Nintendo's 10 Biggest Blunders And Fails

Nintendo have finally done it! They have clawed their way back in to the race to be the industry's top hardware manufacturer - and back into the hearts of long-time fans. The past two decades have been tumultuous for Nintendo with some bright spots and a lot of time futilely chasing after their competitors. They have had financial and critical successes littered throughout, but have remained firmly in third place in the minds of fans.

After so long without a blockbuster console, the Switch has won the hearts of both casual and hardcore gamers alike. Games like Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey have reminded fans of the depth and richness of Nintendo's stellar game mechanics. With their versatile bit of kit, Nintendo have once again married their desire to innovate with the ability to create rich games and worlds for fans to get lost in.

By reaching this new peak, Nintendo have overcome their biggest nemesis: themselves. On the way to their current zenith, Nintendo leaves in their wake a litany of horrible business decisions, poor designs and appalling short sighted thinking that nearly extinguished the brightest star in the history of the gaming industry.

The GameCube was a fantastic console, eventually. However Nintendo's poor decisions, both in the launch and design of the console, meant that for the first time Nintendo found themselves in third place in the console wars. At this point the Xbox and PlayStation 2 had dominated the market leaving Nintendo out in the cold.

So what went wrong? As will become apparent in this list, Nintendo hate CDs. Nintendo had obstinately refused to adopt the medium that everyone else long ago realised was the most efficient way of mass producing games. Instead, they half-relented and adopted the mini-disc format.

Apparently, Nintendo chose mini-discs in order to curtail piracy, but crucially, the format meant that the GameCube did not have DVD functionality, unlike its competitors the Xbox and PS2. Fans were starting to expect more from their consoles than simply playing games on them and Nintendo was sluggish to respond to that new need.

Furthermore, the launch line-up for the GameCube was lacking that one killer app - namely, a proper Mario game. Although it boasted heavy hitters such as Luigi's Mansion and Wave Race, fans were not clamouring to buy the GameCube for its games. The GameCube sold 22 million units. The PlayStation 2 sold 154 million. Nintendo's poor handling of the GameCube and refusal to adopt CDs had placed it firmly in third place in an industry Nintendo used to own.