Hello, and welcome to another edition of Those Who Do Not Learn From The Mistakes Of The Past Are Condemned To Repeat Them (pause for applause). Thank you. Our guest this week is Nintendo UK - can I call you NUK? Great! Good to see you. Okay, what's your story, NUK? What cock-up were you involved in, not once but twice?

"Our problems were the media, Dale. They had a hidden agenda against us, and with certain third parties they were part of a nationwide conspiracy to do us down."
Really? Please explain. When did this start?
"Years ago. Sega's Mega Drive was a nice enough machine, I'll give it that, but it was outperformed in all areas by our SNES. We had better sound, better graphics - remember Mode 7 - and much better games, yet far more people bought Sega's machine. Like I said, it was the media. They kept telling the public that the Mega Drive had a huge selection of games, that the prices were reasonable and that plenty of other software publishers were developing titles for it. They never said those things about us. Never. Maybe it was because we didn't spend as much on advertising as Sega."

Or maybe they were saying those things because they were true? NUK, look back at the launch of SNES. It was late coming to the UK, it was a good deal more expensive that the Mega Drive and it had a catalogue of how many titles?
"Four."
I'm sorry, how many?
"Four."
Four titles, NUK, each of which carried a £40 price ticket.
"Yeah, well, Mega Drive games cost that too."

Some did, yes, but most didn't. And by the time SNES was launched, the customers could even buy some Mega Drive titles at £19.99, couldn't they? Yours appeared to be the system of choice for those with more money than sense.
"That's nonsense."
But perhaps what really held back the SNES was the lack of support by third-party software publishers. With so many SNES titles coming from Nintendo, who had a well-known distaste for anything violent or distasteful in their games, the SNES quickly got the reputation of just being a kids' machine, where cuddly cartoon rabbits would bounce on fluffy white clouds...