I think I asked a similar question a year or so ago and I am curious what people think now that Xbox is reaching its stride.
It seems to me that if you take away all the 1st party titles on the gamecube you have nothing. I can’t think of a single awsome game that is on the GC that was made by a 3rd party company. They are completely non-competitive in the online gaming market. I think PSO is the only GC game that you can play online and that is coming to Xbox. Most games that are on all 3 systems are in the worst shape on the GC. Just look at Ghost Recon for an example.
Yes, Metroid was a great game, though it got kinda boring for me and I didn’t finish it. The Resident Evil remake looked great. But other than those, and the upcoming Zelda, there has been nothing substantial on this system.
Same thing happened on the N64. Nintendo made all the good games and nearly every other game on that system were horrible. The same thing is happening to the GC I fear.
I think Nintendo is going to make one more console and when they fail with that they will begin making games for other systems. As long as they own the portable market they will be in video games but I think their days in home consoels is almost over.
I’ve always thought that since the snes they’ve should of gone to making their games for other stsyems ala sega …
As since they lost square who was one of the main reasons for owning a snes and the loss of rare whos now owned by microsoft
But the cg is the big n’s version of the dreamcast nice system and a few innovative ideas but unless you want to play sequels to 20 year old games …
Also only reason they own the handheld category is pokemon revived it when it was fading and the gba is 90 percent 16 bit ports of games people liked Also If you see the reviews most of the non port games tend to be crap also
Also No one is reallyintrested in handheld gaming these days although if they make the extensions for the ps2 that they did for the ps1 (monitor and battery pack) it can basically made portable
But in a letter the game maker thq ripped the gc a new one and just about cancelled most of their games saying they see it going for 99 or less soon heres the notes from the daily letter :
THQ Conference Call Notes
We’ve got some choice notes from THQ’s conference call earlier this evening worth passing along to you offering some news on key milestones, future plans for the company and the company’s analysis of the console hardware market in the months ahead:
WWE SmackDown: Shut Your Mouth sold over a million units worldwide.
THQ plans to reduced the number of GameCube products this year due to low sales of titles
20 Games have been canned, with a third of those being on GameCube. The only announced one of the lot though was BattleBots (PS2, GCN, PC)
THQ says that it has 76 Games in development with breakdown for fiscal 04 of games being: 17 for PS2, 13 Xbox, 10 NGC, 22 GBA, PC 14.
THQ expects a drop to $149 for Xbox and PS2, and $99 for GameCube as early as E3.
THQ anticipates USA & Euro sales of consoles by the end of the year to be: 21 million for PS2 (bringing total to over 51 million). Xbox 7 million units (bringing total to 13.5 million), GameCube 4.25 million (just under 10 million), 12 million GBA (bringing total to 30 million)
So if thats a industry wide view the gc is a newer n-64 and is being written off ,
You say that there are no awesome games for the GC that are made by third parties, but I suppose that depends on how you define awesome. Tony Hawk, Resident Evil, and various sport franchises have wound up on the GC.
Also you may not be aware of this, but recent GC hits such as Eternal Darkness, Rogue Leader and Metroid Prime were produced by third parties with heavy Nintendo input (Metroid was produced by Retro Studios, a Texas based company). Nintendo seems to have a track record of finding third party developers that are the cusp of greatness and giving them a certain amount of guidance almost ensuring success (think Rare).
Would these developers have succeeded without Nintendo? I don’t know, but the fact is that Nintendo has a habit of getting the loyalty of quality third party developers. This is balanced out somewhat by them pissing off third party developers as well (Square), but they seem to be learning from past mistakes and mending fences.
However the big problem for Nintendo, and to a lesser extent X-Box, is that no one is buying any third party games unless they are exclusive. Tony Hawk may be available for the GC and X-Box, but everyone’s buying it for the PS2.
Bottom line is that in today’s game market the PS2 reigns supreme and everyone else is fighting for a distant second. They try to draw people in by having the best exclusives and right now that is what Nintendo is surviving on, but they are surviving.
Ultimately I wouldn’t count Nintendo out by any means; since they have the hand-held market locked up (the most recent challenger, the Wonder Swan by, I believe, Bandai, just crashed and burned) that gives them a bit of leeway with the console market. They can take temporary losses in the console market and compensate for it with profits from their hand-held division. To my knowledge so far that hasn’t even happened though and Nintendo is still making profits. Their market share is shrinking but they seem to be thriving mostly off a loyal fan base.
My overall prediction is that Nintendo is not going to regain its glory days anytime soon, but by having a cult following and a lock on hand-helds they are going to be continuing to produce consoles for at least another decade if not more.
I think Nintendo took a good gamble with the GC format, but it just didn’t pan out.
The GB Advanced is on fire, though. Especially with the move on releasing Supernintendo titles and 80’s arcade stuff. This has made GBA appealing to an older crowd.
I’m waiting for the new GBA (flip open, better screen lighting) which is due near x-mas.
I have a PS2, and a Gamecube, and have recently gotten rid of an Xbox. If given the choice I will ALWAYS get a title on the 'cube.
Loading times are virtually nonexistant, and I LOVE the controller.
After having all 3, if I had to choose one to keep, it would be the gamecube. It is also the most portable of the bunch, and already has a peripheral monitor that fits perfectly on top of it, as well as a battery pack, not to mention it has a handle. VIVA LA CUBE:D
Yes, I think the system is on its way out. Too bad, its well-designed. Poor Nintendo, best console game designers in the world and they get killed by their image, and a few other poor marketing decisions (like announcing a games release date and then not being able to finish it on time thanks to their perfectionism (which I am thankful for, but most aren’t)) Still, it won’t bother me to see them as a third party company, but I think thats at least 3 years away.
GameCube is making money, and another system is already in the works for Nintendo. So it’s most likely more than 3 years away from going 3rd party. I wouldn’t count Nintendo out of the game yet, not at all.
I don’t think they did anything ‘WRONG’ with Cube. (N64 is a different story). I sold my X-Box, because all I play is GameCube. I had a friends PS2 for a month, but it collected dust.
My brother returned his Gamecube he hated it so much. It doesn’t have anything going for them- XBox has the hardware (among others), PS2 has the selection (among others). Gamecube’s games are too childish (or just totally suck ass). Granted, there are a few good games on it, but there are a few good games on other systems, too.
I don’t think GC is childish at all. They have mature games, (sure, in none of them can you have a prostitute screw you in a car, and then run her over after she gets out so you can get your money back), but it has a nice balance of “Teen” and “Mature” games. It DOES have a WIDER audience, and it DOES have games for the younger crowd. I’m pretty sure there was a biking game that showed topless women. It wasn’t censored on the 'Cube, but I THINK it was on X-Box.
If he hated it, that’s one thing. To call it “childish,” is like calling your DVD player childish, it all depends on what you put inside. Plus, who’s to say Mario and Zelda are childish? What games did your brother have?
It makes me laugh that so many gamers fail to see the irony in calling Nintendo games childish.
Many of my favorite games have been “childish” platformers that’re light on plot and feature no blood or even remotely realistic violence. By the same token, I’ve played plenty of games that bear the “Mature” rating, but are nothing but shallow, juvenile trash, ramping up the gore to cover their own mediocrity.
It’s only in last few years that this question of “mature” titles versus “childish” titles has become a real issue, and I find it all rather ridiculous. After all, the (game)play’s the thing. Colorful graphics, super-deformed cartoon characters and simple gameplay no more make a game bad than big guns, big boobs and curse words make a game good. Indeed, those aspects of a game are generally beside the point, because if a game’s not fun to play, nothing else matters.
Im waiting for Zelda to come out in a month, along with it comes another game, which is a nice deal. I don’t notice any games coming up after that, might be the time to sell the GC…
Mario N64 fetches around $20-25 used… the rest of their old mario/zelda/FF games get nice prices for used stuff… so there is a nice market for certain games.
I paid about $100 for my GC used, after I sold the game it came with, that’s about the same price as their gba when it first came out & you get a bigger screen
Hahaha, the GameCube is going nowhere. While it’s true the Xbox outsold GameCube in January, GameCube is now outselling the Xbox for February, in the US. As for Japan, GC is wiping the floor with the Xbox (shame that, Xbox has no games the Japanese are interested in).
Also, a third party did not develop Metroid Prime; it was developed by a second party (a company Nintendo purchased, not unlike Rare).
Nintendo doesn’t have any 3rd party hits? How about Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0? Did you forget Sonic Adventure 2: Battle? Not to mention that Capcom has 5 GameCube exclusive (at least for the time being) titles on the way, all of which are very highly anticipated. They include Resident Evil 4 and a slick new action game.
Btw, to the OP who mentioned ‘Nintendo losing Square’, I suppose you don’t keep too up-to-date with the latest in gaming news. Square is back in Nintendo’s boat and has already released a game for the GBA in Japan just last week. They also have at least one GameCube game in the works due later this year.
Many people forget that number of consoles sold doesn’t directly correlate to the amount of money made. Microsoft was rumored to be losing between $100-$150 on every Xbox sold! That is an insane loss. Whereas Nintendo was almost making money off of every GC sold. Nintendo owns copious cash cows (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pokémon, etc), that when released are guaranteed to rake in millions. And of course Nintendo owns the handheld market.
Finally, Nintendo was rated the most profitable company of Japan last year by one of Japan’s leading publications (the name escapes me at the moment). It was an enormous honor. Don’t ever underestimate this 8 billion dollar corporation.
I thought the new Zelda would be the death of the GC. It looked like in most of the previews like it was drawn by 4-year olds. However last night at Target I saw a playable demo and started to try it. In person the graphics look like they are drawn by a slightly disturbed child art prodigy and the game play is the same great style from the N64 Zelda games. Luckily one of my brother’s has a GC so I can play Zelda on that.
Oh and Eternal Darkness is a great game. There needs to be more games like it, possibly occupying the same universe. It could definitely launch quite a lucrative line of games. The insanity effects were innovative, creepy and well done. The plot was fairly good and the multiple character method of game play was also well executed. A line of ED like games would definitely drag GC’s sales up and make it a thriving system.
Well, Eternal Darkness didn’t do too well. That’s the thing. Everyone asks IGN if there’s any sequels in the works, and they reply that there might be, but the first didn’t do as well as they hoped. Not near as well.
One thing I HATE about Nintendo is the release something RIGHT AFTER they reveal it. Mario Kart has said to be VERY far in development, and even almost complete… but there are NO SCREEN SHOTS TO WET ANY APPETITES! They are waiting for E3 the show it! The new Game Boy is already out in Japan, yet we fist got a glimpse of it just about a month ago.
I can’t WAIT to see Mario Kart! Look at what they have done, (with SEGA), to F-Zero:
If you have a chance, check out the video too, it’s awesome. I’m still a little skeptical that the screens and video are part of the arcade version of the game, but I’ve been assured by many that they are almost the exact same, except the arcade has more RAM for no load times. They are supposed to look identical, but I think there are a few changes in each version. You can save your data on a Game Cube memory card and use it in the arcades.
Here’s the thing, I WANT Nintendo to do well because I love Nintendo games. I think Nintendo has its place, and I certainly hope they are able to entertain a good amount of people for a very long time. They’ve made a lot of mistakes after Super Nintendo, but I can’t say I’ve ever been sorry I bought any of the Nintendo systems I have. I grew up with them, (I was 5 or 6 when the NES first came out), and I will support them until I have a good reason not to.
Are you serious that Eternal Darknes didn’t do that well? Wow that surprises me. I thought something with good graphics, great gameplay, a solid plot and a really neat and edgy trick would do well as a video game. Apparently I have no clue what console players en mass want.
This is long, so you may not want to even bother, but a friend wrote this on a different message board. She has some pretty good idea’s if you ask me, but I don’t know how realistic they are. She also tried to give an unbiased answer:
This was written BEFORE SEGA pulled all of it’s Game Cube Sports tittles, so…
EA also limited their sports lineup for the Cube.
I think this is before Skies of Arcadia, Or whatever, plus Square has that 'Cube exclusive coming out, so…
I think GameBoy is a big deal, and connectivity for Nintendo’s home councils should be exploited as much as possible. I hear there’s a game on the way they makes use of the connectivity in great new ways, this is good.
Another Problem Nintendo has is that, (IMHO), their fist party software is almost TOO good. People buy Nintendo for Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and F-Zero. People DON’T buy it for 3rd party software. I don’t know how Nintendo should handle this, other than trying to be cautious of releasing big Nintendo tittles when 3rd Party developers are releasing their big tittles.
VIVA LA CUBE:D