8 Crippling Flaws In Popular Video Game Consoles

3. Sticking With Cartridges - N64

Many people don't know Sony and Nintendo once had a "Nintendo PlayStation" in the works - a project that went sideways when the two companies couldn't decide on how to split revenue at retail. Set to play cartridges AND CDs, Sony would take their new fangled disc technology and build the PlayStation into its own brand.

The rest is industry-shaking history as far as Sony are concerned, but Nintendo, perhaps only out of tradition or competition, stuck with cartridges.

It proved to be the system's undoing. Of course the N64 is still one of the most beloved consoles in gaming history, but the PS1 completely flattened it in sales and technical capability.

Cartridges were expensive to produce and had major memory limitations by comparison. The almighty Final Fantasy VII actually started life on N64, but Square had to jump ship, as the project just wasn't doable on cartridge.

All this, when it was Nintendo that helped pioneer 3D in 1992's Mario Kart, or 93's Star Fox. They should've been the first to execute on those ideas in full... yet, it all fell apart.