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When Sony launched the PS1 in 1994, Nintendo suffered one of its biggest losses when Squaresoft, a company that previously became almost synonymous with Nintendo consoles, chose to release its games on the PS1 instead of the N64.
In fact, according to a new interview from Sony veteran Shuhei Yoshida by VentureBeat (thanks, Go Nintendo), Squaresoft initially tried to convince Nintendo to adopt CD-ROMs for the N64 instead of cartridges, with Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi especially keen to utilise the technology.
Alas, Nintendo didn’t budge, and so Squaresoft moved Final Fantasy over to the PS1, while Enix followed suit with Dragon Quest.
Here’s what Yoshida had to say:
“Our goal was to get all the major games in Japan to come to the PlayStation. At the time there were two big teams working with Nintendo, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. For the Japanese audience, those were the most popular games. When a new one came out you had long lines of customers waiting to buy them. It made the national news when a new Dragon Quest came out. There was controversy over kids calling out sick from school to stay home and play games.
“Of course, initially they weren’t interested. They were close to Nintendo. But Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, loved the potential of CDs. His dream was to create a movie-like Final Fantasy game. He was disappointed when he learned that the Nintendo 64 still used cartridges. His movies couldn’t fit there.
“Squaresoft tried to convince Nintendo to change that plan, but they wouldn’t. They didn’t believe in CD-ROM at all. That’s why they licensed the Super Nintendo add-on project to Sony in the first place, because they believed CD-ROM was just too slow to ever make for a good game system.”
Of course, you’ll likely know the story by now, but Nintendo and Sony came very close to partnering on a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES before Nintendo famously got cold feet at the last minute. Despite attempts to repair the subsequent rift between the two companies, Sony eventually abandoned development of the add-on to produce its own console, the PlayStation.
These days, Square Enix games can be found on many different platforms, with the company committing to multiplatform releases of its major titles in the future. Still, it’s interesting to see just how much impact Nintendo’s decision with the N64 had on Squaresoft back in the day.
Do you think Nintendo should have adopted CD-ROM technology with the N64, or did it make the right decision to utilise cartridges? Let us know your thoughts with a comment.