Add-ons Never Win

It is completely against the point of this blog for me to defend one video game company over another under normal circumstances. However, I've been hearing something a lot that is severely unfair to one such company, and unlike with most similar cases, I haven't seen a lot of defense. That's why, in the interest of balance, I'm going to present the reason why I believe the SNES Playstation would have failed.

First, a little background for those who need it. The Playstation was originally the result of Nintendo working with Sony to create a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). At some point, however, the deal fell through and Sony instead turned Playstation into a new, standalone console themselves. When the Playstation greatly outsold the Nintendo 64, people started forming the conclusion that Nintendo brought its own demise by severing the deal with Sony. They believe that if Nintendo had stuck with it, Sony would not be a competitor and Nintendo would have continued to rule the industry. Now, they reason, Nintendo is paying for its mistake.

But that belief completely contradicts what video game history has told us: add-ons never win. Sega's equivalent of the original Playstation concept, the Sega CD, is a good example. The Sega CD (or Sega Mega CD depending on your region) is known for Sonic CD and a lot of terrible FMV-based games (look up "Night Trap" if you don't know what I mean). Sony's own EyeToy, while successful by peripheral standards, did not sell all that well overall. Nintendo's 64DD, a disk-based add-on for the N64, only came out in Japan and was not even very popular there. Therefore, the odds of the SNES Playstation being a success were pretty low. If nothing else, I think everyone can agree on that point.

So if the SNES Playstation failed, would Sony just give up on video games? Not likely. There is certainly the possibility that Sony would leave the video game business, but with the industry growing at the time, it's not likely. I believe, in the face of the SNES Playstation failing, Sony would decide to make its own console anyway. Sony's a huge company; they could afford the experiment.

Meanwhile, Nintendo is not and has never been "dead." While the N64 and Gamecube didn't sell as well as Sony's counterparts, they sold considerably and crushed their Sega counterparts. With the recent success of the DS and Wii, Nintendo is doing fine. To say Nintendo was dead because Sony's products sold better would be like saying Sony's dead because the PS3 and PSP aren't doing as well as their Nintendo counterparts.

The point is, it's unfair to say that Nintendo acted stupidly in severing its deal with Sony. The deal would probably have been disastrous for Nintendo, and Sony wouldn't give up easily.