Given the contemporary examples, they weren’t wrong to think so. Everyone was trying to make a console in the 16/32-bit era.
- PC Engine/Turbografx
- Phillips CD-i (only sorta a console)
- Atari Jaguar
- Neo Geo
- Amiga CD
Some of these are better than others–I’m fond of the PC Engine–but none can be called successful. Neo Geo is somewhat of an exception because it was used as arcade hardware. Some others here are the butt of jokes. There’s also a bunch of Japanese consoles around this time that go nowhere, and are little more than fodder for retro gaming YouTube channels.
Sony took a big gamble and won.
I mean, Nintendo believed in them, until that failed.
That was because Nintendo went behind Sonys back on the deal. They were trying to eat both pies.
But also because Sony was trying to claim a bigger slice of the pie from CD game sales. It’s both companies being shitty.
Sony came up with the idea of the disc drive, it only made sense them wanting more profit from the part they designed. It was just a disgusting move by Nintendo to go behind their backs and close a deal with another company, while not telling Sony.
Feels like they want it to fail sometimes
They’re no Microsoft …
I don’t think that’s true with how much support they give to their first party titles. I mean, their console exclusives are top-tier.
