One big selling point of the N64 hardware was custom microcode, but Nintendo never released information on how to use it, fearing it would be copied by their rivals.įurthermore, while it wasn't as bad as it had been in the past, Nintendo also continued in their usual habit of forcing developers to Bowdlerise in-game content to be more 'family friendly'. Final Fantasy VII wound up becoming a phenomenon that further boosted the PlayStation and cemented the power of the RPG genre, which the N64 severely lacked games in. The loss of Squaresoft in particular was a huge blow Final Fantasy VII was originally meant for Nintendo hardware, but development switched to the PlayStation due to the lower cost and higher capacity of CDs compared to cartridges. Third-party companies such as Atlus, Capcom, Jaleco, Namco, Konami, Squaresoft, Sunsoft, and Tecmo, which had steadfastly supported the NES and SNES, were now releasing most or all of their games for the PlayStation and Saturn rather than the N64. This wasn't helped by Nintendo's fraught relationship with third parties during the SNES period only getting worse. So if you were tired of playing Super Mario 64 for the trillionth time, your only choices by January 1997 were Pilotwings, Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey, Wave Race 64, Killer Instinct Gold, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, or half-assed ports of Cruis'n USA note Which is especially ironic since Cruis'n USA was hyped up as one of the big tech demo games for the platform, as Nintendo bragged about the arcade version supposedly running on Nintendo 64 hardware (it didn't) and promised an "arcade-perfect port" (it wasn't). The system launched with two games total, and it only had about one new release a month.
While the Big N's first-party games on the N64 were as awesome as ever, there simply weren't enough of them to go around, especially with promised installments of the Nintendo Wars, Fire Emblem note which instead opted for another installment on the SNES for some reason, and Mother series never seeing the light of day on the system. However, Nintendo lost many key franchises, especially JRPGs, because of their reluctance to use CDs (which were cheaper than cartridges and offered more storage space, especially for videos and voice acting), likely due to the fiasco with Sony and Phillips on the CD add-on for the SNES (which would eventually lead to the PlayStation itself) and because of their fears regarding piracy and reduced licensing revenue. The N64 was a big hit in its early life thanks to it showcasing very powerful 3D graphics (for its time) and a very strong focus on local multiplayer with four controller ports built right into the system (something that bit both Sega and Sony, as both of their consoles required an add-on for more than two players). Eventually, with Election Day right around the corner, Nintendo finally released the Nintendo 64 on Jin Japan and Septemin North America, with rollouts in Europe starting in March 1997.
Additionally, Nintendo could afford to release a new system late: the Super Nintendo Entertainment System had already become the top-selling system of the fourth generation despite being released long after the TurboGrafx-16 and Sega Genesis, and indeed Nintendo used the belated release to their advantage by continuing to push the Super NES's limits and build up hype for its successor. Nintendo didn't drag their feet in starting development on a competing system, and the initially middling performance of competing fifth-gen systems allowed them to prolong development to fine-tune their own entry into the new generation rather than rushing it out the door.
By 1996, The Fifth Generation of Console Video Games had already been underway for quite some time the PlayStation and Sega Saturn had both been released in 1994 in Japan and 1995 elsewhere, yet despite their successes at home were failing to adequately crack markets abroad.