Overview

• Okamoto says Nintendo guaranteed its own revenue by charging developers upfront for exact cartridge orders and not accepting returns.
• Capcom and other third-party studios often relied on bank loans to cover NES cartridge production and waited up to three months for delivery.
• On the NES, a 10,000 yen retail sale yielded 3,000 yen for retailers, 4,000 yen for developers and 3,000 yen for Nintendo, with half of Nintendo’s share covering manufacturing.
• Under the PS One model, developers paid 1,800 yen per disc—200 yen for manufacturing and a refundable 1,600 yen returnable to Sony for unsold inventory.
• The shift to low-cost, returnable discs drove Capcom, Square Enix and Konami toward PlayStation and left the Nintendo 64 with diminished third-party support.