![]() ![]() Most would be quick to think that 3D games must be large so 64 MB must be more common, while in fact the opposite is true, only 5 North American games were 64 MB. N64 Games released on a cartridge ranged in size from 4 MB to 64 MB. Atari released the Jaguar in this generation with less than 250,000 units sold which was also the last console made by Atari. The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was 4th place with 2 million units sold and the last console made by 3DO. Both Nintendo (GameCube) and Sega (Dreamcast) made consoles for the 6th generation. In reviewing the consoles and their respective sales, I'd suggest that a better indication of success vs failure is if the company made a console after the one in this generation. Some folks argue that the N64 was a failure because it was "so far behind the PS1". Since Sony was a huge company trying to break into the video games market, supporting two home consoles at the same time was relatively easy, where Nintendo chose to focus their efforts and resources on one at a time with just a little overlap.īased on the available data (which is limited in detail) it seems that during the time both consoles were on the market the PlayStation sold two consoles for every one N64 console. ![]() This longer lifespan was probably because the demand continued and Sony chose to supply it. PlayStation was available for nearly twice as long as the N64. PlayStation 1 available 11 years and 3 months. Nintendo 64 available 5 years and 10 months. In units sold PlayStation is clearly the winner, but I think there is a little more behind these numbers than raw sales. ![]() By comparison, if Sony takes huge losses in video game systems they can make them up with profit from their Home Electronics or TV/Movies divisions. Selling the console at a profit is probably more important for Nintendo than it is for Sony, because Nintendo only operates in a single market. Some console manufacturers didn't have enough time or sales volume to reduce their costs and eventually went out of business. Large losses can still take a long time to balance out. Luckily with sales volume and patience, component prices tend to come down and manufacturing/distribution become more efficient. More profit is always better, the real difference is sustainability while selling at a loss. Sony was known to be losing more than $200 on each PS3 console sold, even if they only sold 100,000 at this price, it was a loss of $20 million. If Nintendo could make a $0.25 profit on every N64 that was another $7.5 million (based on 30 million units sold). That doesn't mean that they make a lot on each console. These companies don't usually publish their per unit profit margins but it's been clear from the earliest days of Nintendo, they don't like to lose money on the console. One of the other things that tends to happen during these "arguments" is changing the perspective (manufacturer/publisher/developer/gamer) in order to prove one console is superior to another.įor example: The N64 was better at preventing piracy, then instead of Nintendo winning this topic, it get's flipped around so that N64 gamers lose because they had to pay more for games. No one at Nintendo was interviewed or talked to about this series. Once in a while, I will "jump to some conclusions" based on publicly available knowledge about the thought process inside of Nintendo. Honestly I'm a fan of the N64 and feel a little defensive about some of these topics because of the misinformation that is taken as fact. Gamers that grew up with the system either over look the flaws or spew hatred on the N64.Įverybody has opinions, I'm going to be focused on facts. Modern gamers tend to apply current gaming rules and expectations and of course the console falls short by those metrics, for example frame rates rarely exceed 30 FPS and 15-20 is common. The question to be answered: "Is the reputation deserved or not?" This is about a classic console that has a bit of a negative reputation, the Nintendo 64. This isn't a top 10 list or fan boy page. ![]()
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