From 1988 to 1993, Nintendo and Sony worked together on the CD addon for the SNES. Nintendo finally backed off when they realized they were giving Sony too much power over the new system, afraid to create a big competitor (according to the deal Nintendo broke, Sony had total control over the games released on the SNES compatible PlayStation).
In the end, they created a huge competitor by backing off, but I wonder... Should Nintendo have kept the deal to keep Sony under control? With Nintendo and Sony focusing on the add-on, would the PSX have ever existed? And how much more successful would the Saturn have been without the 299 trick and the direct competition from Sony?
Welcome to this alternative universe generator where your mind is the weapon. Let's make our projections for an imaginary past... and present.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_CD-ROM
I think Sony would have gone all in nonetheless after they would have dipped their toes, even if it took another gen or two. But it would've given the established players much room to breathe.
Secret of Mana is one of my all-time favourite games and it was supposedly cut to fit onto cart after the CD drive was dropped. So I think they should have kept the deal, just so that I could have played the full version :-*
Anyways. I'm pretty happy with the outcome :laugh:
Two great franchises instead of one :D
Wish Sega managed to keep up with the competition as well.. Not a big fan of their earlier consoles but Dreamcast was AWESOME!!!
I think it's safe to assume the SNES add-on would have failed, just like the rest of the add-ons failed.
About the SNES compatible PlayStation, it probably would have become another Turbo Duo.
Perhaps this would have meant the Sega Saturn would have overtaken the market. Who knows?
PS: The Dreamcast controller is terrible and super fragile. But I wish Sega was still making hardware instead of Microsoft. I suffered the PSX and PS2 d-pad with the only previous experience of the Game Boy, but they say the Mega Drive and Saturn d-pads were much better.