this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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Very interesting how despite being the distant runner-up (and the 3rd place console in Japan) N64 games were consistant best sellers from 1996 to 1999. Either taking first, or several of the runner-up spots. Then in the 2000s, You don't see a single place from 2002 until 2006. I think this shows the real tragedy of the Gamecube. At least with the N64, games still sold numbers, but with the gamecube, Nintendo was struggling with consoles and software. Surprised not even any Gameboy Advance games made the list.
I think an important aspect of Nintendo losing their best sellers during the early 2000s was the expensive choice to keep using cartridges on the N64. Then they failed with the 64DD to fix the problem of insufficient storage space available on the cartridges for the games other developers wanted to make.
The prime example is Square moving the Final Fantasy series to PlayStation starting with FF7. They could not have achieved the scale and 3D animations of FF7 on the N64. They needed the cheap and abundant storage space of CDs to make FF7.
If I was a single-console gamer who was more satisfied with the games available on PlayStation than on N64, then for the next generation I likely would choose a PS2 over whenever the N64's successor would be (as Nintendo has typically released last within a console generation while Sony usually releases early). And then at that point, I'm not buying Nintendo games at all, so I'm not contributing to their sales numbers. Xbox also rose during those years too.
Nintendo dug their own grave with respect to being the market leader in large part because they did not value their third party partners as much as they should have, and by the time the N64 was out, they had chased away a lot of important game developers. Those developers being absent for the GameCube generation hurt them. They somewhat repaired things during the Wii era, but I don't think their relationships with 3rd party developers and publishers were close to the same until the Switch.
The actual game part of ff7 could have easily run on the N64, it was just the fmvs and music that were too big.
Without the FMVs or music, a large part of what made FF7 great would have been lost.
Lots of good points. Xbox is a big factor in this. Also, this was around the time many millennials were starting to buy consoles on their own and Nintendo was seen as somewhat childish. The more mature games were coming out on the other consoles at the same time that the first generation that grew up with pervasive gaming were becoming adults.
I was such a millennial. Disappointed by the game selection (and perceived childishness) on the N64, I wound up with a PlayStation. Then I went with an Xbox for the next gen, followed by a Slim PS2. I did buy a Wii but owned few games for it. I basically skipped the Wii U era altogether.
I got a Switch on launch, but it was the same thing within a couple of years: I wanted a console with better performance because many of the best games of the generation would not be on Nintendo's platform or would be ported years later with worse graphics (and with the premium of the Switch tax). I have a fairly big library for the PS4/5 while my Switch sits unused.
I still very much appreciate Nintendo's own games, but a console needs more than first party titles.