Nintendo Resumes Production Of GameCube

Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for their article revealing that GameCube consoles are rolling off the production lines in Japan once again, as revitalized demand for the system "finally outstrips the backlog of units which had built up at Nintendo's warehouses", following the suspension of GameCube manufacturing earlier this year. The article points out that "Recent price-drops combined with the roll-out of key software titles [including the Zelda bundle] for the machine in all three major markets have given the Cube new life in the run up to Christmas", as Nintendo VP George Harrison "...told the Wall Street Journal that he expects to sell two million Cubes in the US market this Christmas."

Re:Not surprised.

[Niobium-41]

Especially with the Zelda Pack being released on November 17th.

You'll get 4 Zelda games (the 2 from the NES, and the 2 from the N-64) with the gamecube, all for $100 bucks.. That's the best deal, as far as gaming consoles goes, in a long time.

Re:Zelda Game Bundle?

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

Zelda Bundle is Confirmed for November 17th [slashdot.org]- woo hoo! I will be getting mine then.

Re:Not surprised.

[Neon Spiral Injector]

I saw someone asking before how others can get the disc if they already have a GCN, or just bought one not long ago. Nintendo has details on their web site under Zelda Classic [nintendo.com].

Basically you can buy a subscription to Nintendo Power, or if you haven't registered your system yet, you can do that along with two other holiday release games.

Re:Another Possible Explaination

[simoniker]

The Copyright Office/Library Of Congress ruling only applies to access protection circumvention under the DMCA - all copyrights are still valid, so if you copy 'abandonware', or even circumvent copy protection, it's still illegal.

There's been a lot of confusion about this, unfortunately, but the access circumvention was mainly to allow official institutions (who may or may not be allowed to keep a limited amount of copies for archival purposes) to archive old software properly. There's some possibility that if you personally own old software that only has access controls, and you want to make a copy, that may be allowed, but IANAL, heh.

Re:Not surprised.

[Anonymous Coward]

With a nick like nemui-chan and a stated desire to play Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, you're probably a J-RPG fan (which is fine, unless you're one of those "Final Fantasy ONLY" weirdos). And so it's true, for the past few years, there have been very few RPGs to get excited about, except on Sony platforms and of course the GameBoy Advance.

But at least in the near future, the GameCube is getting some pretty good releases. Tales of Symphonia is the latest GameCube-exclusive volume in Namco's "Tales" series. Baten Kaitos is a very anticipated card RPG. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles should appeal to the Seiken Densetsu crowd and the Final Fantasy crowd alike. And there are also Dreamcast RPGs like Evolution Worlds (ho-hum fare) and Skies of Arcadia Legends (fantastic, particularly to the lucky ones among us who have played Panzer Dragoon Saga). I won't present the Lost Kingdoms series or Summoner 2 (American game) as equivalents, but they definitely exist for people who are interested in them. As do Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1 & 2, with PSO 3 coming soon, for the MMORPG fans.

If you ask me, the Cube is catching up with the GBA in terms of RPGs. And in the case of Tales of Symphonia (which is looking very hot, particularly compared to the Japanese PS2 "Tales of Destiny 2" release), things are looking very good. As an RPG and adventure game (Zelda!) fan, I'm extremely happy to have both my PS2 and my GameCube.

Gamecube now #2 - IGN.com

[BTWR]

According to this [ign.com] story from IGN, Nintento sales have quadrupled and market share has doubled. From the article:

GameCube now runs a 'strong second' to PlayStation 2 in monthly sales, at least based on October sell-through data." It doubled its previous 19 percent [marketshare] piece of the pie to 37 percent. Combined with sales of Game Boy Advance SP -- it accounts for 'half of all system sales in 2003.

Re:Not surprised.

[Anonymous Coward]

More like almost $90 NOT including shipping, and those are some very low prices. Plus, you'd have to find the RAM expansion pack in order to play Majora's Mask, so that can bring your cheap retro games shopping spree to much more than the cost of a GameCube with tax.

This bundle is the best thing since sliced bread. And I fucking LOVE sliced bread.

Re:Gamecube now #2 - IGN.com

[Shadarr]

I'm pretty sure "market share" in this context refers to percentage of total consoles sold that month, rather than percentage of total consoles sold ever. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure PS2 still holds a huge lead in total sales this generation (not counting the GBA).

Re:Where's Mike?

[Daetrin]

"The second is the important number in every venue but Nintendo of America press releases."

I'll agree with you that the installed base is by far the more important factor, although i wouldn't say that market share is completly irrelevant.

However it's a bit biased of you to be singling out Nintendo for this behavior. Every time something similar happens to Sony or Microsoft they crow about it just as loudly. How long has Microsoft been claiming that they're beating Nintendo in the console wars, and how often do they remember to mention that thwy're talking about America, and they're third place world wide in installed user base? When Sony was talking about how much better than the Dreamcast the PS2 was going to be, did they ever mention that it was going to have almost no games at launch and comparable graphics? They're _all_ guilty of that kind of crap, the only thing that changes is which positive looking number they're touting this week.