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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Boredom and Nintendo
« Last post by Khushrenada on April 10, 2024, 07:00:13 PM »(And, for the record, I always though mini-discs were cool. It seemed like another leap to the future. They could create a store these huge games on these small discs. Wii with DVDs seemed like a step back.)
Opting for a miniDVD based format was such an unnecessary unforced error especially in hindsight given Wii used full-sized 12 cm discs. Nintendo forced publishers to make compromises Sony and Microsoft weren’t and during a time it really couldn’t afford to be doing that stuff coming off of Nintendo 64. Some of them chose to squeeze data into one disc. I’m still salty that Skies of Arcadia Legends has worse sound fidelity than the original on Dreamcast.
On a more positive note, the disc eject button GameCube and the smooth edge of Wii U discs were both 🤌.
Perhaps normal DVD's would have made some difference instead of mini-disc. It's hard to say. (But would we have still gotten that great cube shape?) Xbox used DVDs but its not like they did phenomenally better in hardware sales or had way better third party support. Maybe Nintendo does do N64 levels of hardware with using DVDs and does get a bit more cross platform support because of it. Yet, is that really considered much more of a success compared to where PS2 would likely still have ended up?
A huge thing that helped favor the PS2 was its ability to also play movie DVDs and act as a sort of home theatre that can play games and movies as a sort of all-in-one device. That made it appealing to a lot of consumers as DVDs were coming out and replacing VHS and showing how high quality the video could look on discs compared to cassette. Why buy a DVD player and a game console for two separate costs when you could buy them together for a lower cost? Nintendo was always going to just focus on it being a gaming machine and not start trying to fight Sony in home electronics.