LogFAQs > #965421735

FL81 posted...

how the fuck did Nintendo go from JRPG powerhouse with the SNES

to the N64 with Quest 64 and Ogre Battle

They came late to the game and tried to battle against SEGA's outdated action games that were all the rage, proving they could do it in 3-D, but better. Meanwhile, SEGA abandoned the Saturn because developers kept whining about the complex architecture being difficult to work with (it was multi-core and new. It frustrated the hell out of devs).

Then in comes Sony. Trying to be the "we can do it all" machine. Platformers, action games, RPGs, etc. And they were doing it at a slightly more affordable price point.

Then meanwhile, SEGA gets duped into going all in on the Dreamcast with 3DO and Microsoft (I keep thinking there's a third company involved, but I forget who). Anyway, eventually, Microsoft backed out of that partnership entirely after launch to do their own thing and give us the Xbox. Not that I'm complaining too hard, but it was dirty pool on Microsoft's end. They literally went into the partnership with only the intent of learning about the console market and how to compete. Once they learned, they left SEGA high and dry.

So, really, all Nintendo could do during that era was run around confused on who and what they were competing with. It led to very experimental titles.