Nintendo's 10 Biggest Blunders And Fails

Rare was one of the finest games developers in the world, producing such classics as Perfect Dark, Killer Instinct, Banjo-Kazooie, GoldenEye, and Battletoads. They were a powerhouse developer for Nintendo and helped spur their consoles to the forefront of the market.

Then, bizarrely, in 2002 Nintendo passed up on the opportunity to purchase Rare and make them a part of the foundation of Nintendo games going forward. Instead, they allowed Microsoft to scoop them up and with them went all of their intellectual properties (minus Donkey Kong), including the aforementioned games. This meant that Nintendo would be unable to make sequels to any of these games, but Microsoft could on the Xbox. This was a great boost to the freshmen console makers and lent an immediate familiarity and prestige to their debut Xbox console.

Again, this is another example of Nintendo's short sighted thinking allowing competitors to crop up in an industry they once controlled. While this is wonderful for gamers, it spelled disaster for Nintendo and helped consign them to third place in the gaming market.