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GameCube (Games) Entertainment Games

Gamecube Software Support Waning? 40

Posted by simoniker from the survival-of-the-fittest dept.
Thanks to Shacknews for pointing to a CNET News report discussing the declining amount of titles being planned or released for the Nintendo Gamecube. It quotes an Activision spokesman as saying "I think it's good for the industry as a whole if you have three strong players, but that's not the direction it's going." Is the Gamecube third-party software support on its way out?
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Gamecube Software Support Waning? More

Gamecube Software Support Waning?

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  • Software, Software, Software! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dimator ( 71399 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @01:31PM (#5980900) Homepage Journal
    (Read that like Ballmer would.)

    The problem for Nintendo is and always has been lack of quality titles from 3rd party developers. Their in-house games are high quality, but you can't support a console on one must-have game every 4 months [penny-arcade.com].

    • I'm not so sure.

      I think that on average a console is doing pretty well if each owner buys 4 games a year. Many people can afford to own more than one console as well, and if a gamer decides that they "must have" Metroid or Zelda they buy the console for that game.

      The cube is managing to keep me happy at the moment.

      I look at PS2 and it has a lot of titles that I'm not interested in or can get on GCN, PC, or even DC. Might buy one for Ico and Frequency, but both seem to be out of print.. This tells me that

  • I don't care: (Score:5, Funny)

    by zulux ( 112259 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @01:41PM (#5980954) Homepage Journal
    Nintendo produces enough quality games by themselves, that I'd still buy a Gamecube if every single third-party developer dropped dead.

    For $200 - you can get a nice little box that hookes up to your TV and can play Zelda on it. Just for that, it's $200 well spent. If you're a poor SOB, sell it for $100.

    Hell, XBOX owners think the same thing - they practiaclly can call it the HALO-BOX.

    Me: Herd you got an XBOX.
    XBOX user: Yeah! It's got Halo. (Shows me the level with the Jeep-thingys on the beach)

    Next month:

    Me: Played anything good recently.
    XBOX user: Yeah! I got Halo. (Shows me the level with the Jeep-thingys on the beach)

    --

    • Xbox has a hell of a lot more than Halo.

      Take a glance at all the action on Xbox Live. Lots of excellent, highly-active games not named Halo.

      Sega's sports games are developed with the Xbox as the primary platform (downgraded to work on PS2, and now no longer even developed for GameCube). Sega's also graced the Xbox with great stuff like Panzer Dragoon Orta and Jet Set Radio Future.

      I own all three systems, and I've been playing the GameCube the most recently. But there is so very little 3rd party suppor

    • Yeah, Nintendo hasn't really ever had huge game libraries for their consoles, but they don't usually have a lot of crappy games either.

  • Releases may be waning, but... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mhesseltine ( 541806 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @01:45PM (#5980981) Homepage Journal

    For as long as I can remember, Nintendo hasn't had a monster catalog of games available. Sony's Playstation had more games available than the SNES or N64, PS2 has more games than Gamecube. However, that's not the reason that I (or other gamers, I assume) buy the console. It's not about how many games are available, but how many that you would actually *want* to play. It doesn't matter that every possible sports title is available on PS2 if I'm not interested in playing sports games.

    My take on things is, the games that are available for the Gamecube are good, high quality games that people want to play. As a result, I don't think that Nintendo is going away any time soon.

  • Nintendo has what _should_ be a very easily used platform: IBM processor, ATI graphics card, pretty straightforward architecture. The Sony PS2 has all kinds of heavily proprietary hardware, yet it has the vast lead in third-party software. Is it Nintendo's traditionally draconian licensing schemes, the mini-DVD format, what?
  • Isn't a lack of games what killed platforms such as the Atari Jaguar and Sega's Game Gear? Even if the games that do come out for the GAMECUBE are sensational, it will still have to compete with a platform like the PS2 that has a massive catalog of PS2 and PSX games available. I guess it comes down to quality vs. quantity. And quality didn't help the BetaMax.
    • An insane lack of games didn't kill the Nintendo 64. I don't think it will kill the GameCube. And if it does, no big. I still have my Dreamcast plugged in too. It'll just make all the games cheaper, and I'll have the whole library instead of just the few I wanted.

  • you all missed the point (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Its because microsoft can afford to buy all the third party gaming titles (rare) and therefore fewer games will be released for the gamecube. they are doing the same shit that got them into trouble in the 90's, using their wealth and monopolistic position to squash any potential competition. the only reason that MS lost over 1 billion dollars last year on the xbox was because they were spending all that coin on buying third party gaming titles. so 2 or 3 years down the road, the only games that will be r
  • Forget my previous post, i hit submit before i could finish...anyway....here's what i wanted to say....

    Some flaws in the argument in the article

    A)The article says that sales for the gamecube hardware are behind previous estimates
    1)The xbox sales actually exceed gamecube sales by a very small percentage;
    2)also doesnt state that estimates were a few thousand units behind or millions - big difference, if only a few thousand behind no big deal, right?

    B)The gamecube was developed with third party players in m
  • Nintendo owners are used to a certain level of quality IMHO, and also the fact that we tend to get 3rd party titles well after they are out on other consoles doesn't help. Take Splinter Cell for example, after it's M$ xbox exclusive run, it came to pc and ps2 and LAST gamecube. Don't expect things to sell if your not willing to make the effort. This ongoing resentment twoard Nintendo is getting old.

  • Gamecube is a solid platform (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Khyl'Dran ( 673292 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @08:24PM (#5983235)
    My view is the same as a few people who posted here: Even with a waning third party support, Nintendo itself is able to publish some excellent games for the cube. PS2 is technologically backwards, and nearly all its good games can be played either on the PC or on the Xbox (or even the gamecube). The Xbox's advantage is Xbox Live, but many of its good single player games can be played on the PC (halo is comming too)...

    The gamecube already has an AMAZING list of great single player games, all exclusive... and I am sure nintendo is planning to lure in some third party developers (and famous names in the business as well). Take Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid games)...he's going to start doing exclusive stuff with nintendo and the cube.

    But if you are in doubts, check out the highest scoring games of the cube and the xbox at IGN.com. You'll see that nearly all good xbox games are either multi-platform, or are coming out for the pc, while nearly all gamecube gems are exclusive titles...

    Now dont get me wrong, i have an xbox and love it, but i think that if you have a good pc, the Cube is a great console to get, because of all the amazing exclusive games it has...or get both consoles and be really happy :D

  • Shut Up and Play (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ubikkibu ( 544498 ) on Saturday May 17, 2003 @10:02PM (#5983661)
    Bought XBox, GameCube when both were released.

    XBox gigantic and noisy, controllers sucked, especially for my seven-year-old son with whom I do most of my gaming. Halo was stupendous, Jet Set Radio Future was trippy-excellent, most everything else was underwhelming. I'm bored with the console FPS stuff that is nearly all you can get for it. I bought probably 12 titles and rented several, but after it collected four solid months of dust, I sold it.

    GameCube was a totally different story. Small, quiet, with genius controllers. Then the WaveBird wireless controllers came out and I couldn't believe how perfect they were. Several top-notch games that I have basically never stopped playing after I beat them: Pikmin, Rogue Leader, Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime, Zelda, Godzilla:DAMM, Monkey Ball, Eternal Darkness, and several others I'm spacing right now. Mario Sunshine and StarFox were clever but had little staying power.

    Clearly I'm skewed towards the out-of-the-ordinary games that for some reason rarely show up on PS2 or XBox. (This is why we still bust out the Dreamcast once in a while.) But the GameCube could disappear today and I'd be forever glad I got one--it has been simply awesome.

    Forget the FUD--GC has sold enough units to make Nintendo $$$, and the GameBoy juggernaut will keep them in business forever. Play the games you like, forget about the "big three" competition gossip--it's for industry hacks.
  • I've been slowly waning myself off of using the PC for gaming and getting more games for my Gamecube.

    I've never been much of a fanboy, but the Gamecube and Gameboy Advance are turning me into one.

    It started with Golden Sun on the GBA, continued with Eternal Darkness when my wife bought me a GC for Christmas, expanded to include her when I brought home Animal Crossing, and I was pretty much converted to a fanboy when I picked up Metroid Prime & Metroid Fusion. Now I'm looking forward to buying Splinter
    • Yes, yes, yes. Golden Sun. Finally beat it, got Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age, transferred character data, kept going where that left off. Brilliant little RPG.

      It's really going to suck when Nintendo finally releases a 3-D capable handheld. There is such genius possible in 2-D, and now that the Dreamcast lives only for underground development--not that there's anything wrong with that--the GBA is the last bastion of a real gaming art.

      I think Nintendo has done a great job with the GC-GBA connectivity. I'

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