Original Xbox - Nintendo 64 spiritual successor?

Jubenhimer

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3426e150-463f-11ec-95d7-52c8a77ed51c
Dreamcast-Console-Set.jpg


Many people consider the original Xbox to be the spiritual successor to the Dreamcast. It's easy to make those comparisons given that Microsoft's first console shares a lot of DNA with Sega's last. The similar controller designs, logo orientation, focus on power and online, the wide array of cool, niche, and quirky exclusives, as well as Sega being one of the Xbox's biggest supporters with several Dreamcast-era franchises continuing on the system. But there's also another console the Xbox could arguably be a successor to, and that's the Nintendo 64.

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The Xbox and the N64 share a lot more DNA than what it may appear at first. For starters, both consoles were the most powerful systems of their respective generations, outperforming competing platforms. Another, both consoles saw much of their success in the North American market. The Nintendo 64 was hardcore carried by its US performance as sales in Japan and Europe were horrible compared to PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Similarly, Xbox has struggled to gain a foothold in Japan from its inception, and it's only ever done okay in Europe. The original Xbox in particular was very much an "American" console. As such, most of the highest selling and well known games on these platforms were games that appealed strongly to North American audiences. Shooters, Sports games, Western-style RPGs, 3D Platformers, and Party games. It was good counter-market strategy for Microsoft, especially since Nintendo took a more Japan-centric approach that generation with the Nintendo GameCube.

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Another similarity? The focus on multiplayer. The N64 revolutionized console multiplayer with the addition of four controller ports. Games such as Super Smash Bros., Golden Eye 007, and Mario Kart 64 heavily flexed this gimmick. The Xbox not only had four controller ports as well, but also included a built-in LAN port. Both for linking multiple systems together for multi-screen multiplayer, as well as multiplayer gaming online. Xbox Live launched a year after the system's 2001 release, and fully ushered in the online gaming revolution. Not only was the Xbox a great local party machine, but connecting to the internet allowed you to connect with players from all over the world in supported games. Online death-matches in Halo 2 could be considered a natural evolution of 4-player free-for-alls in Golden Eye.

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One other thing they have in common, Memory cards being an afterthought. The N64 had a Controller Pak that let you save specific game data to as a back up. But most games by default, saved directly to the cartridge. Similarly, while the Xbox had its own memory cards and memory card slots on its controller that let you back up save data for compatible games to, games saves on the console defaulted to another innovation of the system, it's built-in 8 GB hard drive. This effectively allowed infinite room for Xbox save data, and allowed games to be more streamlined in their loading by caching data to the drive during gameplay.

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And the last similarity between the two, Microsoft hired a lot of former Nintendo staff. During the original Xbox days, many executives from Nintendo of America during the N64 generation left, and joined Microsoft, including Ken Lobb, who was very vocal about his distaste for the GameCube. The biggest kicker, was Microsoft's acquisition of former Nintendo partner Rare, the developers of games like Banjo Kazooie and Golden Eye. As a result, most of the GameCube games Rare had in development were either scrapped or moved to the Xbox.

So it's easy to see the direct line going from both the N64 and Dreamcast to the Xbox, as the console inherited many core elements of both systems. The Xbox was as much a spiritual successor the the Nintendo 64 as it was to the Dreamcast.
 
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It just shows how awful current gen consoles are in terms of exclusives, if even failed consoles(in terms of total units sold, games wise they were amazing) like all 3- n64, dreamcast and og xbox had so many more actual high quality exclusives than them, if u magically time-teleported any of the 3 and beef them up to current gen specs they would be slayin xD
 
The N64 did not have Jet Set Radio, Sega-GT, Crazy Taxi etc...
Exactly, that was wonderful time with every console having their own very distingtive high quality exclusives, n64 had plenty musthaves on its own, mario64, re4, goldeneye, perfect dark, banjo-kazooie, banjo-tooie just to name a few, we talking well above 90meta of quality, not ur random 85metascore title :)
 
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Sure it had some 'Nintendo' games and similarities but I never thought or felt that way. Xbox came in and crushed buildings unlike the N64.
 
I agree that OG Xbox somehow managed to grab the former N64 western-style audience, especially the FPS crowd from Goldeneye, Turok and Perfect Dark, which Nintendo snubbed with their japanese focused strategy with GameCube.

I don't think it's accurate to call a "N64 spiritual successor", but yeah, you trace can similarities between the two. OG Xbox succeed in a similar fashion to how Genesis grabbed the former NES crowd, by promoting the system to a mature crowd while Nintendo did little to nothing to counter act that image.
 
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Yeah, all those American PC games on the N64....

Vine Ok GIF
There were plenty of american PC games on N64 actually, let's take a look:

- Hexen
- Duke Nukem
- Doom
- Quake 1 and 2
- Starcraft
- Carmageddon
- Command & Conquer
- Worms: Armageddon
- Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
- Rainbow Six

Not going to enter the discussion if they were good or not adaptations, but N64 had a solid presence of american PC games.
 
There were plenty of american PC games on N64 actually, let's take a look:

- Hexen
- Duke Nukem
- Doom
- Quake 1 and 2
- Starcraft
- Carmageddon
- Command & Conquer
- Worms: Armageddon
- Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
- Rainbow Six

Not going to enter the discussion if they were good or not adaptations, but N64 had a solid presence of american PC games.
Well that must be kinda all of them in that little list, compared to hundreds of Japanese games...
 
There were plenty of american PC games on N64 actually, let's take a look:

- Hexen
- Duke Nukem
- Doom
- Quake 1 and 2
- Starcraft
- Carmageddon
- Command & Conquer
- Worms: Armageddon
- Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
- Rainbow Six

Not going to enter the discussion if they were good or not adaptations, but N64 had a solid presence of american PC games.
Plenty...Okay
 
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Original Xbox wasn't someone's spiritual successor.

This console is the ancestor for all later consoles.

In tech Xbox wasn't really a console, it was a PC. in pretty much every way besides tech it was Dreamcast 2. Much about Xbox was lifted from DC knowing that it was dead without a successor.

They even copied the controller design with two expansion ports and button layout.

Online focus, includes modem, seganet

Sega had been working closely enough with MS that they asked for Xbox to play DC games but they didn't want it. It ended up with sequels of Sega games instead. But the way the controller was designed, it could have played all those DC games like Switch 1 going to Switch 2 with the same button prompts. It is very, very difficult to call this the ancestor with that coming before it.
 
Well that must be kinda all of them in that little list, compared to hundreds of Japanese games...
Actually, N64 had far better support from american/western devs than japaneses, remember that N64 sold less than Saturn in Japan while in US had a solid userbase.

Plenty...Okay
You asked for American PC games, these are some of the most notable ones. If I were to make a full list of PC and N64 games, it would be huge. Some of them were even exclusive to the N64 (like Starcraft and Indiana Jones) and/or featured exclusive content and enhanced graphics (see Command & Conquer). Not sure if you're being serious or just trolling.
 
I highly recommend the two Game of X books by Rusel DeMaria. They cover the development process of both DirectX and the Xbox. I was surprised reading it and seeing a bunch of names popping up that are still around in the industry today.

One thing it does cover is Microsoft working with Sega. A thing it didn't cover is that other than buying Rare, Microsoft didn't work with Nintendo other than trying to buy them out early on.

Comparing Halo 2 online to 4 player Golden Eye is an interesting take. Though PC players were playing Doom and Quake the same for almost a decade. But I'm sure they were mimicking Nintendo, not bring the online experience that PC players have had. Hell, the Dreamcast version of Quake 3 had crossplay with PC.
 
At first I flippantly thought "what?", but then read the OP and in doing so, I actually agree with you. The N64 was a big hit in America, same with OG Xbox, and it built much of that off of FPS games, something else the OG Xbox pushed heavily.

About N64's Japanese sales tho...they weren't THAT bad. In the end, Saturn outsold it but it was by like some 500K, and keep in mind the Saturn was on the market for almost two whole years before N64 released over there. I think if you launch-aligned them, the N64 might win out, but it's probably still a tight race between the two.

Though, the N64 might've been officially supported in Japan slightly longer than Saturn, which was cut short for Dreamcast. Therefore it's still possible that even launch-aligned, Saturn did in fact outsell the N64 and would've had a larger margin if it were supported longer in Japan.

But yeah, there are a lot of through lines between OG Xbox and N64, as well as Dreamcast of course.

Yeah, all those American PC games on the N64....

Vine Ok GIF

You shouldn't look at it as "American PC games" but rather "Western support", because in that context, yes, the N64 and OG Xbox absolutely have that in common. You have DMA Design (now Rockstar), Interplay, THQ, Acclaim, iD Software, Codemasters, Midway etc. all throwing a lot of support behind the system, not to mention even ones like Psygnosis (post-Sony acquiring them) supporting it with various ports of Western IP as well.

In terms of Japanese support, aside from Nintendo and arguably Treasure, it was quite light or token at best. Namco did like 1-2 games in total for N64 which paled in comparison to the PS1 versions, Squaresoft obviously were MIA, Konami gave them sloppy 3D Castlevania games, Capcom gave them less than a handful of games including a super-late port of RE2 farmed out to Angel Studios, I can't even remember if Tecmo had anything for it (maybe some 3D puzzle game with a construction worker, I think it's called Charlie's 3D Blast? Maybe that was Kemco), list goes on.

I mean that's a big reason N64 didn't do so hot in Japan but did pretty well in Europe and very well in America all things considered. It was the Western support, and those companies benefited from lack of Japanese 3P support on the system, similar in a way to how OG Xbox's Western supporters benefited in ways from lack of Japanese 3P support compared to PS2 (so that's something else N64 and OG Xbox have in common).
 
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At first I flippantly thought "what?", but then read the OP and in doing so, I actually agree with you. The N64 was a big hit in America, same with OG Xbox, and it built much of that off of FPS games, something else the OG Xbox pushed heavily.

About N64's Japanese sales tho...they weren't THAT bad. In the end, Saturn outsold it but it was by like some 500K, and keep in mind the Saturn was on the market for almost two whole years before N64 released over there. I think if you launch-aligned them, the N64 might win out, but it's probably still a tight race between the two.

Though, the N64 might've been officially supported in Japan slightly longer than Saturn, which was cut short for Dreamcast. Therefore it's still possible that even launch-aligned, Saturn did in fact outsell the N64 and would've had a larger margin if it were supported longer in Japan.

But yeah, there are a lot of through lines between OG Xbox and N64, as well as Dreamcast of course.



You shouldn't look at it as "American PC games" but rather "Western support", because in that context, yes, the N64 and OG Xbox absolutely have that in common. You have DMA Design (now Rockstar), Interplay, THQ, Acclaim, iD Software, Codemasters, Midway etc. all throwing a lot of support behind the system, not to mention even ones like Psygnosis (post-Sony acquiring them) supporting it with various ports of Western IP as well.

In terms of Japanese support, aside from Nintendo and arguably Treasure, it was quite light or token at best. Namco did like 1-2 games in total for N64 which paled in comparison to the PS1 versions, Squaresoft obviously were MIA, Konami gave them sloppy 3D Castlevania games, Capcom gave them less than a handful of games including a super-late port of RE2 farmed out to Angel Studios, I can't even remember if Tecmo had anything for it (maybe some 3D puzzle game with a construction worker, I think it's called Charlie's 3D Blast? Maybe that was Kemco), list goes on.

I mean that's a big reason N64 didn't do so hot in Japan but did pretty well in Europe and very well in America all things considered. It was the Western support, and those companies benefited from lack of Japanese 3P support on the system, similar in a way to how OG Xbox's Western supporters benefited in ways from lack of Japanese 3P support compared to PS2 (so that's something else N64 and OG Xbox have in common).
The only caveat I'd make is that Konami, among the major players in Japan at the time, was perhaps the only one that provided at least a minimally reasonable level of support for the Nintendo 64. You mentioned Castlevania (which were actually pretty bad games, but still a serious attempt nonetheless), but they also made Goemon (Legend of the Mystical Ninja), Hybrid Heaven (an interesting experiment that mixed traditional RPG gameplay with 3D fighting in the style of Tekken/Virtua Fighter), several sports franchises like ISS, Nagano Winter Olympics '98, NHL Blades of Steel, Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball, International Track & Field and NBA In the Zone; Rakuga Kids, and a pretty bad fighting game called Deadly Arts. Not to mention Hudson, which at the time was also strongly supporting Nintendo consoles.
 
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In USA:

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Xbox (OG)'s top 10 doesn't have the same overlap.
You could draw some parallel between GoldenEye 007 and Halo (multiple games) and say Star Wars shifted toward the american console (Knights of the Old Republic I&II and Battlefront I&II were hits), even though Star Wars Rogue Squadron II was also successful on GC but that's it.
There is no parallel with Super Mario 64/Donkey Kong 64, Mario Kart 64/Diddy Kong Racing, Zelda, Smash Bros, Star Fox and of course Pokemon.

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As for Sega mass exodus post-Dreamcast, Sonic and Super Monkey Ball franchises found home on Nintendo platforms.
 
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As for Sega mass exodus post-Dreamcast, Sonic and Super Monkey Ball franchises found home on Nintendo platforms.
This is something I'll never quite understand. Despite Sega investing heavily in the OG Xbox, most of those titles failed badly, like Panzer Dragoon Orta, Sega GT 2002, Jet Set Radio Future, Shenmue II, Toejam & Earl III, The House of the Dead III, Crazy Taxi III, and Gunvalkyrie. And yet, despite their poor performance, all of them remained exclusive to the OG Xbox. Meanwhile, as you mentioned, Sonic and Super Monkey Ball alone sold far more than any of those Xbox titles, arguably even Phantasy Star Online 1 & 2, which, despite launching on a system that completely ignored online functionality, still had reasonable success. And yet, all the GameCube games ended up going multiplatform for later releases.

A similar situation happened with LucasArts. Even though Rogue Squadron II and III were successful, and they released a few other Star Wars and other franchises titles with decent sales, they eventually decided to almost completely drop support for the GameCube.

These decisions felt more like industry politics than purely technical or economic choices.
 
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3426e150-463f-11ec-95d7-52c8a77ed51c
Dreamcast-Console-Set.jpg


Many people consider the original Xbox to be the spiritual successor to the Dreamcast. It's easy to make those comparisons given that Microsoft's first console shares a lot of DNA with Sega's last. The similar controller designs, logo orientation, focus on power and online, the wide array of cool, niche, and quirky exclusives, as well as Sega being one of the Xbox's biggest supporters with several Dreamcast-era franchises continuing on the system. But there's also another console the Xbox could arguably be a successor to, and that's the Nintendo 64.

2501-64-nintendo64konsol.jpg


The Xbox and the N64 share a lot more DNA than what it may appear at first. For starters, both consoles were the most powerful systems of their respective generations, outperforming competing platforms. Another, both consoles saw much of their success in the North American market. The Nintendo 64 was hardcore carried by its US performance as sales in Japan and Europe were horrible compared to PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Similarly, Xbox has struggled to gain a foothold in Japan from its inception, and it's only ever done okay in Europe. The original Xbox in particular was very much an "American" console. As such, most of the highest selling and well known games on these platforms were games that appealed strongly to North American audiences. Shooters, Sports games, Western-style RPGs, 3D Platformers, and Party games. It was good counter-market strategy for Microsoft, especially since Nintendo took a more Japan-centric approach that generation with the Nintendo GameCube.

il_fullxfull.3442705301_abx7.jpg
XboxLiveStarterKit3.jpg


Another similarity? The focus on multiplayer. The N64 revolutionized console multiplayer with the addition of four controller ports. Games such as Super Smash Bros., Golden Eye 007, and Mario Kart 64 heavily flexed this gimmick. The Xbox not only had four controller ports as well, but also included a built-in LAN port. Both for linking multiple systems together for multi-screen multiplayer, as well as multiplayer gaming online. Xbox Live launched a year after the system's 2001 release, and fully ushered in the online gaming revolution. Not only was the Xbox a great local party machine, but connecting to the internet allowed you to connect with players from all over the world in supported games. Online death-matches in Halo 2 could be considered a natural evolution of 4-player free-for-alls in Golden Eye.

1200px-Nintendo-64-Controller-Pak.jpg
images


One other thing they have in common, Memory cards being an afterthought. The N64 had a Controller Pak that let you save specific game data to as a back up. But most games by default, saved directly to the cartridge. Similarly, while the Xbox had its own memory cards and memory card slots on its controller that let you back up save data for compatible games to, games saves on the console defaulted to another innovation of the system, it's built-in 8 GB hard drive. This effectively allowed infinite room for Xbox save data, and allowed games to be more streamlined in their loading by caching data to the drive during gameplay.

communityIcon_pgoogww38of61.png


And the last similarity between the two, Microsoft hired a lot of former Nintendo staff. During the original Xbox days, many executives from Nintendo of America during the N64 generation left, and joined Microsoft, including Ken Lobb, who was very vocal about his distaste for the GameCube. The biggest kicker, was Microsoft's acquisition of former Nintendo partner Rare, the developers of games like Banjo Kazooie and Golden Eye. As a result, most of the GameCube games Rare had in development were either scrapped or moved to the Xbox.

So it's easy to see the direct line going from both the N64 and Dreamcast to the Xbox, as the console inherited many core elements of both systems. The Xbox was as much a spiritual successor the the Nintendo 64 as it was to the Dreamcast.
No.

The memory card comparison makes no sense to me at all. The only reason Nintendo didn't focus on memory cards was because they were still using an old format that didn't require them. Xbox didn't focus on them despite still making them because they had modern hardware and were forward thinking.

They obviously have some similarities but I think what really brings the Dreamcast and Xbox together are demographic and attitude. The Xbox demographic had more in common with Sony/Sega then any period of Nintendo.

N64 had a couple edgy moments with ads but ultimately were still a console made for kids. Sega started marketing more towards adults and the Xbox went all in on that.
 
OP is full of failed mediocre systems ..lol
How is the Xbox a failed console? It's a first gen product made in essentially a year that came in 2nd place in it's generation.

PlayStation coming out and selling 100M is not the norm.

As somebody else said Xbox changed how we played certain genres (Halo is ultimately the first big modern shooter. It took what stuff like Goldeneye did and evolved it and took a genre that never had much console representation and made it one of the biggest things in gaming), changed the direction of console hardware, brought mainstream online gaming to consoles, and in general shaped the future of gaming for nearly 2 decades.
 
N64 had a couple edgy moments with ads but ultimately were still a console made for kids.
Saying the Nintendo 64 was "a console made for kids" is a pretty shallow take, and honestly sounds like fanboy talk. Even before the N64, Nintendo was already trying to appeal to an older audience, just look at Killer Instinct by Rare, a violent arcade fighter clearly aimed at teens and adults.

With the N64, that strategy continued. Nintendo partnered with a bunch of Western studios like Rare, Williams, Angel Studios, Eurocom, LucasArts, Left Field, DMA Design, and others — this was the so-called "Dream Team." These companies were chosen exactly to bring in more mature, Western-oriented content. Games like GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Turok, Resident Evil 2, Doom 64, Shadow Man — none of those were made for little kids. Nintendo actually focused so much on the West that it caused tension with some Japanese third-parties, which may help explain why N64 got less support from them.

Sure, the N64 had kid-friendly games, like any console, but to say it was made for kids is a completely inaccurate take.
 
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How is the Xbox a failed console?

Unnecessary details redacted, you know the reason is none of the consoles in OP were made by Sony.

I can accept criticism of modern Nintendo but simply not N64. 64 was King in my friends circle and it delivered on fronts we didn't know we were asking for. For many seeing SM64 in real time is the single most hype gaming moment in our entire lives to this day.

Meanwhile there hasn't been a new feature since Dreamcast worth writing home about except motion controls. It already gave me online gaming and insane graphics. We're just grinding ever since then.
 
Well that must be kinda all of them in that little list, compared to hundreds of Japanese games...
On the Nintendo 64? LOL.
There were plenty of american PC games on N64 actually, let's take a look:

- Hexen
- Duke Nukem
- Doom
- Quake 1 and 2
- Starcraft
- Carmageddon
- Command & Conquer
- Worms: Armageddon
- Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
- Rainbow Six

Not going to enter the discussion if they were good or not adaptations, but N64 had a solid presence of american PC games.
Funnily enough, yes. Not even a PC guy, but I always noticed that the N64 had quite a few of these for some reason.
 
Saying the Nintendo 64 was "a console made for kids" is a pretty shallow take, and honestly sounds like fanboy talk. Even before the N64, Nintendo was already trying to appeal to an older audience, just look at Killer Instinct by Rare, a violent arcade fighter clearly aimed at teens and adults.

With the N64, that strategy continued. Nintendo partnered with a bunch of Western studios like Rare, Williams, Angel Studios, Eurocom, LucasArts, Left Field, DMA Design, and others — this was the so-called "Dream Team." These companies were chosen exactly to bring in more mature, Western-oriented content. Games like GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Turok, Resident Evil 2, Doom 64, Shadow Man — none of those were made for little kids. Nintendo actually focused so much on the West that it caused tension with some Japanese third-parties, which may help explain why N64 got less support from them.

Sure, the N64 had kid-friendly games, like any console, but to say it was made for kids is a completely inaccurate take.

It was made for kids as per Nintendo themselves who used to censor everything, even RE2 blood was removed or changed color
 
Unnecessary details redacted, you know the reason is none of the consoles in OP were made by Sony.

I can accept criticism of modern Nintendo but simply not N64. 64 was King in my friends circle and it delivered on fronts we didn't know we were asking for. For many seeing SM64 in real time is the single most hype gaming moment in our entire lives to this day.

Meanwhile there hasn't been a new feature since Dreamcast worth writing home about except motion controls. It already gave me online gaming and insane graphics. We're just grinding ever since then.
Yeah Sony is an outlier as it's not the norm for a first gen product in an established industry to take over and sell 3x as much as every other competitor.

I'll never understand the disdain for the OG Xbox and always have and always will assume the vast majority of the haters never owned it.

I never had a N64 as a kid and outside of borrowing my friends GameCube to play Wind Waker I never owned a Nintendo home console until the Wii.

Your SM64 experience would be my experience with something like RE, Silent Hill, or Metal Gear Solid.
 
Surprised to see the pushback against the OP. I always thought the same thing, between the Rareware games, the PC ports and the big American presence..
 
It was made for kids as per Nintendo themselves who used to censor everything, even RE2 blood was removed or changed color
I suggest you actually play that version and get your facts straight before embarrassing yourself. I still have the Nintendo 64 version of Resident Evil 2 to this day, and there's no blood censorship in the game. Changing the blood color is purely optional.
Surprised to see the pushback against the OP. I always thought the same thing, between the Rareware games, the PC ports and the big American presence..
Get used to it, this always happens when someone tries to make a topic to share an opinion. It's even worse if Nintendo is involved in the discussion.
 
How is the Xbox a failed console? It's a first gen product made in essentially a year that came in 2nd place in it's generation.

PlayStation coming out and selling 100M is not the norm.

As somebody else said Xbox changed how we played certain genres (Halo is ultimately the first big modern shooter. It took what stuff like Goldeneye did and evolved it and took a genre that never had much console representation and made it one of the biggest things in gaming), changed the direction of console hardware, brought mainstream online gaming to consoles, and in general shaped the future of gaming for nearly 2 decades.

Yup, a failed system even MS shelved it early. Also coming second when your competition is GameCube is nothing to be proud of. It sold ~25m units , GC ~21m vs PS2 160m units

Yup Xbox, N64, GameCube...etc are failures
 
Yeah Sony is an outlier as it's not the norm for a first gen product in an established industry to take over and sell 3x as much as every other competitor.

I'll never understand the disdain for the OG Xbox and always have and always will assume the vast majority of the haters never owned it.

I never had a N64 as a kid and outside of borrowing my friends GameCube to play Wind Waker I never owned a Nintendo home console until the Wii.

Your SM64 experience would be my experience with something like RE, Silent Hill, or Metal Gear Solid.

I had everything at that time. Xbox, PS2, GC, DC.

I ended up playing mostly PC games and the same GameCube titles over and over with my GBA attached at the hip. This was really when my gaming tastes matured. I spent more time burning DC disks for hidden gold like Ikaruga than rushing to buy the latest thing.

Xbox was cool for what it was. Better than PS2.
 
Yup, a failed system even MS shelved it early. Also coming second when your competition is GameCube is nothing to be proud of. It sold ~25m units , GC ~21m vs PS2 160m units

Yup Xbox, N64, GameCube...etc are failures
Shelved early? Xbox 360 didn't launch early it simply launched on time. The PS3 was also originally planned for a 2005 release as well so the Xbox was shelved on time.

This all comes across very fanboyish.

I had everything at that time. Xbox, PS2, GC, DC.

I ended up playing mostly PC games and the same GameCube titles over and over with my GBA attached at the hip. This was really when my gaming tastes matured. I spent more time burning DC disks for hidden gold like Ikaruga than rushing to buy the latest thing.

Xbox was cool for what it was. Better than PS2.
Yeah, my first console (owned not played) was a PlayStation so naturally I went with the PlayStation 2. We didn't have a lot of money growing up (I'm not saying you did if that's how it comes across) and I only got a OG Xbox because a casino opened up near us and my mom and stepdad went and ended up actually winning money most of which went to fixing up the house but they got me a Xbox and games as extra for Christmas that year. Going forward I had everything as I was making some of my own money mowing grass and painting.

I also played a lot of PC as a kid and outside of the 7th generation I've played on PC since the late 90s.
 
N64 had a couple edgy moments with ads but ultimately were still a console made for kids. Sega started marketing more towards adults and the Xbox went all in on that.
While the N64 didn't have the vast library of games as the PlayStation, it wasn't seen as a complete joke in the market either. The games it did have are considered revolutionary for their generation, and having franchises like Golden Eye, Turok, and the Aki-developed WWF games exclusive to it gave it an audience among older gamers in the US.

Sure, Mario and Pokemon are kid friendly and all, and I guess you can make the argument that the N64 had a much more "kid oriented" reputation outside the US. But as I said, Nintendo of America's aggressive efforts practically carried the N64 that generation.
 
At first I flippantly thought "what?", but then read the OP and in doing so, I actually agree with you. The N64 was a big hit in America, same with OG Xbox, and it built much of that off of FPS games, something else the OG Xbox pushed heavily.

About N64's Japanese sales tho...they weren't THAT bad. In the end, Saturn outsold it but it was by like some 500K, and keep in mind the Saturn was on the market for almost two whole years before N64 released over there. I think if you launch-aligned them, the N64 might win out, but it's probably still a tight race between the two.

Though, the N64 might've been officially supported in Japan slightly longer than Saturn, which was cut short for Dreamcast. Therefore it's still possible that even launch-aligned, Saturn did in fact outsell the N64 and would've had a larger margin if it were supported longer in Japan.

But yeah, there are a lot of through lines between OG Xbox and N64, as well as Dreamcast of course.



You shouldn't look at it as "American PC games" but rather "Western support", because in that context, yes, the N64 and OG Xbox absolutely have that in common. You have DMA Design (now Rockstar), Interplay, THQ, Acclaim, iD Software, Codemasters, Midway etc. all throwing a lot of support behind the system, not to mention even ones like Psygnosis (post-Sony acquiring them) supporting it with various ports of Western IP as well.

In terms of Japanese support, aside from Nintendo and arguably Treasure, it was quite light or token at best. Namco did like 1-2 games in total for N64 which paled in comparison to the PS1 versions, Squaresoft obviously were MIA, Konami gave them sloppy 3D Castlevania games, Capcom gave them less than a handful of games including a super-late port of RE2 farmed out to Angel Studios, I can't even remember if Tecmo had anything for it (maybe some 3D puzzle game with a construction worker, I think it's called Charlie's 3D Blast? Maybe that was Kemco), list goes on.

I mean that's a big reason N64 didn't do so hot in Japan but did pretty well in Europe and very well in America all things considered. It was the Western support, and those companies benefited from lack of Japanese 3P support on the system, similar in a way to how OG Xbox's Western supporters benefited in ways from lack of Japanese 3P support compared to PS2 (so that's something else N64 and OG Xbox have in common).
As in the SNES, Gameboy and NES didn't have a lot of Western support? I'm not seeing anything special about the N64 in terms of non-japanese games being big there or carrying the system.

If anything it missed quite a few of the biggest western releases and big overall, mainly Tomb Raider. Other bjg western games it missed: Rayman, Oddworld, Need for Speed games, Legacy of Kain games, to name some bestsellers.


That top 30 is like 27 Nintendo games with a few Star Wars in the mix...Western support was there, but it's not like they benefited much from the lack of third-party Japanese hits, people still bought the console to play Nintendo games. Actually this may have been the start of Nintendo consoles doing poorly for anything not Nintendo except few exceptions.
 
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No the GameCube was the n64 spiritual successor and actual successor lol

Xbox was more like Dreamcast 2 with fps games
 
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As in the SNES, Gameboy and NES didn't have a lot of Western support? I'm not seeing anything special about the N64 in terms of non-japanese games being big there or carrying the system.

If anything it missed quite a few of the biggest western releases and big overall, mainly Tomb Raider. Other bjg western games it missed: Rayman, Oddworld, Need for Speed games, Legacy of Kain games, to name some bestsellers.
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Nice troll account.
 
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