Join the club. I’m still baffled as to how “Jet Set Radio” didn’t become a huge-seller. And why the Dreamcast tanked.
Not true, about no one being interested in handheld gaming. It drives the market in Japan. And every GameBoy variation has sold like crazy in the US, as well. It just doesn’t get tons of press in the US.
Nobody should be saying “Poor Nintendo” just yet, just because the GC isn’t huge. (It’d be kind of like saying “Poor Microsoft” because they don’t have the number-one selling console, ignoring that they’ve got a stranglehold on PC OS & applications market.) Nintendo’s doing very well for itself with the Gameboy and it’s first-party titles, esp. Pokemon. I heard a story that the Gameboy Advance was ready to be released a year before it actually shipped. They just didn’t release it because they didn’t need to; the Gameboy Color was still selling almost as well as it did when it was first released.
As for the Gamecube, I think it’s going to turn out to be the exact same story as the N64. Relatively small number of huge first-party titles, one or two third-party titles that sell respectably but nowhere near huge numbers, and a whole lot of stuff that tanks.
I guess you didn’t actually READ the OP because I never said anything about Sqaure.
Most of the responses in this thread have proven my point. Everyone is talking about the same 5 games or so. Eternal Darkness seems to be a game that alot of people are lifting up to prove that the GC is not doomed but the game is over a year old and sold like crap. Resident Evil 0 is tanking from what I have heard. Sonic Adventure 2 is a hit? On what chart?
I am not debating the fact that the GC is a great piece of hardware and the Wavebird rules the school. But the system is just being choked out by Nintendo.
Stinkpalm - Okay, a couple things you gotta understand.
First off, never underestimate how crippling Nintendo’s catastrophic “family system” policy was. It ruined a promising Super NES (I don’t care how many RPG fanatics crow about that system, anyone who’s played a decent representative sample knew it was a lost cause), and their failure to IMMEDIATELY throw that policy in the trashbin of worthless moronic ideas hampered the N64 for its entire existence. The fact that Nintendo was alienating every gamer who didn’t give a damn about family this, family that, family family family, as well as severely limiting the type of games they could have, was a devastating double whammy, especially against competition that didn’t have such hang-ups. Look, I don’t ask for blood and carnage in every game, but there are times when I do want it, and if a company expects to get my money, they’d DAMN well better not refuse to develop such games because of some brain-dead “family” policy. They managed to reverse the trend somewhat with the Gamecube, but the damage was done, and there’s no telling if they’ll ever recover.
The other thing is that there’s no logic in this industry. It bewilders me how otherwise knowledgable gamers can crow and gloat over the demise of a system as if it was the will of the god of their choice. Listen, a lot of systems fail just freaking because, and the actual quality of the system has absolutely nothing to do with it. Hey, when someone can give me a non-crackpot explanation of why the Dreamcast sell like crazy at a time when no one at all could get a PS2, I’ll buy the fact that there’s logic behind a system going under. I’m sticking by the truth as it’s been shown time and time again.
As for the Gamecube’s future, the unfortunate fact is that the kind of people who play those kind of games will always be greatly outnumbered by the kind of people who like the PS2 and XBox’s selection. It doens’t look good.
I agree. Mario 2 wipes it’s ass with most 3d games when it comes to being fun and not just pretty.
I can’t wait form Mario Kart. I hope they make it compatible with the broadband connector and let people set up thier own games by just giving out thier IP address. That probably won’t happen though.
PS2 is too far ahead, Xbox or Gamecube don’t have a chance this generation. While Xbox will push for the PS2 market, Gamecube has its own little market. This may seem like a self-centered ridiculous move but it still manages to make them money. After all, the point of business is to make a profit, and if Nintendo’s making a profit, even if they’re in “last place,” there’s no cause for alarm.
In my quote i meant about most consolescompanies themselves not being intrested in handheld gaming
In fatc there was a quote that said that if sony ever made a handheld game system it would be just a portable dvd type of player that played normal ps2 games and sony didnt really see the demand for such a thing beyond air ports ect
But the basic factor thats always kept nintendo back is the snob attitude the company
Also it seems that most of the 3rd party game companies are cutting their games back which isnt a good sign … Once they get some new blood in the company and if this 3rd unit coming out does the same as the past 2 I think thell go the way of sega and how they started out
All this angst over a system that costs $150. (And you can get Metroid Prime for free with that.) That’s not that much of an investment, given that the games themselves cost $50.
Maybe if you paid $300 for it, like people did with the PS2, you might feel the need to get years and years out of it. But for my investment, I’m happy with Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and the other exclusive games. I just remember that I could have spent that same money on a video card for my computer that would already be obsolete.
It’s a shame the GC is getting beat up, it’s a good system. Nintendo just keeps screwing people over (read: "we offer online! Really! but our adapters! they really really work! ::snicker:
Square is back with nintendo, and is releasing a prequel to FF Tactics on the GBA SP
The GameBoy line will forever keep Nintendo alive… too many kiddie titles to kill it unless they really really screw up.
“Is the Gamecube a ship sinking into the abyss of failed game systems?”
Well, as has been stated by someone else, but mostly ignored here, you could ask the same question about the Xbox in Japan. At least in the US the GC is trying to keep up, in Japan the Xbox is just embarressing itself.
In Europe the GC and Xbox are more or less neck-and-neck. In some markets (eg. UK) the Xbox is doing much better, but continent-wide there is little to choose between them.
In fact, if you look at Worldwide sales, I am pretty sure you will find that the Xbox is in thrid place, behind the GC and the PS2. I am at work right now, so I can’t spend too long searching, but if you want I can try and dig out sales figures.
Yes, the GC is doing slightly worse that the Xbox (about 3.5 million consoles sold as opposed to 4.5 million Xboxes), but the console market is not just about North America. Japan is just as important and there have recently been claims that 30% of the world’s games are sold in Europe.
All things said, both the GC and Xbox are miles behind the PS2.
For all this talk about Nintendo’s “snobbiness”, you have to realize that snobbiness works. If Nintendo becomes “just another gaming console”, they can’t compete. But if they can be McDonalds (as opposed to Burger King or Wendy’s) and Disneyland (as opposed to Six Flags and Busch Gardens) there will always be a place for them.
I think(after playing both for some time) that the Cube is equal to the PS2. In fact, I’d say a higher percentage of its games are good, though I doubt it has as many good games. Last year was an amazing year for the Cube, and only an average one for the PS2.
Good games on the Cube:
Eternal Darkness.
Metroid Prime.
Animal Crossing.
Beach Spikers.
Mario Sunshine.
Madden and NCAA 2003(better on the Cube than the PS2).
Skies of Arcadia.
Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2
Mario Party
And this is really only the ones I’ve played. They have Zelda, another Mario, and several Mario games(tennis, golf, and kart) on the way. Not to mention Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.
It’s an amazing system. I play it more than either of the other 2.
Nintendo is the most profitable video game company as demonstrated by this report, and that’s exactly why Nintendo will not leave the hardware business. People has this demented opinion that whoever has sold the most systems also produce the most profit…hahaha.
This thread has got me thinking that the videogame industry is extremely intersting. I think it’s one of the few industries in the world that is followed so closely by so many of the consumers in it. Just think about so many people tracing the mergers and acquisitions, sales figures, industry gossip, etc. for the oil industry for example. I don’t think many threads will be started here about the new sales figures for BP, or the development of a brand new system for drilling off-shore by Halliburton, but that their problem is that they don’t have the M1-5777-98 drill, like Shell does… Even though we are all consumers of petroleum products, whereas consumers of videogames get into these things “hardcore”. (Note: there is no such thing as an M1-5777-98 drill, and the examples cited above are nonsense, just trying to make a point).
You may now return to your regularly scheduled thread…
I will buy any console with the Final Fantasy series…guess that means my PS2. I found the controller for the GC too small, and purely hated the one for X-Box. Now I eagerly await PS3
The obvious difference between videogames and say oil is that the former is a form of entertainment whereas the latter serves only a functional purpose so obviously the oil industry isn’t so interesting.
If you look at other industries in popular entertainment, especially movies, they draw a lot of attention as well. For instance there are many people who follow boxoffice numbers week by week.
