Every now and then, I've cranked out a newsgroup posting or email that I've considered it worth saving. Why not turn it into part of the webpage? Below is a posting to agvtg-c that never got posted, as I saved it for just this purpose. BTW, this is in no way an attack against Com Symphony or anything silly like that - its just that something mentioned on the page inspired me to rant about another topic :)

It's been a while since I visited around to my fellow Com websites, and this posting was a good enuf reminder for me to do so. I like the background change, and I can't help but wonder where I've seen that crescent motif before... Anyway, concerning the "resident angel" section of the website in question:

Time for ole' man slight to go off on a rant. The N64 console is not doing well. So far, its best showing has been in the States, where it has just barely managed to break even against the elderly Playstation. For a next generational machine to struggle against old technology is a poor sign. If there was another nextgen console out compete against Nintendo, the N64 would quite likely have folded already.

Elsewhere in the world (Europe and Asia, notably), the N64 is outright losing the console battle. In Japan, the Playstation, Sega Saturn, and even the Game Boy manage to outsell the N64 in both systems and titles. Thats right, a decade-old handheld is outselling the "most advanced, most powerful console on the market". The N64 rarely gets a title to break into the top 10 sellers for a given time period, and has trouble enuf breaking into the top 20.

Why is the N64 doing poorly? Many factors are at play, and some of them are happening outside the US where most of us can't see. For starters, the N64 cartridge format has hindered the system. Not only do cartridges drive up the price of gaming titles, but it also scares off game developers who might otherwise have released titles on CD format. It costs virtually nothing to burn CDs commercially, but it costs up to $35 per cartridge - 3rd party developers dont want to throw that much money away on a product that might not sell. Second, as alluded to in the first, is pricing considerations. When top-bill titles like Final Fantasy 7 comes out for the Playstation at $45, while N64 titles routinely top $70 at release, the smart consumer goes with the PSX. Even the yet-to-be-released Dreamcast is rumored to have game title MSRPs of $45-50.

Combine issues #1 and #2 above, and you have game producers making a greater profit selling $45 Playstation titles than $70 N64 titles. All three add up to the kiss of death for consoles - lack of 3rd party support. Virtually every single hit title for the N64 has been an in-house production (or by Core, which is 51% owned by Nintendo). Nobody else wants to invest into the costly cartridge format.

Other factors to consider, but which usually go along with the cost considerations. The lack of good RPGs for the N64 hurt the system extremely in Asia, where RPGs are the best sellers (while we play our "twitch games", such as Quake). Most RPG developers had grown accustomed to the CD format, which gave them plenty of room to stuff FMV and CD-quality sound into the game. Yet another factor was the general disliking of the cartridge format itself, which was also especially prevalent in Asia. In cultures where technology is practically a religion, deliberately using older tech is viewed negatively.

Why, do you ask, did Nintendo decide to go with the cartridge format? Rumor has it that the owner of Nintendo said some rather nasty things about the CD format in its early days (when the 3DO, Playstation, and Saturn were young), and it would have appeared "dishonorable" for Nintendo to switch to a format that they'd just recently criticized as inferior. The gaming community had a cartridge format forced upon them due to stubbornness and pride!

Bottom line: the N64 is close to one of the most dismal failures ever produced by Nintendo, overshadowed only by what has been called "the worst gaming system of all time", the Virtual Boy. The days when Nintendo seemed to do no wrong are long over, with the current impression being "can Nintendo do right ever again?"