When did Nintendo's stranglehold end?

[sloan]

Everything I have read is that Nintendo essentially killed Sega's Master System and Atari's 7800 by use of their tight non-compete clauses for devs and publishers. So this got me wondering: When did Nintendo's infamous contracts cease their strangling effect upon the competition? Look at Sega and the Genesis system and they had 3rd parties like Acclaim and Capcom on board even as those companies released titles for the NES. Hudson had their own system, the PC Engine, even as they released titles on NES. By the time PSX came along, it seemed that 3rd party developers freely roamed from console to console. So when did Nintendo's official stranglehold on 8/16-bit devs/publishers come to an end?

[Greg2600]

It was done in by the success of the Genesis. I think they began to relax those restrictions around 1991.

[jammajup]

I think people did get sick of Nintendo`s tight grip,i have listened to a few podcasts were game designers and programmers have been interviewed and it did sound quite restrictive. I would agree it changed a lot by the 16-bit era ,i think one of the most interesting things was the patent on the `+` D-pad because i always preferred the cross pad as it seemed more accurate than the Sms and Megadrive pads which after a while would become dirty and inaccurate (pushing left would go left up or left down).

[Tanooki]

Thankfully they've never relaxed on keeping that D-Pad design of theirs out of the hands of the competition as it's like a really perfect design that's comfortable and easily rocks into 8 different positions. The stuff the others did was loaded with stiff controls, weird textures, and odd designs that just wrecked your thumb a whole lot faster and for some just has no precision at all.

Nintendo's grip slipped as a combo of the Genesis being on the market a couple years and people finally catching onto it, and the fact they kept getting sued and screwed with by third parties fed up with their contractual bullshit and overkill censorship policies. Mind you that's console only, it's a whole other matter of debate on the handheld arena as the DS thoroughly cleaned the PSPs clock and the 3DS is doing it again this go around too despite the growing tablet/phone market.

[BricatSegaFan]

Thankfully they've never relaxed on keeping that D-Pad design of theirs out of the hands of the competition as it's like a really perfect design that's comfortable and easily rocks into 8 different positions. The stuff the others did was loaded with stiff controls, weird textures, and odd designs that just wrecked your thumb a whole lot faster and for some just has no precision at all.

I personally find the genesis 6 button d pad very comfy.

[SOL BADGUY]

N64 era. Genesis got alot of support from third party developers, but when Nintendo stayed with cartridges and the PS got Final Fantasy games, the writing was on the wall. If the Wii hadnt had motion detection I think Nintendo would only be focusing on handheld consoles by now. If the Wii U fails, then Nintendo can just keep going with the handhelds and put their own games on the next one that is released.

If Nintendo wants to make a comeback they have to be humble and be kinder to third parties. Them being so horrible to them is what made developers leave them for the PS1. Its weird though, once a console company made a misstep it seems they never recover. Sega almost did, but it wasnt for long.

[Greg2600]

N64? No the restrictions on the number of games you could program ended years earlier. Snes developers also could manufacture and assemble their own games, albeit using Nintendos molds. NES required all games be assembled by Nintendo.

[BlastProcessing402]

Thankfully they've never relaxed on keeping that D-Pad design of theirs out of the hands of the competition as it's like a really perfect design that's comfortable and easily rocks into 8 different positions. The stuff the others did was loaded with stiff controls, weird textures, and odd designs that just wrecked your thumb a whole lot faster and for some just has no precision at all.


I personally find the genesis 6 button d pad very comfy.

In general I find the Nintendo cross to be the best d pad around, but when playing 16 bit fighting games I much preferred Sega's circular d pad. A night of fighting games on the SNES would leave me and my friends with raw, sore thumbs (or Nintendo Thumb if you will) but a night of fighting games on the Genesis did nothing.

[sloan]

In general I find the Nintendo cross to be the best d pad around, but when playing 16 bit fighting games I much preferred Sega's circular d pad. A night of fighting games on the SNES would leave me and my friends with raw, sore thumbs (or Nintendo Thumb if you will) but a night of fighting games on the Genesis did nothing.


I always had numb or raw thumbs from the NES cross. I actually think the smoothest d-pad I have ever played with is a 3rd party PSX controller, which I cannot remember the manufacturer. The sharp corners of the NES cross are unbearably painful on the hands.

[wiggyx]

I personally find the genesis 6 button d pad very comfy.

Sega's D-pads have always been better IMO. The way they mount them makes it require less effort to circle around the pad since leverage is on your side, at least for the Genesis, Nomad, and Saturn.


N64? No the restrictions on the number of games you could program ended years earlier. Snes developers also could manufacture and assemble their own games, albeit using Nintendos molds. NES required all games be assembled by Nintendo.

I'm pretty sure all N64 games were manufactured by Nintendo as well, whatever the reason (likely the insane cost).

[Greg2600]

I'm pretty sure all N64 games were manufactured by Nintendo as well, whatever the reason (likely the insane cost).

Yes, that was probably the publishers willingly doing that.

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

June 23, 1991.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

It was the Genesis. At that point, Nintendo had no choice but to let up on the developers to make games for other systems, cuz the Genesis was simply superior to the Nintendo. But it didn't screw them cuz the Super Nintendo was a tremendous success, I think it sold more then the Genesis. And it had tons of games. And, yes, they did make a huge mistake making the N64 a cart-based system, so they lost tonsa 3rd party support. Lets face it, u can't fit a game like FF7 on an N64 cart. It's just too big.

It's a myth that Nintendo is failing tho. I don't believe they'll stop making consoles cuz people love Nintendo consoles. They can afford this Wii U flop, they have a TON of money in the bank. What screwed Sega was that when the Dreamcast flopped, they didn't have the funds Nintendo does. I don't think Nintendo will ever make a console selling more then Sony, but they don't need to, I don't think. The Wii didn't out-sell either the 360 or PS3 but it sold quite well, and therefore it was a success, financially.

They can definately afford to release another console, which I guess they could do in a few years. Who knows tho? Nintendo always surprises me.

[Tanooki]

Afford it, for a time yes, but there will be a shakeup over it. Yamauchi and his death grip are deceased and the fool in charge has no idea how to properly develop and manage a company that size and was better off inventing stuff like Kirby. It's somewhat of a myth, but there is truth to it in pieces. Since they went publicly traded instead of private during the old mans reign, they do have to answer to anyone who owns a share. I suspect him and Reg-tard will get shown the door when voting comes up on their jobs again. I believe whatever suit would get put in their place will probably start to spread them out thinner into other markets like sub-project tablet/phone junk to help get support for their unique projects, and maybe they'll dump the loser strategy of cheap hardware and try and do what game developers request in a new console so they get games as games=buyers(3DS) and no games=WiiU.

They could release plenty more, but they need to do something entirely on a different track. They go into a big old super powered handheld that can then tether to a TV or get docked into a TV unit with a real controller (like a neo geo x) which they they only run one platform based on their successful handheld market, or they go with a beefy system on the level of the other two.

[MidnightRider]

the Super Nintendo was a tremendous success, I think it sold more then the Genesis.

In terms of being on the market longer, and having a massive majority of the Japanese market. In the west however, including North America, the Genesis had won the competitive aspect.


In general I find the Nintendo cross to be the best d pad around, but when playing 16 bit fighting games I much preferred Sega's circular d pad. A night of fighting games on the SNES would leave me and my friends with raw, sore thumbs (or Nintendo Thumb if you will) but a night of fighting games on the Genesis did nothing.

I'll never believe a cross shape is going to perform quarter/half/full circles better than a circular pad. You'd have to be far too used to that cross for your own good to be able to say otherwise with a straight face.

[Gentlegamer]

And, yes, they did make a huge mistake making the N64 a cart-based system, so they lost tonsa 3rd party support. Lets face it, u can't fit a game like FF7 on an N64 cart. It's just too big.

The game would fit just fine, it's the prerendered cutscenes that wouldn't.

On the dpad issue from earlier, I greatly prefer Nintendo style, the Genesis/Saturn was good too, but I can never get as precise diagonals with them as I can with Nintendo style.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

Yea I kinda prefer the Nintendo Dpads also, not sure why, but Sega's Dpads are solid also. The Master System Dpads are ok, altho its strange how they're square shaped instead of circular. They work ok, but don't have the precision the Genesis/Saturn D-pads have.

[Koa Zo]

I had though some publisher(s) took Nintendo to court over the liscencing and manufacturing requirements during the NES era. That would be what loosened the stranglehold .

[Rickstilwell1]

I blame it solely on Sonic the Hedgehog. As the first console game I ever owned I can say I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I have never stopped playing that game as long as I have had it. It didn't stop me from getting Super Mario Bros. and playing that just as frequently, but it proved that another company could make games just as good as Nintendo's, even for kids.

Also yeah I remember when Final Fantasy 7 was first being tech demo'd for Nintendo 64. They started making the character models based on the Final Fantasy 6 characters and showed a picture of it in Nintendo Power. As development went on they jumped ship to the Playstation.

[kupomogli]

Offtopic. The N64 was able to push more polys since it's a more powerful system, but does the console load 2D poorly? Because if you look at games that were multiconsole, 3D on N64 is smoother but the textures were blurrier, while PSX 3D had less polys so more jaggies, but higher quality 2D textures so much more clear. If the N64 version can hold the entire game with compressed video, and it's a more powerful console, then why are the textures noticeably worse? I'm speaking of Resident Evil 2 there, but it's not just that game. Nightmare Creatures has slightly worse textures. Mega Man 64 has worse textures, really bad texture pop in, really bad pop in, and bad draw distance, despite being on a cartridge instead of CD.

[Gentlegamer]

Offtopic. The N64 was able to push more polys since it's a more powerful system, but does the console load 2D poorly? Because if you look at games that were multiconsole, 3D on N64 is smoother but the textures were blurrier, while PSX 3D had less polys so more jaggies, but higher quality 2D textures so much more clear. If the N64 version can hold the entire game with compressed video, and it's a more powerful console, then why are the textures noticeably worse? I'm speaking of Resident Evil 2 there, but it's not just that game. Nightmare Creatures has slightly worse textures. Mega Man 64 has worse textures, really bad texture pop in, really bad pop in, and bad draw distance, despite being on a cartridge instead of CD.

N64 had a small texture cache, and generally less ROM capacity to store larger textures. The thought at the time was that most things would be shaded polygons like in Super Mario 64, with limited use of textures.

[T2KFreeker]

All that I can say about this is that one of the last really big titles to get this treatment was Batman. It really caused a huge uproar when Sunsoft wasn't able to release the Genesis or Turbografx 16 versions of Batman in the US because they released the NES version. AND, as you all know, Batman was a HUGE success in the theater and game fans were very outspoken about how upset they were that they couldn't purchase or rent the game for their new/favorite consoles. The funny thing is that all three games are actually nothing alike from a gameplay standpoint. the only real similarities is the music. PC Engine version was a Bomberman style maze game, and even though the Genesis and NES versions are both platformers, they are both very different games level designwise. The PC Engine Batman game actually saw quite a bit of importing because of this and the Megadrive Batman game was heavily pirated at the time. It's one of those games that I remember being heavily responsible for the changes in Nintendo's exclusivity contracts as Sunsoft lost quite a bit of money out of that deal. By the time Sunsoft was able to release the game in the states, the Turbografx 16 was almost a done deal and the Batman craze had cooled quite a bit so the Genesis version didn't sell as well as they had hoped. It helped to show third party developers that the Genesis was a viable platform and that possibly developing for something other than the NES might be a good idea.

[lagartija_nick]

Here is a timely podcast:

Back in my Play

Discussing the book "Console Wars"


They hit upon the end of Nintendo's Stranglehold.

http://backinmyplay.com/bimp-gaiden-console-wars-w-blake-j-harris/

[DeputyMoniker]

I don't think Nintendo will ever make a console selling more then Sony, but they don't need to, I don't think. The Wii didn't out-sell either the 360 or PS3 but it sold quite well, and therefore it was a success, financially.

The Wii console outsole both the PS3 and the 360. It's one of the best selling consoles ever. My ex mother-in-law has one. Unfortunately for Nintendo, she never used it and isn't upgrading to a U...but I may.

On topic, I remember the tide change. It began with the Genny and worsened with the Playstation. It was quite the time to be a young gamer. Good memories.

EDIT: Oh, and I think there's a big difference between Sega and Nintendo. Sega had no handheld business to speak of and they hadn't had a successful console in 10 years. You gotta realize that Sega was doing so poorly that Sammy was able to control them for about $1 billion. Nintendo, right now has like $15 billion in assets. They have a monster handheld business, they're coming off the success of the Wii, and unlike Sega they have IP that people still care about. Nintendo can survive a flop like this...it'll probably be good for them in the long run.

[MidnightRider]

They have a monster handheld business, they're coming off the success of the Wii, and unlike Sega they have IP that people still care about.

Sega has plenty of IP's people care about, they just keep playing it safe and sticking to Sonic. I've yet to see a fan game for a Nintendo IP that, if/when finished, is still going to appear to be in the same league as Streets of Rage Remake. Hell, the M.U.G.E.N. for beat 'em ups is named after the series.