gen. In the 3rd gen Nintendo was the one and only so devs had to deal with Nintendo's harsh rulings. But when the 4th gen came and SEGA came up they were able to take a lot of 3rd party devs from Nintendo easily since they didn't treat 3rd party devs as badly. Nintendo's harsh treatment to 3rd parties carried over to the 5th and 6th console gens. They eventually changed by the late 6th gen/7th gen as they had a new president ( Sotaru Iwata)  by that point. But the president of Nintendo during the early 6th gen and before was quite mean to the developers.


So even if Nintendo switched with CDs during the 5th gen, they'll still treat their third party developers like crap? That seems rather harsh for a video game company to do that. It's like betting on sports games, while everyone knows that it's morally wrong to do so. It doesn't seem fair for Nintendo to do this kind of stuff, especially when it lead towards their downfall during the early 2000s.

Not only that, but it was also Nintendo's image. In the 3rd and 4th gens gaming was mainly seen as a kid's thing. But by the 5th-6th gens a lot of companies seen that gamers were getting older and more mature. And they realized that older gamers could actually buy their own games while kids always had to rely on Mom and Pop. The Playstation 1 and 2 had the image of appealing to everyone while the Nintendo 64/Gamecube were seen as kiddy (yes, this was a legit issue). Sega made jokes on this during the 4th gen and poked fun on Nintendo's "kiddy" image. But in the 5th gen this joke became an actual problem in the eyes of gamers. Heck, this issue is still seen today. Gamers rather play gritty shooters than colorful racing games or platformers. The joke that started in the 4th gen got really bad by the 5th gen and spiraled out of control as time went on. We still have that issue today.

The N64 did have some sort of mature image, but more children was into the console than adults themselves. Any late 90s/early 00s kid could easily recognize Perfect Dark, GoldenEye 007, and Conker's Bad Fur Day, despite being Teen to M-rated games. It was like the equivalent of South Park, but even teens and adults watched it during its prime throughout the late 90s and 2000s. There's no doubt that a lot of N64 games are E-rated, since they are tended to be more with children. Despite that, their fanbase is usually just former children who used to have older Nintendo consoles since the late 80s. A lot of the Playstation's games at the time were rather diverse, while the N64 didn't do that well with only platformers being successful.

So even if Nintendo switched with CDs during the 5th gen, they'll still treat their third party developers like crap? That seems rather harsh for a video game company to do that. It's like betting on sports games, while everyone knows that it's morally wrong to do so. It doesn't seem fair for Nintendo to do this kind of stuff, especially when it lead towards their downfall during the early 2000s.

The N64 did have some sort of mature image, but more children was into the console than adults themselves. Any late 90s/early 00s kid could easily recognize Perfect Dark, GoldenEye 007, and Conker's Bad Fur Day, despite being Teen to M-rated games. It was like the equivalent of South Park, but even teens and adults watched it during its prime throughout the late 90s and 2000s. There's no doubt that a lot of N64 games are E-rated, since they are tended to be more with children. Despite that, their fanbase is usually just former children who used to have older Nintendo consoles since the late 80s. A lot of the Playstation's games at the time were rather diverse, while the N64 didn't do that well with only platformers being successful.


I just found a video that kinda explained what I'm talking about. Warning as some may find this video offensive. Watch at your own leisure.
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This video references an article that talks about Nintendo during the days of the Gamecube. Keep in mind that the way Nintendo did things during the Gamecube era was the same as they did things during the NES, SNES, and N64 eras in terms of how they dealt with 3rd party. They don't think too highly of them by going as far as having harsh rules or just being indifferent. Compare that to SEGA's, Sony's, and Microsoft's way of handling 3rd party. They aggressively went to get as many 3rd parties as they could as they knew that they were important. Nintendo didn't do this during the 3rd to 6th gens.

Also you've asked on what would've happened if the N64 used cartridges. Well another question you could've asked is what if the NGC used actual normal discs. Due to the NGC's mini discs devs couldn't put as much data on them as they could with Xbox and Ps2 discs. So literally the problems of data shortage from N64 cartridges carried over to the NGC's discs. Meaning even though Nintendo moved to CDs/Discs they didn't learn their problem.

As for Nintendo and mature games like Conker, Perfect Dark, and Golden eye while they're vaild arguments they're very rare cases. For every mature game like Golden Eye you had 20+ games that was made to appeal mainly to kids. Now I have no issue with this since I like colorful wacky games, but the general public didn't like this. 

I just found a video that kinda explained what I'm talking about. Warning as some may find this video offensive. Watch at your own leisure.
Jw09eMD5Fx0


Blackbond does a lot of good videos that actually exposed Nintendo's prejudice with third parties, especially during the 6th, 7th, and 8th generations. He also shows that Nintendo isn't that well with change, as I said earlier with the N64 still using cartridges by 1996, compared to the industry's norm with CDs.

Also you've asked on what would've happened if the N64 used cartridges. Well another question you could've asked is what if the NGC used actual normal discs. Due to the NGC's mini discs devs couldn't put as much data on them as they could with Xbox and Ps2 discs. So literally the problems of data shortage from N64 cartridges carried over to the NGC's discs. Meaning even though Nintendo moved to CDs/Discs they didn't learn their problem.

They could've done normal sized CDs with the Gamecube, since they weren't well treated with their mini ones. Plus, it also gave out a lack of diversity with their games, aside from their first party franchises. The Game Boy Advance seemed more industrial with Nintendo during the early-mid 2000s for crying out loud.


As for Nintendo and mature games like Conker, Perfect Dark, and Golden eye while they're vaild arguments they're very rare cases. For every mature game like Golden Eye you had 20+ games that was made to appeal mainly to kids. Now I have no issue with this since I like colorful wacky games, but the general public didn't like this.


I liked of what Nintendo was doing during the late 90s/very early 00s, but it wasn't enough to compete against the Playstation. So much so that it had to involve an Expansion Pak for their games to work over 4MB on the original console. No other console needed that, since CDs had more memory than said cartridges.

Blackbond does a lot of good videos that actually exposed Nintendo's prejudice with third parties, especially during the 6th, 7th, and 8th generations. He also shows that Nintendo isn't that well with change, as I said earlier with the N64 still using cartridges by 1996, compared to the industry's norm with CDs.

They could've done normal sized CDs with the Gamecube, since they weren't well treated with their mini ones. Plus, it also gave out a lack of diversity with their games, aside from their first party franchises. The Game Boy Advance seemed more industrial with Nintendo during the early-mid 2000s for crying out loud.

I liked of what Nintendo was doing during the late 90s/very early 00s, but it wasn't enough to compete against the Playstation. So much so that it had to involve an Expansion Pak for their games to work over 4MB on the original console. No other console needed that, since CDs had more memory than said cartridges.

Nintendo is a very stubborn company. They're usually behind by a few years in terms of industry standards. For example it's now 2017 and they're still behind in terms of online features and hardware power. I've mentioned that the Switch was underpowered/weaker than 8th gen consoles which is a shame.

Nintendo's handhelds is the main reason Nintendo is still alive. The N64 can be seen as a semi-failure. But the Gameboy sold over 100 million units. The Gamecube was a failure, but the GBA sold 89 million units. Wii U was a failure, but the 3DS sold 40+ million units. Nintendo always lose a ton of money when it comes to consoles. But due to having a successful handheld they can survive. However, with the Nintendo Switch things may be different as there may NOT being another handheld system. So if the Switch fails then Nintendo would be in trouble.


Nintendo was trying to appeal to the mature audience between 1997, 2000, and 2002. I've mentioned Conker which is an error. Nintendo had nothing to do with Conker as Nintendo didn't like the mature humor of the game and didn't want to publish the game. Instead it was published by Rare themselves. So while Nintendo wanted to appeal to the mature crowd they didn't have anything to with Conker. They tried in 1997 with Golden Eye. Then tried again with Perfect Dark in 2000. They won't try again until 2002 with Metroid Prime and Eternal Darkness.