The Video Game Crash of 1983: Pretty Easy to See Why it Happened

[gf78]

I've only heard bits and pieces of the whole 'Ninty screwed Sony' thing...

...anyone knowledgeable about it feel like breaking down the who did what to who and why of it?

Here goes:  Nintendo, though quite hesitant to jump into the realm of CD-ROM games, was closely monitoring Sega and the CD add-on for the Genesis.  Nintendo and Sony entered negotiations for Sony to manufacture a CD & cartridge based combo system called the "Play Station."  Nintendo didn't like the idea that they would not have full control over the manufacturing and distribution of CD-based games and the relationship between the two began to deteriorate.  Nintendo's boss Yamauchi sent representatives to Phillips unbeknownst to Sony to negotiate a different deal. 

Sony had no idea things weren't working out and at the 1991 CES, Sony officially announced the Play Station.  The very next day at CES, Nintendo revealed their partnership with Phillips.  The partnership was pretty much over then.  Ken Kutaragi persuaded his superiors to allow his team to continue working on the Play Station.  In the span of just a little over 3 years, they created the console that we would all know as PlayStation.

In quite the ironic twist, Nintendo was building up hype for their forthcoming Ultra 64 (N64) an announcing their "dream team" of developers.  Chief among them were Squaresoft and Enix which hold enormous sway in the Japanese market as the release of a new Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy is almost like a holiday for them.  After Nintendo revealed the final specifications for the N64, complete with sticking with the cartridges that they held a stranglehold over both the manufacturing and royalties for, Squaresoft, Enix, Capcom, Konami, Namco and just about every single other developer in the world shifted their focus to the PlayStation.  Why?  The most expensive cartridge can only hold 256megabits of information.  In contrast, a single CD-ROM could hold over 640 megabytes of info and were easily swappable so games could span multiple discs. 

To add insult to injury, the marketing campaign for Final Fantasy VII included two-page spreads in various gaming magazines and comic books with the tagline "Somebody get the manufacturers of cartridges a blindfold." 

Not only did Nintendo basically create their biggest adversary, they handed them the keys to the proverbial kingdom by sticking with cartridges.

[gf78]

The partnering with Phillips never resulted in a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES.  It did however, allow Phillips rights to make a handful of games featuring Nintendo characters.  All of which were horrific. 

As a side note, I believe Nintendo was particularly butt-sore because Sony also published all of Squaresoft's early PlayStation releases.  Final Fantasy VII, Tobal No. 1, Einhander, Bushido Blade, Final Fantasy Tactics...and all of them were highly regarded titles.  Even after taking over the self-publishing reigns, Squaresoft released a ton of titles for the PlayStation consoles. 

The relationship between Nintendo and Squaresoft, now Square-Enix healed a bit over time and some titles eventually started making their way over to Nintendo systems.  Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is a sub-series that is pretty much exclusive to Nintendo systems, but the main Final Fantasy titles never returned to their original home. 

[burningdoom]

It was easy to snooker consumers into buying a Star Wars or Spider-Man game that had a cool looking box art, only for them to find the game iside was complete garbage. 

Capcom did this on their older NES games as well. They put the arcade picture on the back of the box and "state-of-the-art" "High Resolution Graphics" on the front.

But Capcom games were good. They and Konami were the best third-party publishers during the NES days.

[gf78]

It was easy to snooker consumers into buying a Star Wars or Spider-Man game that had a cool looking box art, only for them to find the game iside was complete garbage. 

Capcom did this on their older NES games as well. They put the arcade picture on the back of the box and "state-of-the-art" "High Resolution Graphics" on the front.

But Capcom games were good. They and Konami were the best third-party publishers during the NES days.

Agreed.  Early Capcom games that I really loved include Section Z, Trojan and Ghosts 'N Goblins.  Great stuff.  What a shame that in the last five years, Capcom has turned into one of the worst offenders for ripping people off with DLC.

[burningdoom]

It was easy to snooker consumers into buying a Star Wars or Spider-Man game that had a cool looking box art, only for them to find the game iside was complete garbage. 

Capcom did this on their older NES games as well. They put the arcade picture on the back of the box and "state-of-the-art" "High Resolution Graphics" on the front.

But Capcom games were good. They and Konami were the best third-party publishers during the NES days.

Agreed.  Early Capcom games that I really loved include Section Z, Trojan and Ghosts 'N Goblins.  Great stuff.  What a shame that in the last five years, Capcom has turned into one of the worst offenders for ripping people off with DLC.

Not even their best NES stuff, IMO. I would point out the Mega Man series, Bionic Commando, DuckTales 1 & 2, Legendary Wings, and Mighty Final Fight.

[disgaeniac]

thanks gf78...i feel smarter now 

[gf78]

thanks gf78...i feel smarter now 

Your very welcome!  It really is crazy how Nintendo were basically responsible for Sony's rise to prominence. 

[gf78]

It was easy to snooker consumers into buying a Star Wars or Spider-Man game that had a cool looking box art, only for them to find the game iside was complete garbage. 

Capcom did this on their older NES games as well. They put the arcade picture on the back of the box and "state-of-the-art" "High Resolution Graphics" on the front.

But Capcom games were good. They and Konami were the best third-party publishers during the NES days.

Agreed.  Early Capcom games that I really loved include Section Z, Trojan and Ghosts 'N Goblins.  Great stuff.  What a shame that in the last five years, Capcom has turned into one of the worst offenders for ripping people off with DLC.

Not even their best NES stuff, IMO. I would point out the Mega Man series, Bionic Commando, DuckTales 1 & 2, Legendary Wings, and Mighty Final Fight.

Those are great games.  But I was still thinking in the context of the initial Capcom games as were mentioned earlier.  As I stated elsewhere, when I finally did play the Mega Man games, they were some of the best games I had ever played.  But I avoided them early on because of that hideous artwork.  Had no idea that a great game was actually hiding inside the cartridge.

[DreamsDied13101]

I believe Nintendo was able to resurrect the USA game market with their practices. (Praise them or hate them - it did work)

Yet Nintendo became used to calling the shots and making tons of money.

They became their own worst enemy in some ways, but look at the quality of games they still produce.

If you look at the top 100 games of the past 10 years, 20 years or even 30 years and Nintendo always takes like 50% or more of the lists (especially in Japan).

[betelgeuse]

It was easy to snooker consumers into buying a Star Wars or Spider-Man game that had a cool looking box art, only for them to find the game iside was complete garbage. 

Capcom did this on their older NES games as well. They put the arcade picture on the back of the box and "state-of-the-art" "High Resolution Graphics" on the front.

But Capcom games were good. They and Konami were the best third-party publishers during the NES days.

Very true. Capcom and Konami were the best 3rd party for the NES. Except for Strider!!! I felt so cheated when I played that. Granted it did have the actual gameplay photo on the box, I was just expecting the arcade version. Kinda like when I played Ninja Gaiden for the fist time on NES...was thinking, what the hell is this crap?! Tecmo really changed that one up.