The Real Reason N64 Lost To PlayStation? Depressing Games And Lonely Players, Apparently.

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
www.nintendolife.com

Random: The Real Reason N64 Lost To PlayStation? Depressing Games And Lonely Players, Apparently

That's according to late Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, anyway
www.nintendolife.com www.nintendolife.com

A lack of publisher support is just one of the reasons the N64 struggled in the face of the PlayStation, despite playing host to some of the best games of the generation in the form of Super Mario 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time and GoldenEye 007. However, somewhat predictably, Nintendo's president of the time Hiroshi Yamauchi had a somewhat different opinion on why the console was bested by Sony's system. He was quoted at the time as saying the real reason the N64 failed is because Japanese gamers "[like] to be alone in their rooms and play depressing games."

gamers-republic.original.jpg


Famously short-tempered and never one to mince his words, Yamauchi uttered that pearl of a soundbite around the same time he announced he would be retiring as president of Nintendo, a position he had occupied since 1949. He passed away in 2013, and it was only while we were flicking through a pile of old Gamers' Republic magazines from the dawn of the millennium that we were reminded of Yamauchi's amusingly negative assessment of the Japanese games industry.
 
I remember I read about this back in the day, and thought it was kind of funny to be honest, owning both PlayStation and N64. Retrospectively I bet that the interview wasn't really well-translated.
 
Yeah... no

PlayStation was cheaper to produce a disc, so was a no brainer for publishers
No restrictions of size because you can ship more than one disc, less burocracy to get the disc license, and it was easier to develop

Also, Sony was very into having partners, and that's why some people considered Metal Gear Solid or even Tomb Raider as PlayStation exclusives

N64 ports of the games are kinda considered different games overral. You can check with Resident Evil 2, that Angel Studios changed a lot, and not [all] because of compression, but because it's a whole other architecture

You can argue with N64 games vs PSX games, and people will probably tell that there's no comparison beteween Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark... But the PSX has a bigger and diverse library and you can't argue with that

Disclaimer: I still preffer the N64, but it's a question of math, not love
 
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deriks said:
Yeah... no

PlayStation was cheaper to produce a disc, so was a no brainer for publishers
No restrictions of size because you can ship more than one disc, less burocracy to get the disc license, and it was easier to develop
Click to expand...

Came to say this, got beaten ofc :D
 
I also prefer the N64 but the PS1 had a more mainstream appeal. I would say it's the first console that was aimed to casual "non gamers" with it's marketing. A lot of people who weren't interested in videogames, especially adults, got into games because of the Playstation. Also, the n64 had the false reputation of being for young children despite things like Turok early on but hey. Magazines had to push the Playstation as the "cool" console.
 
I remember Yamauchi being salty as fuck when Square shifted Final Fantasy VII over to Playstation and called people who play RPGs sad and lonely people who sits alone in their basements.

I'm glad Nintendo got dethroned, their arrogance and ludicrous demands for third party was despicable and that shit still haunts them to this day. If a company gets to big for their own good this is what happens. The industry needs competition or lest we as gamers and developers will get fucked over badly.
 
The irony here is that the games he was likely mostly referring to, ie the swathe of huge JRPGs that were a cornerstone of the PSOne's library and a big reason for its success even in the west, today are seen by the vast majority of gamers as weeb pedo stuff.

Nintendo made their own bed in the 8- and 16-bit era and can only blame themselves for what happened with third parties with the N64 and beyond, but it's true that the system they had in place worked wonders for them until Sony stepped up and stole their party.

Jokes and salt aside, anyway, the mid-90s were the era of edge and the classic Nintendo franchises just couldn't hope to compete with the new themes and imagery that video games seriously started exploring in the 32-bit era. If Nintendo's first party output hadn't been so incredibly groundbreaking at the time and without out-of-the-box 4-player support with fantastic software to justify it, the N64 would have fared worse than it did.
 
Well, it's a shame they stabbed Sony in the back.... he would have ended up less salty.
I had an N64 and not a PS1 at the time but the statement he made is ridiculous...
 
I was a huge fan of the SNES back then. And when I saw the 'ULTRA64' announced on the Killer Instinct arcade machine, I was so much looking forward to it.
What we got with the N64 was nowhere near as awesome as I had hoped for.
Every game looked like a blurry mess, and that controller was the stuff of nightmares.
Games went from 60 fps on SNES to 10 fps on N64, I got headache just looking at that mess.
And then you had games that cost almost double of what comparable PS1 games cost.
I skipped that console generation altogether and went for PC gaming since all consoles looked shit back then with their early 3D graphics.
What a waste.
 
N64 had some classics, but Psone had several classics. PSone had quantity and quality softwares wise, most complete lineup at that time.

Psone was the natural sucessor of snes, minus nintendo games. Sony changed the level of relations with publishers and developers to make up for its inexperience with first party and the result was a support nintendo never had and probably never will.
 
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The Playstation was the FIFA machine in the UK.

Any console that the working class embrace always wins over here. Just give them the yearly sports games and BOOM.
 
So... If he reincarnated he will probably be an Xbox fanboy, right? Spreading stuff like: "Sony just got lucky... Again, PlayStation games are just walking, depressing, tps, movie like games..." Or some twisted bs like that.
:messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
Stiflers Mom said:
I skipped that console generation altogether and went for PC gaming since all consoles looked shit back then with their early 3D graphics.
What a waste.
Click to expand...

Man, you missed out on a lot of great stuff. Even though much aged poorly, going from only 2D games to stuff like Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VII-IX, etc was one of my most memorable gaming eras.
 
I think the main reasons of why PlayStation destroyed N64 were:
-They localized most of its games to different languages when releasing games in Europe, so Europe became Sonyland, which ended being their top 1 worldwide market and their userbase became way bigger.
-With CDs instead of cartridges it was way cheaper for devs to develop games, so they got a better 3rd party support, who also were appealed by a bigger userbase.
-Better library of games: Metal Gear, Resident Evil, Ridge Racer, Wipeout, Final Fantasy VII, Tekken, Street Fighter, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Crash Tag Team Racing, Syphon Filter, Gran Turismo... tons of great games from a big variety of genres both from classic and new IPs.
 
Birdo said:
The Playstation was the FIFA machine in the UK.

Any console that the working class embrace always wins over here. Just give them the yearly sports games and BOOM.
Click to expand...

Same in Brazil.

Most casual players will buy the new PS + Fifa and they're set for (the console's) life.
 
Man the prices on carts were ABSURD, especially for someone that didn't have a full-time job at the time. Not to mention there was a pivotal point where it felt like there were a LOT more new releases on PS1.
 
We had "arcade like" ports on PS, like Tekken and Ridge Racer!
Depressing?! It was the coolest console ever... Wipeout, soul edge, gran turismo!
 
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UnconfirmedBit said:
We had "arcade like" ports on PS, like Tekken and Ridge Racer!
Depressing?! It was the coolest console ever... Wipeout, soul edge, gran turismo!
Click to expand...

I think the PS2 was even better but, at the time, PS1 was the absolute king.

And this coming from a lifelong Sega follower who wished the Saturn faired better. I end up choosing the PSX and I don't regret it a bit.

I also really like the N64 (even though the library is really small compared to the juggernaut PS1)
 
IbizaPocholo said:
www.nintendolife.com

Random: The Real Reason N64 Lost To PlayStation? Depressing Games And Lonely Players, Apparently

That's according to late Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, anyway
www.nintendolife.com www.nintendolife.com

A lack of publisher support is just one of the reasons the N64 struggled in the face of the PlayStation, despite playing host to some of the best games of the generation in the form of Super Mario 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time and GoldenEye 007. However, somewhat predictably, Nintendo's president of the time Hiroshi Yamauchi had a somewhat different opinion on why the console was bested by Sony's system. He was quoted at the time as saying the real reason the N64 failed is because Japanese gamers "[like] to be alone in their rooms and play depressing games."

gamers-republic.original.jpg


Famously short-tempered and never one to mince his words, Yamauchi uttered that pearl of a soundbite around the same time he announced he would be retiring as president of Nintendo, a position he had occupied since 1949. He passed away in 2013, and it was only while we were flicking through a pile of old Gamers' Republic magazines from the dawn of the millennium that we were reminded of Yamauchi's amusingly negative assessment of the Japanese games industry.
Click to expand...


We all know most of the ps1 success over n64 was due to piratable games

/s ( not at all, at least)


Didn't have the chance to afford n64 prices back in the day, so ps1 Homebrew was a godsend, without it i'd never had the chance to experience such an awesome library

Tomba, Dino Crisis, Resident Evil, tekken, gta, gran turismo, mgs, medievil, and hundreds more games

I only envied n64 both pokemon stadium games, who I used to play at a friend's place

Never liked Mario 64, and badly underrated Oot until I got to play it on gamecube special edition disc with double dash

Though I admit playing Oot in ps1/n64 era would have changed my gamer life forever, I'd never choose n64 instead of ps1 If I had a time machine, I'd still go with ps1 forever
 
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Guardian's Light said:
We all know most of the ps1 success over n64 was due to piratable games

/s ( not at all, at least)


Didn't have the chance to afford n64 prices back in the day, so ps1 Homebrew was a godsend, without it i'd never had the chance to experience such an awesome library
Click to expand...
Hadn't PS1 games been so easy to pirate, Italy would still be waiting for its video games boom.
Everyone modded their PS1 and pirated games. And I mean everyone. Every. single. person I knew with a PS1 had a modded console and barely an original disc. I was literally the only PS1 owner who played original games in my circle of friends.

Nintendo tried to get people on board by sponsoring the Fiorentina football club and making TV ads and commercials, but the N64 and its games were just too expensive. Nintendo didn't have a previous foothold in the country (consoles barely registered here before the PS1, Italy was Amiga country) and virtually every game except for Pokémon not getting an Italian localization doomed the machine.
 
DeepEnigma said:
Only thing depressing about the N64 was the atrocious framerate in most games.
Click to expand...
N64 got the reputation of slow frame rates mostly because of RARE's games. Nintendo's own games were fine. In general it was better than the Saturn when it comes to frame rates. But i guess RARE's games were more popular so they got the spotlight.

N64 also got the reputation of having "foggy games" because of Turok alone. Despite the fact that all 3D polygonal FPS games with outdoor areas had some kind of pop-up, some as much as Turok. And despite the fact that the N64 generally could do longer draw distances in most other games compared to the PS1 and the Saturn. But i guess Turok bacame too popular so it got the spotlight.

Also, dunno what's wrong about N64's sport games. ISS 98 and NFL quarterback club games look vastly better (graphically) than anything on the PS1/Saturn.
 
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The N64 had a stupid controller. Noone was going to buy that shit.

Plus pirating

Plus FIFA

Plus Aemon Holmes on GMTV asking if GTA should be banned (first time I saw that game, I bought it the following day)
 
Stiflers Mom said:
I was a huge fan of the SNES back then. And when I saw the 'ULTRA64' announced on the Killer Instinct arcade machine, I was so much looking forward to it.
What we got with the N64 was nowhere near as awesome as I had hoped for.
Every game looked like a blurry mess, and that controller was the stuff of nightmares.
Games went from 60 fps on SNES to 10 fps on N64, I got headache just looking at that mess.
And then you had games that cost almost double of what comparable PS1 games cost.
I skipped that console generation altogether and went for PC gaming since all consoles looked shit back then with their early 3D graphics.
What a waste.
Click to expand...

Yep. I enjoyed the Nintendo 64, after I got one when GoldenEye 007 was released, but it wasn't anywhere near what was promised. It was the one Nintendo console I had the least amount of games for in the end. I believe I got about 15 games for it, max. which is laughable to what I had on the PlayStation (around three times as much).
 
UnconfirmedBit said:
We had "arcade like" ports on PS, like Tekken and Ridge Racer!
Depressing?! It was the coolest console ever... Wipeout, soul edge, gran turismo!
Click to expand...

Namco's releases were already enough reason to own a PlayStation I think. It was for me at least.
It was such a great time, also discovering past classics you never played before, like on the Namco Museum compilations.

I guess Hiroshi Yamauchi refers here to Japanese gamers, and their love for the RPGs from there. Nintendo lost support from Square as well as most of Enix' at the time, and he might have been bitter about this, knowing they did well on the PlayStation. I dunno.
 
Funny, now in japan it's like "meh, you need to be in a room to play this...pass".

Anyway, In my country I'm fairly certain the number 1 reason Ps1 dominated was piracy. It was crazy back then, you could have your console flashed and buy pirated games in the mall. They didn't even hide it or anything, had them right there on display with a big "alternative games" sign, even gave you a recipe and paid sales tax
 
Only things I can remember from this console are the ugly, compressed textures, low framerate and fog everywhere.
 
NeoIkaruGAF said:
Hadn't PS1 games been so easy to pirate, Italy would still be waiting for its video games boom.
Everyone modded their PS1 and pirated games. And I mean everyone. Every. single. person I knew with a PS1 had a modded console and barely an original disc. I was literally the only PS1 owner who played original games in my circle of friends.

Nintendo tried to get people on board by sponsoring the Fiorentina football club and making TV ads and commercials, but the N64 and its games were just too expensive. Nintendo didn't have a previous foothold in the country (consoles barely registered here before the PS1, Italy was Amiga country) and virtually every game except for Pokémon not getting an Italian localization doomed the machine.
Click to expand...

It's not a casualty i'm italian hahaha
I lived videogames and playstation's boom as a kid, then as a teenager

Different story for every gameboy model, who was incredibly diffused, but as long as we talk home consoles, as you say, every single person had a modded ps1 and tons of games, n64 was a strongly niche product here

Plus, being able to buy games at the actual equivalent of 5-10€ was a big push in vg popularity
 
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Sounds like sour grapes even decades later...

Lonely players?
The 64 was THE multiplayer system

Duke Numem
Perfect Dark
Golden Eye
Mario Party
To name a few, oh and the one that started a Dynasty Super Freaking Smash Bros!

My friends and I were never lonely on my 64
 
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LMJ said:
Sounds like sour grapes even decades later...

Lonely players?
The 64 was THE multiplayer system

Duke Numem
Perfect Dark
Golden Eye
Mario Party
To name a few, oh and the one that started a Dynasty Super Freaking Smash Bros!

My friends and I were never lonely on my 64
Click to expand...
yeah the console with 4 controller port built in from scratch, everybody I knew were playing 4 player Goldeneye while single player like wipeout were ps1
 
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LMJ said:
Sounds like sour grapes even decades later...

Lonely players?
The 64 was THE multiplayer system

Duke Numem
Perfect Dark
Golden Eye
Mario Party
To name a few, oh and the one that started a Dynasty Super Freaking Smash Bros!

My friends and I were never lonely on my 64
Click to expand...
I think Yamauch was targeting PS1 players with this comment. Because the N64 is a good console for multiplayer, the PS1 became the success in the end because players are lonely.
 
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Yamauchi (if I remember correctly since I've seen this quote before a long time ago) was referencing JRPGs specifically, not general PS1 games or gamers. Nintendo at the time was incredibly salty that they just lost Squaresoft.

Come to think of it, I really can't recall ever seeing something like that before or after. After the (sales wise) horrid N64 gen, Nintendo bounced back as it tends to do and the GBA was a big hit, Squaresoft was super desperate to get in on that and actually publicly apologised to Nintendo before they let them back on again. I believe they also had to make an exclusive Gamecube game as part of the deal and that's where Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles came from.
 
I was barely coherent to concepts like"gaming" when the n64 and ps were holding court.. from memory, n64 seemed like the fun console, the one you played with friends, and the ps felt something like the story console, the quality console, the Space Odyssey to the n64's James Bond flick. Also i think even then i was pretty sure that the technology in the ps1 was behind the n64. At least it felt that way. The N64 was like the xbox of the following generation.
 
Me playing n64 games...

the-mist-movie-image-2.jpg


+ diarrhea textures

Ps1 games aged like old wine.
And look razor sharp with the correct equipment. And cabling
 
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