Many factors have been attributed to Sony’s success with the PSone, from the format’s financially friendly CD-ROMs through to the manufacturer’s guerrilla marketing tactics. However, according to Hiroshi Yamauchi, the Nintendo president of the time, the platform outpaced the Nintendo 64 because Japanese gamers prefer “to be alone in their rooms and play depressing games”.
Of course, Yamauchi’s bad temper is a thing of legend, so it’s not particularly surprising he would utter such a salty soundbite. Still, while he’s clearly wrong in this instance, we’ll cut the executive some slack – he made this statement right around the time he was scheduled to retire in 2001, having helmed the Big N since 1949.
That’s right, he took over when the organisation was still making playing cards, and transformed it into one of the most recognisable entertainment brands in the world. Credit where credit is due.
[source nintendolife.com]
Comments 47
Interesting how history prooved Nintendo right in staying with cartridges, optical media was a big issue for loading and preservation and is borderline unusable for games now.
When the family are asleep I quite often sit on my own in the dark playing somewhat depressing games so this is quite accurate.
@PcTV So are game cards. The 32GB Switch cards are supposedly quite expensive, and as a result, developers avoid it like the plague. And you get those ''download required'' games on Switch; completely removing the benefit of a physical game. Maybe in a few years, but we're not there yet. Optical media is still the cheapest solution for distributing games. Yeah, a 5 minute install isn't ideal, but it's better than having to download the rest IMO, because installing a game isn't dependent on online servers and internet speed.
Those Japanese guys sure like to throw out judgement every now and then.
It's one of my favorite activities, personally.
Clearly the PS1's success had nothing to do with a superior media format, vastly superior library, etc.
I thought it was because Crash put that “plumber boy, moustache man” in his place.
@Octane SSDs are also better and more expensive for gaming.
If the Witcher 3 could ship with a 32GB card, I don't see what the excuse of everyone else is.
Well he could only blame himself. Nintendo basically created the PS1 when they double crossed Sony to go with Philips.
To quote the ‘coot:
“Real time 3D, lush environments...”
@PcTV That's an interesting way of looking at things.
@PcTV The vast majority of companies, given a choice, will cheap out to maximize profits. There's no incentive for them to cut into their profit margin for the benefit of a minority of gamers who care about this sort of thing.
He forgot to mention piracy 😆
@Ralizah Oh I'm well aware of the reason, I just don't think it's an excuse.
It would benefit everyone who buys physical games, a shrinking market, I realise.
But it would be just better to not have to worry about scratches (I've personally have had to return dozens of used games because they just didn't work) or having to buy external memories due to large installs.
@PcTV You don’t remember those days of blowing into cartridges, convinced it would help them work again? 😂
@PcTV nintendo went with carts for handhelds because there was no other choice. after getting slaughtered with the n64, mainly because sony got 3rd party support from just about everyone and put the n64 software library to shame, nintendo woke up and went with optical media for the gamecube and the wii etc. carts were a barrier and limited what developers could do during the n64 era (cut scenes, music etc took up a lot of data, not to mention the higher cost of the tech inside the carts made n64 games far more expensive than the ps1 discs). i don't understand the point you are trying to make.
PS5 new slogan it's gonna be, Because we know you love depressing games since 1995 or Crushing Nintendo with depressing games since 1995
@PcTV Only discs I ever had a problem with are Dreamcast GD ROM. Due to their compressed data layers, they're very easy to damage. Cartridges can just stop working, and internal save batteries do expire on those old Carts.
The PAL N64 in comparison to the NSTC version was also pretty poor, which put me off at the time. Really bad 50HZ conversions and bad video output overall.
@PcTV They don't need an excuse, though. Companies aren't charities, and most aren't going to voluntarily elect to lose money by going with a more expensive physical format. That's not a reasonable thing to expect from them.
Really, Nintendo distributes the cards, and they designed the system. If anyone should be swallowing the losses associated with these expensive cards, it's them.
Be as it may PS1 is one of the best consoles ever made whereas N64 is among the very, especially for Nintendo.
I feel attacked by this.
@Flopsy Dead people's opinions sometimes have great ramifications for what happens in the future. Not always, but the ones that are there are kind of difficult to look past. History is a fantastic tool to measure where we once were and where we are moving now. Yamauchi is more than a dead man with an opinion most of us would disagree with, far more.
@Ristar24 I never owned a Dreamcast but those are very infamous.
I'd be surprised if you ever rented a PS1 game or bought a used game and never got one that just didn't work anymore.
Conversion issues also happened a lot with PS1, and PS2 for that matter. An issue only fixed until 60hz became the worldwide standard.
@PcTV "borderline unusable" is a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think? Not to mention masterpieces such as FF7 and MGS wouldn't exist if not for sony's decision to use CDs (or at least they would be vastly worse)
@HammerKirby3 Well, given that both PS4 and XBO require installations because discs are too slow, no, I don't think it's an exageration. Even X360 and PS3 started using installs to speed up loading.
Given what was possible on N64 I wouldn't say worse, but different perhaps. Some games on N64 had voiceacting to a degree you wouldn't think possible given the reputation of the N64.
Conker's Bad Fur Day, Rogue Squadron, Resident Evil 2 come to mind.
With N64's better handling of 3D gameplay and less issues with texture warping, they'd be interesting takes on those games.
@PcTV Ive never had a bad PS1 disc, but I mainly collect for Saturn. With retro games, I've not found carts do much better. I would check the condition of discs I buy though.
The Saturn actually has some proper PAL optimised games, such as SEGA Rally and VF2. A great N64 title such as Wave Race has an awful PAL version. The PAL N64 doesn't even support RGB. Dreamcast was the '60Hz mode' pioneer though yes, rather than PS2.
@PcTV I’ve never come across a PlayStation one game damaged enough that I couldn’t repair it. The scratches would come off again with a bit of polishing.
@PcTV Yeah, but the Witcher 3 on Switch looks poopy. It makes the PSVR look good
They had to downgrade the game a lot to make it possible. On top of that, they still sold it for €60 (a four year old game); whereas the game is only a fraction of that price on other systems, so they could recoup the losses easily. I wonder if this all was possible if it released day and date with the other systems on Switch.
Did you delete your original comment by the way?
@Octane The Switch has many limitations compared to PS4 or PC. I think those are more to blame than the memory type on the cartridge.
And no, I can still see it.
That Nintendo CEO was salty as f**k. PlayStation dominated the N64 because of the more diverse, bigger and mature game library and because it was more friendly with developers.
@PcTV Well, true. But textures take up a lot of space. So I'd like to see what a 32GB version of TW3 on PS4 would look like. Of course, price is still an issue I think. Maybe in 10 years or so, the gap is even smaller and it is possible for a reasonable price. But by then we'll all be streaming the games directly into our brains...
That's weird. It's gone for me. @antdickens is this a bug perhaps? I can't see the first comment anymore. It even says there are 31 comments, but the last one is #30.
As someone who currently collects N64 and PS1 games (among others), I must say I’m glad Nintendo went with cartridges! With a proper clean, and a change of battery if needed, they run like new and will last for decades. I can’t say the same for PS1 CDs, they’re so hit or miss.
But of course cartridges were the wrong choice to make in the mid-90s, and Nintendo never recovered from it. The Gamecube, a great console with great games, still couldn’t succeed in the N64’s shadow. You could argue the N64 is the cause of Nintendo’s change of direction that we still see today, where they stay out of the arms race.
@GravyThief Maybe put your discs in their case then they will stay like new.
This is me after lending my discs too my nephew.
I love Nintendo but as @3Above pointed out, Nintendo helped create their biggest competitor with the PlayStation.
@PcTV LMAO WTF are you talking about? PSone pistol whipped the N64 in sales and game variety because the N64's storage format prevented 3rd party studios from wanting to develop games for the system! Fast forward 25 years later and Sony is using Blu-Ray optical media which holds large amounts of storage for cheap compared to Nintendo using flash media on Switch which is expensive by comparison!
@Mafia_Man19 I'm sorry you can't see the benefit of a faster and more resistant format simply because the other one is cheaper.
Also, Blu-ray is over a decade old, not exactly "cutting edge". The only console with a 4K BD drive right now is Xbox One X.
I honestly think you're trolling.
@Mafia_Man19 I'll ignore the name calling, I'd lower to that level but you'd win by experience!
I'm just gonna correct you in case someone actually reads this: the PS5 and Series X are both confirmed to have a 4K BD Drives. The fact that the One X doesn't use it for gaming is to have full compatibility with One games.
@PcTV Not really. It was still a misstep to stay with cartridges when the tide was shifting in favor of optical media. Add in the fact that they went so far as to have two companies develop CD technology for them only to abandon both projects and it becomes downright foolish.
@PcTV thanks for proving me right!
@Flaming_Kaiser well yes, that’s exactly what I used to do back in the day and what I do with my new games now. But unfortunately the PS1 games I buy are all used. I don’t know what some people do to their discs, it’s like they try to get them scratched, there’s no way you could get them in that state through normal wear and tear
not too inaccurate, just finished wateland 2 and detroit, this week, moving on to TWD 3, none of those are happy games
@GravyThief Sorry misinterpreted but the CD's scratched a lot faster thats true. But i agree if you see how some people use the discs.. 😩
Was watching Angry Joe grabbing a Bluray there i a hole there for a reason.
If someone can scratch a Bluray they should be.
PS I want too watch Supergirl after this pics. 😆
It's frankly really simple, I used to play N64 a lot as a kid at friends house while I had a ps1. While it was cool at friends house and made me feel like wanting that's because a lot of the library is made up of party games like Mario karts and smash Bros. Which I realised when I got a wii like many others after the hype. With large storage space it becomes easy to create long lasting single player games.
While the tv consoles are fun with friends over back in the real world I don't hold house party's very often.
Games like ff7, parasite eve, gran Turismo or persona actually had longevity for single player.
Handhelds have worked for Nintendo because the storage requirements to create great single player experiences is less. Ironically Sony with PSP and vita really screwed this up with expensive memory cards.
Fortunately for Nintendo with the Switch they seem to have come up with a hybrid console model which is competitive for the smartphone era that works for them and isn't a one hit wonder model like the Wii.
My favorite PS1 games were mostly single player focused, I'll admit that, but I wouldn't say Resident Evil 1 and 2, Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 1-3, Twisted Metal 2, Dino Crisis, MLB, NFL Gameday, Crash Team Racing and Brave Fencer Musashi among many others are 'depressing' games. Some of those are dark in tone for sure but that doesn't mean depressing as well.
PS1 crushed the N64 because Sony had the technical know-how/industry contacts to produce a superior system with a much wider demographic appeal and they had the desire to hit Nintendo hard after the whole Philips betrayal.
so i guess the fact that the PS1 had a better selection of games that were cheaper for the consumer to purchase and added functionality like being able to play music CD's had nothing to do with it then?
now i love the N64 but all in all what it offered wasn't as good as what the PlayStation offered
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