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GameCube (Games) Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

Nintendo Profits Up Amid GameCube Worries 174

Posted by simoniker from the good-news-and-bad-news dept.
Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for their report on Nintendo's announcement of significant first-quarter profits, around $95 million (11.5bn Yen), "buoyed by stellar Game Boy Advance console sales, foreign exchange rate gains in Europe and the well timed re-emergence of the Pokemon brand." However, the article cautions that GameCube's current prospects are "...looking increasingly bleak, with a mere 800,000 units of the underperforming console selling through from April to June. Targets of six million have been set for the end of its financial year, but it's looking unlikely that it will reach this unless it's prepared to heavily discount the console in the run up to Christmas - something Nintendo has traditionally been reluctant to do." What can Nintendo do to get out of this hardware slump? Update: 08/05 20:43 GMT by S : According to this Reuters report, Nintendo sold just 80,000 GameCubes to retailers worldwide, not 800,000.
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Nintendo Profits Up Amid GameCube Worries More

Nintendo Profits Up Amid GameCube Worries

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  • Nintendo Doesn't Need to (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Schezar ( 249629 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @11:05AM (#6615746) Homepage Journal
    Nintendo is a niche console. The people who own it will buy the big games no matter what. They don't need market saturation because they have a significant base of loyal fans/customers. These people are a steady, reliable income stream.

    See also: Apple Computers.

    • not true (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bpb213 ( 561569 )
      I own both a GC and a PowerBook. My list of purchased games for GC is Super Smash Brothers, Zelda, Eternal Darkness, and Jedi Outcast. ED and JO i bought for $20 each. As regards to the apple, I bought quicktime pro.

      Now, how do i fit in your uniformed opinion that all GC and Apple owners are raving mad consumers?
      • You raving mad consumer, you.

      • Relax. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Sheetrock ( 152993 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @12:33PM (#6616828) Homepage Journal
        He's not saying "all GC and Apple owners are raving mad consumers" -- he's saying that there is a "significant base" of loyal customers. Surely you don't regard yourself as empirical evidence that there is not a "significant base" of loyal customers, and no matter how sharply his opinion is dressed a little critical thinking and/or research would prove it's correct.

        How long has Nintendo been in the video game business? Most people I know who had a NES back in the 80s have continued to buy Nintendo products, particularly for the Mario/Zelda/Metroid franchises. Compare this to Sega -- they had Sonic, occasionally Phantasy Star, Lunar, etc. but nothing with the fan appeal that would keep people coming back to the system (the disappointment in the range of games available for a couple of their more expensive platforms no doubt didn't help).

        Many Apple users continue to use Apple computers despite the expense and limited software offerings because they perceive value in the platform that has only been reinforced by their experiences. Apple users are something like 10% of the PC market yet software companies are still able to produce Apple-only applications and enjoy success. You might not be buying many applications, but you bought a PowerBook where a less than loyal individual would probably realize the vast price difference between that and a $700 laptop from Dell and perhaps waver a bit.

    • This is 100% correct. I went out and bought a GameCube for two reasons: Zelda and Metroid Prime. Neither one of them dissapoints, but this isn't a game review. The important fact is that Nintendo has the best proprietary games out there. And Nintendo has made sure that with each successive console release these games are as strong as ever. The hardest thing for Nintendo is introducing new players to these titles at a time when most people value pretty graphics over good gameplay.
      • Bah.. the reason they are being forced to market the pretty graphica is because that's what they've been spoon-feeding to the masses in order to pump up revenue... if they were less focused on converting the infidels to their system they could concentrate on making the games even better than they are (generalization to every gaming company...)
        • "if they were less focused on converting the infidels to their system they could concentrate on making the games even better than they are"

          Yeah, I suppose they've only produced half [computeran...ogames.com] of the 4 games to attain perfect scores from Famitsu. Shame on them, they should be doing much better </sarcasm>

          Nintendo is doing alright. They're making plenty of cash, and considering the whole Sony group only made $9 million [usatoday.com] last quater, they shouldn't really be that displeased. Market share only goes so far, at the

  • What can Nintendo do to get out of this hardware slump?

    Well, they could start selling more risque titles a la Playstation, but I don't think that's where they want to go. Nintendo has always been a family-oriented company and they'll just have to accept the lower market share associated with that theme.
    • They have plenty of adult-themed titles. Blood Rayne, Dead to Rights, Hunter: The Reckoning, Resident Evil, Eternal Darkness, the revised and expanded MGS... These are not exactly little kids games.

      I think Nintendo has more than once said that they are OK with the market share they've gotten worldwide, though I'm sure they'd like more. Game reviewers welded to this "console death match" idea are the ones that haven't accepted that Nintendo may have accepted it.

  • Underperforming Console? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MajikMan ( 453619 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @11:15AM (#6615866) Homepage
    I work in a fairly large game retailer (Gamestop), and I'm curious to know who's standards the cube and xbox are underperforming by. I know in my company, the investors were told a story about last year's sales and expect to see the same kind of numbers. The problem with that is that there hasn't been a major price cut, and there aren't any new system-selling titles on the shelves.



    End result? The company is on the rocks, the employees get griped at and have hours cut, and the people responsible (game makers for not making games that move systems and retailers for building up unreasonable hype) scratch their heads.

  • Deep discounts. (Score:3, Informative)

    by RealityMogul ( 663835 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @11:17AM (#6615903)
    Deep discounts like the $100 one I bought from Wal-Mart last night that included the Mario game? How much cheaper can they make it? I don't know if this is their new price or my particular Wal-mart just had a sale going on or something. They just had a standard wal-mart price sticked on it that said $100 and no other info.
    • That was a retailer discount, not a manufacturer one-- in other words, only your particular Wal-Mart had the deal.
    • Or, they can go the route MS did - make it easy to pirate games.

      I really don't know if MS did it intentionally or unintentionally, but that's how they got so many people (along with a more mature target audience), cheap/free games get people the console, so later generations will perform better..

      I know, I'm probably stretching it a bit, but hey, look at PS1, it was easy as heck to burn games, and it really caught on.. and only now Sony tries to stop piracy - because it got enough people hooked - on the PS

  • Nintendo needs developers! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Fusion2k ( 695017 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @11:24AM (#6616007)
    Nintendo has a major problem with their business strategy: their relationship with their developers. Nintendo still has the mindset of a console superpower and therefore treat third party developers like crap. I have developed for Nintendo before and this could be seen as a rant, but if they want to shape up that should be their focus. The reason PS2 and XBox are doing well is they support and encourage their third party developers (Heck Micro$oft even paid for the development of a lot of projects during the early XBox days) Nintendo on the other hand makes the debug kits and SDK hardware impossible to afford for small companies and the cart and burn fees are much worse than the same fees for Xbox and PS2.
    • So what you're saying is that Nintendo, which actually gives away dev kits, fails to support their 3rd party developers the way Sony does, when they actually charge an arm and a leg? The only factual statement in their is that M$ not only gave away devkits, but paid for a huge chunk of development costs.

      The whole reason Nintendo is having such a hard time garnering 3rd party support is because all of it is either going to Xbox or PS2, because they feel that a vast majority of the games they are developing

      • GC DevKits... (Score:5, Informative)

        by Ian_Bailey ( 469273 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @12:27PM (#6616750) Homepage Journal
        ...Nintendo, which actually gives away dev kits...

        According to Nintendo [warioworld.com], a GameCube dev kit costs upwards of $10,000. Not to mention, "Financial stability is expected," which means they don't just loan them out to just-starting developers.

        Not that Sony isn't expensive either. And I can't imagine Xbox dev kits being too cheap anymore, either.
        • Times, they are a changin.. I haven't looked into it since launch, and they were giving them away back then.
          • Where were they giving them away? Perhaps they give them out for cheap at first to attract developpers to the console, and then jack up the price when it gets more lucrative.....

            Maybe I can score a next generation dev kit in a few years...
            • They were giving them away with essentially the same restrictions as they are now.. as I recall they were even more restrictive about it back then, and they were pretty much going to the major developers.
        • And I can't imagine Xbox dev kits being too cheap anymore, either.

          Yeah, PIII 700's w/ a Geforce 2 are really expensive these days. /joke
      • Wow I guess I missed out on the free dev kits at launch. :( I have mainly worked on the Game Boy advance side of things as far as development is concerned, but I have dabled a bit in GCube dev (mostly just argued with the big N).

        Don't get me wrong, I have enjoy Game Cube and own both an XBox and a Game Cube (and I'm also 23) My dream has always been to develop on a nintend consloe, but things just arn't the same these days.

    • Are you cracked? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Inoshiro ( 71693 )
      "Nintendo on the other hand makes the debug kits and SDK hardware impossible to afford for small companies and the cart and burn fees are much worse than the same fees for Xbox and PS2."

      The various fees for producing GCN games were lowered last April [411mania.com]. That's why Sega games and other titles from Capcom and Konami are coming out at cheap prices, like 59.99$ CDN or less. Capcom can publish new games at 49.99$ CDN and still earn great profit!

      And this is completely ignoring the efforts of Nintendo to work to
    • Your hypothesis seems to be: "Nintendo needs developers."

      However, the hypothesis that you have proved is: "Nintendo is bad to developers."

      You'll have to explain what 3D party developers would bring to Nintendo (primarily a software company). Why can't they survive without?
    • Where have you been? Nintendo and Square/ENIX built a co-op game company; the same company that is writing Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. Nintendo and Capcom have teamed up to make quite a few exclusive Gamcube games. Nintendo and Konami have teamed up to do the remake of Metal Gear Solid, which is being handled primarily by Silicon Knights (now a Nintendo company). Nintendo and SEGA co-developed the new F-Zero game. Nintendo and HAL Labs co-developed Kirby Air Ride. Companies like Namco, Square/EN
  • They can get on Square's ass to release Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. I'll buy a GameCube as soon as that game is released.

    If it would have come out this year like it was originally expected to, that would probably boost their profits and console sales.

    Since Square is waiting until Feb 2004, I don't see that happening anytime soon.
    • NoA is publishing FF:CC themselves, not Square. They're publishing all three of the announced Sqaure games for the Nintendo consoles (Sword of Mana, Crystal Chronicles, Tactics Advance) in North America.
      • So is the delay a development delay or the publishers pushing it off so they won't step on other product's release dates?
        • I don't think the Japanese release date has changed, so I think it's Nintendo's decision. I think their crowded first and second party schedule for the end this year is a big part of it.

          It could also be that they realized releasing Crystal Chronicles on the same day FFX-2 was a bad idea.

  • It won't be broken this generation... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CashCarSTAR ( 548853 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @11:46AM (#6616293)
    PS2 had a massive lead going in. Nobody would ever catch them.

    The X-Box has higher sales in US, while the GC has higher sales overseas. Overall, both are about equal, with the GC with a slight edge.

    The idea that somehow the GC is far in third-place, is frankly strage. There is a lack of third-party games for it, which is true. (Although, to be honest I don't miss much, at least when it comes to X-Box).

    The unwritten rule, I suspect is that third-party companies want to keep out of the way of Nintendo..which one can't really blame them over.

    • The idea that somehow the GC is far in third-place, is frankly strage.

      It is, but the reason is media hype. The media has latched onto Sony and Microsoft. They are the new cool guys. Nintendo was cool when Atari ruled the roost. Then Sega was the media darling in the 16-bit days. Sony took over with the PSX. And now Microsoft, for some reason, can do no wrong in the media eyes. They lose money like it's urine and the media says they are in better shape than Nintendo.

      Nintendo is turning the most profit, si
      • Nintendo is turning the most profit, sitting almost dead even with Microsoft in terms of hardware sales, and everyone (the media) predicts their failure.

        Well, no one's exaclty predicting their failure yet, but in business, you have to be a little forward thinking to make an attempt to predict what will be popular in the future.

        While the Xbox is losing money, it's not like Microsoft is currently experiencing a cash crisis or anything. Microsoft can (and most likely will) prop up the Xbox for as long as it
        • Unless every last competitor is inferior to the GBA in every way... ...which it seems like they are.

          N-Gage? Don't make me laugh. This one has hit the floor even before the start. High price (at LEAST $300), bad button layout and I bet the battery will last just long enough for you to get a peek at miss Croft's pixelated breasts.

          Mobile phones? They are a mile away from being portable game consoles. The Java system most of them use is slow like hell. Apart from that, they have all the disadvantages of the N
  • i would venture to guess that the slump in nintendo sales, at least expected sales, is not due to nintendo, but rather the industry. how many of the same type gaming systems do i need? the consoles should be basically given away and make the money on the games. just like the cell phone industry...give away the phone and profit on the subscription.

  • GC... Best System Since SNES (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LordYUK ( 552359 ) <jeffwright821.gmail@com> on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @12:23PM (#6616723)
    When I go to the local EB, I look over the racks of all the systems... (I own a GC and a PS2, as well as a "gaming" PC... no Xbox just yet). What do I see? Under PS2... crap, crap, GTA (also on PC), crap, crap, port, port, port, GTA VC (also on PC), crap, crap... under Xbox, crap, crap, Halo (on PC soon), crap, crap, port, port, port, crap, KoTOR (on PC soon), and Live (not a game, but a selling point). On GC, however, its Mario, Link, Metroid, Mario Golf, Animal Crossing (was that the name of it?), in addition to the other crap and the ports. (I havent gone into games that are "coming soon" like the new StarFox and Fzero and Mario Kart and Mario Tennis...)

    The GC doesnt have many games, but the PS2 has alot of games that arent good. The Xbox, I have played and enjoyed, and Live is very appealing, but the games just arent there... I'd rather play Halo on my PC with a mouse than with the joystick, and kotor will be better on the PC as well...
    • I have to say that I agree here. A year ago, my wife and I started out with an XBox because of DOA3, Enclave, and Halo. (though we are not much for FPS games (or sports), we wanted something we could play together) Beyond that, XBox specific games haven't piqued our interest. So, two months later, we wound up going for a PS2 for GTA3. We got a couple of other games for it, and it was kind of fun, but not spectacular. Don't get me wrong. The graphics were good (although we like the XBox graphics better
      • This is the problem though, people seem to think of GC as a last resort, even though I hear narrative after narrative like this of it being the best system. Nintendo somehow needs to get in the minds of the people more. How they do that, I don't know, when the mindset of most people and the media is PS2/XBOX. Hed.
        • I would have bought a GC first, however, it WAS the last resort, coming out AFTER the PS2 and DURING the Xbox Halo hype... the launch games for the GC stunk... Rogue Squadron was pathetic (the devs admitted this, and its why RS3 will feature the entire RS2 game WITH multiplayer support), luigi's mansion was "meh", and the other titles I cant even remember... IMHO, the system didnt get "good" until recently, where people can go to the store and see Mario Sunshine, Zelda, Metroid, and other solid games coming
  • Just sort of thinking about what the typical PS2 or Xbox buyer thinks of when they think of Nintendo - this thing called the "game cube" with the little black handle attached and a very unsturdy, immature looking controller.

    Maybe repackage it - not calling it the "Game cube" but maybe just the "n-cube"- make it look sleeker, less childish. Make games that appeal to a somewhat older audience. No, not pr0n, but something a little more than that farm game and pokemon.

    Then again, it may be hopeless. PS2 has t

    • Hey hey hey, dont be dissing Harvest Moon

      Im so looking forward to it
    • I own all three systems. I'll be compltely honest. Within the past year I've bought more Game Cube games than I have for the PS2/Xbox combined. You can't deny that Nintendo has a pretty good line up of titles. What sets Nintendo apart is the quality of their games. The Nintendo games are in their own class. The other systems have cookie cutter games. They're al the same. Game Cube's games a little more artisc, in one word different.
      • Within the past year I've bought more Game Cube games than I have for the PS2/Xbox combined.

        Same boat here.

        I've had my (waiting for repair) PS2 for over 2 years, and only have 19 games for it.

        I've had my GC since it's launch, and already have 17 games for it, with 7 more pre-ordered due out by the end of the year (Soul Claibur 2 and F-Zero GX this month alone, and I just picked up Mario Golf).

        I've had my Xbox since last September, and have a whopping 8 games for it. Granted KotOR, which I was skep

  • Nintendo is doing the best they can (Score:5, Insightful)

    by truffle ( 37924 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @01:32PM (#6617656) Homepage
    Nintendo has improved things so much since the N64. The Gamecube is a really great machine, with a set of killer gamecube specific titles (already mentioned in this thread), that cause people to buy gamecubes just so they can play those titles. I know I did.

    However, Sony got so much market share with the PS1, back when all the other console manufacturers had their heads far up their asses, that it's pretty hard to come back and gain ground. Still, I'm sure they have, compare the market share of the N64 to the PS1, and I think you'll see the Gamecube is doing a lot better.

    The GBA and the level of integration they offer with it is exceptional. The new Playstation hand held is Sony trying to copy them, and I'm sure it's going to kick ass (I have a PS2 and I'll buy one of the Sony handhelds for sure). None the less I'm already convinced that my Gameboy Advance SP is going to remain my favorite hand held console. I don't need a killer CPU, and larger screen, for my portable player. I don't need portable movies and music (esp. since DRM will make sure I have to pay $15-30 for each disk). I need something small, sexy, long battery life, with great games - that's the gameboy advance SP.

    The GBA SP is great also because it plays Gameboy Color and Gameboy games as well. Very smart. Gameboy Player lets you play all those on your TV (Great purchase, strong incentive to buy a cube, GBA games are great and are great to play on a TV. Friends have come over to my house and spent 60+ hours playing Golden Sun on my gameboy player). Unfortunately everything from the N64 and back is lost, but I'm sure the next edition of the GameCube will support GameCube games. Nintendo has recognized how great for Sony it has been that the PS2 plays PS1 games (I love that I can play dance dance revolution PS1 games on my PS2, plus super puzzle fighter).

    The one area Nintendo does seem to still mess up on, is their high licensing fees, which discourage development by destroying profit for game makers. I don't know why Nintendo doesn't wake up and halve those. It would work great, games would drop $5 and developer profits would increase $5. Customers and developers both happier, more units sold, maybe less money for Nintendo in the short term but a better chance for market share growth.

    The gamecube is the fun family console. If I was buying one console system for my 12-or-under kids I would buy a gamecube probably. They're also a great secondary console for houses that already have a PS2 or XBox and want to get in on Nintendo games. With Cubes being cheap and coming bundled often with killer games like Metroid Prime, Gamecube is in a great position to be that second console. I'm pretty sure that's where the future of the gamecube really lies, being the second console for grownups, and the first console for kids. They won't beat Sony any time soon, but hopefully they'll obtain a growing market share.
    • Good points. Sony did do a wonderful job in allowing the old PS1 games to be compatible with the PS2. It was a bit easier though for them to do so since they abadoned cartridges from the start. I also agree that if I was buying something for the kids, it would be a Cube. Nintendo has always, IMO, been more family oriented in their game selections when compared to the other 2.
    • The gamecube is the fun family console. If I was buying one console system for my 12-or-under kids I would buy a gamecube probably.


      You might want to consider the DVD playing capabilities of the XBox and the PS2, if you're shopping for your kids. Just think of how useful it would be to let them watch their age-appropriate movies at the same time you're watching the news, or playing games on your primary tv set, etc.

  • All aboard, the sinking ship is leaving (Score:5, Interesting)

    by August_zero ( 654282 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @02:45PM (#6618593)
    I'm not sure they really need to do anything.

    Is the gamecube slumping? Yes, but it isn't Nintendos cash cow right now anyway, the gameboy is. Most of the people crying for nintendo to improve the gamecube position are analysts outside the company. Sure more profit is always good but nintendo is hardly in any sort of danger right now. No big projects forth coming? Nintendo can be notoriously tight lipped at times, look at the Gameboy advanced SP, no info on it even leaked much earlier than a month before launch. They could be hiding a couple aces, and its not like MS or Sony have killer aps slated for this year either.

    The big picture could change though. Sony's Portable is going to give a serious challenge for the mature gamers (18+) but its cost is going to be too high to capture the younger gamers at first. Nintendo is leaning very heavy on that portable leg and if it gets kicked out from under them they are going to be headed down the road Sega just recently hopped along if they don't get their claws into something else. Its hard to say though if this could happen over night. Sony venturing into the portable market is very similar to the launch of the game cube: a superior (in most respects) console against the entrenched behemoth.

    Also keep this in mind: Sony's profits were very low last quarter, while their console is doing well, the company as a whole did not perform as well as Sony would have liked. Neither Nintendo or MS is so far behind that they couldn't rise up and close the gap quickly. If the market fragments with the next generation, Sony is the one with the most to lose, to go from 80% to 33% is a huge loss while virtualy any outcome would be better for Nintendo and MS since they together control only about 20-30%

    I stop rambling now...

  • New Nintendo Slogan! (Score:3, Funny)

    by BTWR ( 540147 ) <americangibor3@yah o o . c om> on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @02:55PM (#6618711) Homepage Journal
    Gamecube does... what Grand_Theft_Au_DON'T!


    (you're supercool if you get that reference)

  • Wait.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by M3wThr33 ( 310489 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @03:29PM (#6619270) Homepage
    Nintendo's profits up. Still selling lot's of the Cube, Sony's profits down 98%, MS cuts staff in Japan, but they just have to point out Nintendo's loss? What IS IT with people to overlook everyone else and just laugh at Nintendo, making wads of cash I would love to make, unlike MS losing every day and Sony in a huge moneypit.

  • Everyone loves to hate Nintendo (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @04:36PM (#6620208)
    As someone else has pointed out, everything about the XBox is golden to the media, whereas the GameCube is always on the edge of disaster with them.

    I don't know why that is, maybe they want to see the "big guy" fail and the underdog come out on top, although no one who's been paying attention at all would think Nintendo has been the "big guy" since the SNES days, and they'd have to be insane to think of Microsoft as the underdog even if they've only just now entered the console biz.

    Regardless of how this fucked up perception came about, no amount of pointing out the strengths of the GameCube, real or imagined, and no amount of pointing out the inequality of the treatment will change anything.

    A lot of the population is influenced by the media. If this goes on for long enough, people will buy into the idea that the GameCube is toast and sales will go down, and then the media will have something real to hang their predjudices on.

    The only way Nintendo can beat this bad rap is to turn things around and do so well that no one can deny that they're beating the XBox. Until they can do that they will always be a failure in the media's eyes.

    They need a price cut before christmas, i don't care if they've been reluctant to do that in the past, they need to get over that. Being priced the same as the competition only works if you're percieved as well or better than them. The GameCube price should be $100. As someone else pointed out the $150 with a free game works out to the same value, but Nintendo needs to rub people's faces in it. They can also have the $150 with game version include a $25 mail in rebate. As people on slashdot have complained before, those things are a ripoff, but they do help sales, and at not much cost to the bottom line.

    Nintendo needs to beg, borrow, or buy more 3rd party developers. They need to improve their reputation and relations with outside coompanies and get more games on the system.

    They need to get more mature games on the system and kick the kiddy image. I know, sex and violence does not make a good game, but it does affect sales. Miyamoto doesn't have to make the games himself, Ninetndo can get 3rd parties to make them, but the games need to get made.

    They damn well better be working on the GameCube2 or whatever it's called! It needs to be backwards compatible, and it can't have the usually Nintendo slippage. If they can beat the PS3 and XBox2 to market by a few weeks (this is critical, if they release it too far ahead, Sony and Microsoft will go the "wait a bit longer for better technology" spiel) and have a ton of GameCube games that work on it, they could pull off some major sales and get a head start in the next round.

    • They need to get more mature games on the system and kick the kiddy image

      What do you want for a mature game? With our group we age 30 - 40 and our favorite games are on the GC. Games like Super Monkey Ball 2 are as mature as you get. Or Pikmin, maybe too mature.

      Are you looking for "shock value" maturity? How about Soul Caliber, Lord of the Rings, Eternal Darkness - or just look at games with a "mature" rating - Blood Omen 2, Blood Rayne, Celebrity Death Match, Dead to Rights, Die Hard: Vendetta, Ghos
      • I own a GameCube, why the hell are you trying to convince me? Do you even realize what the problem is?

        To quote myself...

        Regardless of how this fucked up perception came about, no amount of pointing out the strengths of the GameCube, real or imagined, and no amount of pointing out the inequality of the treatment will change anything.

        Do you really think that the truth matters? I know the GameCube has kickass games, but what really matters is the perception of the average consumer, who sees a lack of ga

  • Say what? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @05:16PM (#6620613)
    Update: 08/05 20:43 GMT by S: According to this Reuters report, Nintendo sold just 80,000 GameCubes to retailers worldwide, not 800,000.

    Can that number really be right? According to this chart at MagicBox [the-magicbox.com] the GameCube sold 4,500 unites the week of May 19th - May 25th. This Dengeki Chart [the-magicbox.com] says the GameCube sold 13,000 units in Japan for the week of July 21st through July 27th. So we know that sales have increased since the 4,500 a week amount, so let's say that 4,500 is the average for April - June, which is still probably low.

    4,500 units a week over 12 weeks gives 54,000 units. They sold 54,000 units in Japan and only 26,000 in the entire rest of the _world_?

    I think Reuters screwed up, and of course no one will read the correction they post later. Just one more bit of evidence for the percieved bias against the GameCube. What do you want to bet that if they'd made the same mistake for XBox someone would have stopped to question such an absurdly low number before the article was printed/put up?

    • Re:Say what? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by unclethursday ( 664807 )
      I think Reuters screwed up, and of course no one will read the correction they post later. Just one more bit of evidence for the percieved bias against the GameCube.

      Kind of like how Bloomberg reported that the GC had only sold 5.6 million since launch, when it was 5.6 million for the fiscal year, eh?

      Oddly enough, I don't remember Bloomberg posting a retraction/correction.

      If I were Nintendo, and Bloomberg didn't post a retraction/correction, I would have sued for libel; claiming the mis-representation

    • Actually, I talked to a reporter at CNN Money before posting this correction, because I tried mailing him to correct _his_ story, which said 80,000, and we looked at all the online sources and came to the conclusion that 80,000 seems to be correct.

      To explain, that's how many GameCubes Nintendo sold to retailers in that period - not how many GameCubes were sold. So if Nintendo had already sold 1,000,000 GameCubes to retailers in the previous quarter, but the retailers only sold 500,000 of the previous quar
      • Okay, thanks for the clarification. If that's the case then i guess they're not wrong, just slightly misleading by not specifying that's what they mean by sales in the article. Which is better than just being outright wrong... maybe?

  • It's not about kiddy games (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TechnoPope ( 516563 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2003 @06:52PM (#6621517) Homepage
    And because good karma was really keeping me down...

    It's not about what games are made. All the systems make games for all types and ages of gamers. Saying that only hints at the real issue.

    Image

    Sprite saying that image is nothing was merely a sly remark about their own campaign. In all honesty, it is all about image. Image is what makes Apple, a company with 3% market share, seem like a powerhouse in terms of units sold. It's what keeps Linux off the desktops of the masses because it seems like a geek only thing. And image is what is really hurting the sales of the GC.

    Does apple really sell all that many units? In the greater view of all computer sales, no. Is linux all that hard to install, not really. Is the GC a kiddie system? Only as much as PS2 or Xbox. The difference is the image portrayed by the console.

    If you look at how the various consoles market themselves, you notice that Sony and Microsoft spend a lot of money to make their systems look mature and cool. The serious gamers (like those reading this) will look past that, but the casual gamers on the other hand won't. They'll buy into the hype, and believe what they are told. "PS2 and Xbox are cool, they are what real gamers play. GC is for kids." Then there are the up and coming hard core gamers (read kids). The same group that Nintendo is supposed to be targeting (complete bs in my opinion) sees this and thinks, "i don't want that, I want to be older and cool," so they don't buy GC's either.

    Did nintendo do this deliberatly? No. But they also aren't helping matters. The gamecube looks like a kids system. It's big, it's multi-colored, it has a handle. This design could possibly be hard for some casual gamers to accept. Especially in a time when consoles are being made to look like they fit next to a dvd, vcr, tivo and other home electronics equipment.

    The most interesting thing is, Nintendo knows how to fix these problems. Look at the GBA. In it's original form, it did alright, it wasn't a flop, but it wasn't anything spectacular. The problem, it didn't appeal to the casual market. It was big, it was multi-colored, it ate batteries. It was just not something casual eople were looking for.

    Now look at the GBA SP. They redesigned it to fit the trends of portible devices. Made it smaller, sleaker, sexier. Gave it rechargable batteries like every other portable device. Suddenly, you can't keep them on shelves. Every toy store in America had them on back-order at some point (i had to travel all over town to find one and they had been out for months). It was just a matter of image. It's the same product, essentially. Same games, same basic hardware; just redesigned to be cooler to the mainstream market.

    Of course, I could be wrong...

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