Nintendo Gamecube production halted

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Two versions of one old game, you mean. The fact remains that it was a Gamecube title and it had a large appeal to the masses.

As duderdude2 says, the Gamecube is even with the XBox in terms of units sold worldwide. When you consider what’s behind those figures… Microsoft selling the XBox at a huge loss versus Nintendo being continuously profitable with the Gamecube and having the best pedigree for publishing quality titles among any console company… I’m going to have to go with Nintendo.

They’re already planning their next-gen console, so comparisons to the Sega Dreamcast are silly.

-fh

22

I don’t read much financial news, but is Nintendo really “struggling” as that article claims? I know they’re not #1 in the industry, but that doesn’t mean they’re not doing well. RC Cola has been #3 for decades, and it seems to do fine. They say that Nintendo’s shares are currently 19% below their record high for this year, but is that indicative of doing badly? It doesn’t seem like it to me.

23

Achernar, you nailed it on the head. Nintendo may not be #1 in console sales, but they’re not doing nearly as poorly as the article may suggest. Most articles of a similar nature completely neglect Nintendo’s monopoly on the handheld market, which alone could easily support Nintendo for years.

24

The Gamecube was a great system for the money. Better than PS2, although not quite as powerful as XBox. It did have blood guts and gore, as well as some pretty decent games. Mario and Metroid were two of my favorite, and Star Wars was a good release, with the new one looking even better. Xbox was pumping a lot of dollars to keep up, while Sony had such a head start it’s hard to catch up.

25

A few things you have to consider:

This is Microsoft’s first system. It’s Nintendo’s fourth non portable console. Not good progress going from one to three…

As many know, console makers make money off of software, not hardware. Some interesting sales figures I’ve seen posted over at HTF (from NPD.com):

GCN HULK VIVENDI UNIVERSAL May-03 45,726 $2,242,041
XBX HULK VIVENDI UNIVERSAL May-03 72,876 $3,531,086
PS2 HULK VIVENDI UNIVERSAL May-03 185,067 $8,981,055

GCN ENTER THE MATRIX ATARI May-03 129,590 $6,433,430
XBX ENTER THE MATRIX ATARI May-03 358,932 $17,591,680
PS2 ENTER THE MATRIX ATARI May-03 810,507 $39,576,240

XBX DISNEY’S FINDING NEMO THQ May-03 33,975 $1,358,973
GCN DISNEY’S FINDING NEMO THQ May-03 50,743 $2,028,826
PS2 DISNEY’S FINDING NEMO THQ May-03 125,025 $4,901,066

GCN X2:WOLVERINES REVENGE ACTIVISION Apr-03 31,687 $1,525,319
XBX X2:WOLVERINES REVENGE ACTIVISION Apr-03 62,516 $3,022,473
PS2 X2:WOLVERINES REVENGE ACTIVISION Apr-03 151,511 $7,175,371

GCN T.CLANCY’S SPLINTER UBI SOFT Apr-03 47,540 $2,343,271
PS2 T.CLANCY’S SPLINTER UBI SOFT Apr-03 430,621 $21,168,450

GCN NBA STREET VOL 2 ELECTRONIC ARTS Apr-03 68,787 $3,398,749
XBX NBA STREET VOL 2 ELECTRONIC ARTS Apr-03 180,343 $8,906,355
PS2 NBA STREET VOL 2 ELECTRONIC ARTS Apr-03 614,554 $30,308,370

XBX RAYMAN 3: HOODLUM UBI SOFT Mar-03 15,235 $556,954
GCN RAYMAN 3: HOODLUM UBI SOFT Mar-03 27,637 $1,041,840
PS2 RAYMAN 3: HOODLUM UBI SOFT Mar-03 41,637 $1,507,782

GCN MLB SLUGFEST 20-04 MIDWAY Mar-03 16,908 $596,415
XBX MLB SLUGFEST 20-04 MIDWAY Mar-03 20,293 $941,332
PS2 MLB SLUGFEST 20-04 MIDWAY Mar-03 95,502 $4,294,715

GCN VEXX ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT Feb-03 19,289 $745,402
XBX VEXX ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT Feb-03 22,734 $1,022,101
PS2 VEXX ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT Feb-03 39,803 $1,727,983

GCN ATV QUAD POWER RACE 2 ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT Jan-03 21,468 $649,240
XBX ATV QUAD POWER RACE 2 ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT Jan-03 85,823 $2,558,756
PS2 ATV QUAD POWER RACE 2 ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT Jan-03 95,369 $2,840,170

Maybe in console sales Microsoft and Nintendo are close, but Nintendo looks to be the clear #3 in software.

26

You may be right, I don’t know. But it seems to me that only comparing games that were released for multiple platforms has the potential to be really misleading. Isn’t there a list of top-grossing games for each of the platforms?

27

While this is true, there’s one more number you neglected:

Profability
Nintendo - YES
Microsoft - Not even close

And really, the bottom line is all that matters when talking about the business side of video games.

28

Achernar’s correct once again, those are very misleading figures. To begin, GameCube’s demographic largely consists of a younger/family audience, as opposed to PS2’s and Xbox’s more adult approach. This helps to explain the differences in most of the titles above as it’s logical for titles aimed at older individuals to sell better on the corresponding system. Second, GameCube frequently gets shafted when it comes to ports, resulting in an inferior product. Take Finding Nemo for example, on GameCube, the load times top 2 minutes as opposed to PS2’s 30 seconds (There is no reason for this except sloppy programming). Third, the above figures also fail to take into account the time delay between releases of identical games on differentiating consoles. Frequently, the PS2/Xbox will obtain the game first, with ports for the Xbox/PS2/GameCube arriving later.

29

So how do any of those things make those figures misleading? You basically just gave three reasons why those figures should occur. And from what I gather, retailers are making room for more Xbox hardware and software by removing Nintendo products. My local Blockbusters give almost twice as much space to Xbox rentals.

Simply put, many considered the N64 to be a lackluster effort and the GC an outright failure. I know one person with a GC (my 4 year old nephew). I know three or four people my age with Xbox’s and half a dozen more that are planning on getting one within the next year. I think Halo 2 will be bringing in a lot of fence sitters…

30

BabaBooey, your latter statement is proof of your ignorance. I know at least 10 people who own a GameCube and less than half that for other systems, but I don’t believe that’s how the rest of the world behaves.

As for your other question, while the stats themselves may be accurate, the context you gave them is misleading. You utilized them as articles of significance for your argument (GameCube is getting its ass kicked) without taking into account copious other factors.

31

More than likely that is because the Xbox has more games (265 to 212) than the GameCube.

Who is this “many”? You can’t argue with raw numbers and the GameCube and Xbox have both sold the same number of consoles. And then the key number err color, Nintendo is in the black and Microsoft is in the red.

32

You don’t buy the GameCube for the third party games. You buy it for the first and second party games - Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Donkey Kong, etc. Comparing sales of third party games is kind of ridiculous. Comparing sales of exclusives would be much more enlightening, because those are the real system sellers.

33

“I know at least 10 people who own a GameCube and less than half that for other systems, but I don’t believe that’s how the rest of the world behaves.”

Obviously not if you know more people with Gamecubes than people with PS2’s.

“More than likely that is because the Xbox has more games (265 to 212) than the GameCube.”

OK, let me rephrase this. Local Blockbusters carry a higher percentage of the Xbox games available than they do Gamecube games. And of those games they have, they keep a larger number of Xbox games in stock (i.e. 5 Xbox NBA Streets vs 2 Gamecube NBA Streets).

“Who is this “many”? You can’t argue with raw numbers and the GameCube and Xbox have both sold the same number of consoles.”

The Xbox sales have nothing to do with considering the Gamecube or N64 a failure. If the Bucs and Cardinals each go 8-8 next year, how would you evaluate the Buc’s performance? And the Cardinals’?
“You don’t buy the GameCube for the third party games. You buy it for the first and second party games - Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Donkey Kong, etc. Comparing sales of third party games is kind of ridiculous. Comparing sales of exclusives would be much more enlightening, because those are the real system sellers.”

You’ve got to be kidding me! Console sales are never a large profit maker for these companies. Do you really think Nintendo can survive on the sales of first part games alone? Third party developers see the lackluster sales on the GC and take them into account. I believe it was Acclaim that recently announced they were cutting back on the number of titles they were releasing for the GC…

34

Perhaps not alone, but it’s a damn big portion of their income pie. How do you suppose third parties manage? By selling their software, which perhaps by total coincidence (or not) is the exact same way Nintendo makes money. And as someone already mentioned, Microsoft and Sony are losing money on each console sold while Nintendo at least breaks even, if not comes out on top, with each console sold.

Who gives a shit about Acclaim? That’s merely one development studio (albeit a shitty one) and it’s preposterous to judge an entire corporations fate around another company’s tactics.

35

I love watching these debates about “which is better Xbox or GC?” that conveniently leave PS2 out of it. :wink:

36

“Microsoft and Sony are losing money on each console sold while Nintendo at least breaks even, if not comes out on top, with each console sold.”

Which is why they have a wherehouse full of unsold consoles.

Even the company’s president admitted the company has made mistakes in third party support:
"Mr Iwata, who gave no figures on how much inventory was left to clear, acknowledged that the group had stumbled with the Game Cube console and conceded that it had made a strategic mistake by not ensuring that it had a consistent flow of attractive software for the Game Cube. But he cast doubt on the ability of Nintendo’s competitors to continue attracting users with games that are becoming more and more graphically sophisticated and difficult to play… We are thinking of launching a completely different kind of game. We are confident that we can develop a product that anyone can enjoy and that will provide people with a new kind of excitement "

And does making games easier sound like a good way to help fix sales problems? I’ve always been a huge fan of Nintendo’s games. Zelda and Mario were the games that I felt would be a system seller for myself, but Zelda was far too easy and Mario simply wasn’t that much fun. The only console exclusive they have now that interests me is F Zero. I think I’ll just borrow my nephew’s GC and rent the game as opposed to spending $200 buying them…

“I love watching these debates about “which is better Xbox or GC?” that conveniently leave PS2 out of it.”

My guess is because so many consider the PS2 as being their primary console and have decided or are planning to decide between the Xbox and GC.

37

Not really true, in my experience. In fact, most of the debates I’ve seen have been between Xbox and PS2, in an attempt to prove Xbox’s dominance. The people who debate on the side of Xbox try to find approval from anyone they can get it from, and so this thread, which orginally was about how Gamecube is a failure/not economically viable has been hijacked by a bunch of Xbox nuts, trying to find more support, and prove thier dominance over the 3rd place runner in a race of 3. Give it up, guys. We *know[/i[ Xbox is the 2nd most popular system. Can’t we just leave it at that?

38

No we don’t.

39

I’m a bitter TG-16 owner.

40

You all think Dreamcast owners got screwed, I had a 3DO! Other than Road Rash, Street Fighter and Madden, there was nothing terribly worthwile on the $400+ system.