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It was Nintendo that created the 30% share for the platform owner that all future console owners would implement, and which Apple would set as the standard for
by Tiktaalik 4y ago
It was Nintendo that created the 30% share for the platform owner that all future console owners would implement, and which Apple would set as the standard for the App Store.
Is there a citation for this number? I thought I knew this whole story quite well but this is the first time I've seen someone cite the specific royalty rate Nintendo was getting. I'd always more read the generalization that Nintendo was "expensive", and Sony was "cheaper" and beyond that I got the impression that it was the reduction in costs and increases in flexibility with the shift from Nintendo made carts to cds that dominated royalty differences.
(It's somewhat fuzzy to me around whether anyone was allowed to press Playstation discs or Sony reserved that right alone. I recall hearing the former but don't recall. Similarly I am under the impression that at some point Nintendo had strict control over manufacturing carts, but at some point that was loosened? Perhaps it was that Famicom carts at some point were a grab bag of manufacturers, but it all went in house with the SNES?)
- Uvix 4y agoFamicom carts were a free-for-all, as there was no lockout chip in the console. NES carts, and SNES/Super Famicom carts, required a CIC chip to function (or else the lockout chip in the console would prevent it from booting); this allowed Nintendo to control cartridge production. (Yes, a handful of third parties either illegally copied or figured out a way around the lockout chip for NES; but the vast majority of carts were manufactured by Nintendo themselves.)