The Gamecube was frikkin' awesome! I wouldn't call it a failure at all, as I'm fairly certain it did quite well.
GameCube made a whole lot of profit, but didn't capture a lot of marketshare. Guess which one actually matters more.
No. It was certainly a fairly weak commercial performer and continued piling up the poor choices in regards to how Nintendo managed their console platforms, but it still delivered when it came to actual games and anyone who says otherwise is talking shit. Resident Evil Remake and 4, Metroid Prime 1+2, Super Monkey Ball, Rogue Leader, Paper Mario - Thousand Year Door, Luigi's Mansion, Viewtiful Joe, Smash Melee, Wave Race - Blue Storm, F-Zero GX, Eternal Darkness, Pikmin and so on.
What's funny is that their worst choices aren't always what people think. GameCube was one of two times I can think of when Nintendo tried hard to appeal to "mature" and "hard core" gamers. They got a timed exclusive license for Resident Evil and published more "M" rated games than Sony. They made their first-party (and some second-party) games more challenging and more tournament-friendly. And that demographic rewarded Nintendo with a further reduced share of the console market. Next time Nintendo tried to woo them was the Wii U. And they wonder why Nintendo has "abandoned" them for demographics that actually buy Nintendo systems.
I remember when Halo 2 was about to be released on OG Xbox, fans were asked what they thought of the Nintendo GameCube. One said it sucks because it doesn't have Halo. Another said it's for babies, and another said Nintendo is still around? It did upset me at the time but whatever. It is a great system with lots of great games. I have 178 titles on GCN. I like to see PM:TTYD, Custom Robo and Skies of Arcadia Legends appear on the Switch's eShop.
I think more than anything, Nintendo just sorta kneecapped themselves because they were still locked into that proprietary media mindset. The console was less developer friendly, at least for multi-platform titles, because they restricted the system to those little micro-disks that couldn't store as much data as a full-sized DVD. So just as with the previous N64, the restrictiveness of the chosen media pushed away developers that were constantly looking to push the boundaries of the available technology.
Those weren't really proprietary though--not any more than Sony's CDs and DVDs with proprietary inner ring data, anyway. They're just encrypted mini-DVDs. They held significantly more than the GD-ROMs used by Sega's Dreamcast. And if you check the size of most PS2 and Xbox games, you'll find that very few of them use much more than 1GB of data. Most developers didn't ever really use any of that extra capacity. The smaller discs were a great talking point for fanboys, but I doubt it was a big factor in the lack of developer excitement.
It also represents a logistics hurdle, as it represents an entirely separate form of media they have to track and manufacture.
It's not "entirely separate" any more than making both PS2 and Xbox DVDs, as both used different proprietary DVD blanks. Let alone both PS2 DVDs and PS2 CDs, which people forget were a thing and were actually a different technology, unlike Nintendo's discs. Publishers don't manufacture the media for console games anyway, let alone developers. They have to buy the media from the console maker, which is one of the major complaints about physical publishing for consoles. And if they're publishing for any two consoles, they've got to track which is which regardless. The controller would've been a bigger logistics hurdle for developers than the disc format (fewer buttons than both PS2 and Xbox). If you really want to see a difference in media technology, take a look at the Switch. Nintendo has eschewed optical media altogether for a proprietary solid-state format based on SD card technology. And yet developers and publishers (besides Capcom) are falling over themselves to port their games to the Switch. The difference in media doesn't stop them because the system is hugely popular and it has a desirable user base that they desperately want to reach. That's what the Cube didn't have going for it, and that's what really hurt the Cube--far, far more than the media format.
Ironically OG XB only sold a few million more units then GC, which means it still got utterly destroyed by the 150m that PS2 sold. I think history has proven at this point that Nintendo can sell hardware like hotcakes whenever they get games, hardware package and marketing all right at the same time regardless of whether the so-called hardcore crowd turn up or not. People everywhere (including here) were saying that Switch was going to be a disaster because they still weren't doing the same thing as Sony and MS, yet it's now apparent that it's going to overtake PS4 in Japan and XB1 worldwide with half as much time on the market.
Not really. In fact, I’d say the GameCube was the last time I was 100% satisfied with a Nintendo console (excluding handhelds). The Metroid Prime series alone was worth it.
Not just at the same time, but also at the right time. I think all of the factors were more or less good with GameCube, but they came too late to the party with it.
They really need to port some GBN games over for the Switch. Not really an excuse not to given they made the Switch reverse compatible to use the Wii U's gamecube controller USB adapter before Smash Ultimate even was on the radar. Metroid Prime 4 is almost virtually guaranteed to be a Switch Exclusive.
Not at all! I don't seem to recall it being a failure, and I had a great time with the games I played (never had an actual GB, but God bless the Wii and backwards compatibility!): Rayman 3, Kirby Air Ride, Billy Hatcher, I really could go on. @sevenlima Have you played the GameCube yourself? Does it seem to be a console that would be a failure?
It wasnt bad but lot of people made it sound like a bad system (Nintendo is for kids, it doesnt have M games, it uses smaller disc so it cant hold as much space, etc). They did get rid of component cables outputs in later models though. Which at that time components/480p was the in while GC was stuck in 480i. They kept this mindset when they created the Wii (480p while everyone else was 720/1080) Out of that generation, the GC was the one I had most games for. I also had two GCs (I bought another one when I got deployed)
Sells wise, Gamecube was behind the Xbox and PS2. My reasoning was video games were becoming more mature so developers and consumers moved to the Xbox and PS2. The Xbox had power, while the PS2 sold quickly. It also lacked some games and publishers, such as Rockstar games with their GTA series. Plus the Gamecube frequently got inferior ports to games, almost if they were an afterthought. The console had good exclusives. From Zelda, Melee, Mario, and Metroid. The controller while odd, was well received. Also good third party support from Midway, Capcom, THQ, Actvision, and more. There was a game for everyone. Out of all the sixth generation consoles, the Xbox is still my favorite. But I got a soft spot for the Gamecube.
I dont think it was a total failure. Back in the day, when i was still living in murica, I was a gamerush manager. .... I did QA testing for EA tiburon at that time too... ahh.. the heydays of me gaming prowess on the sticks and when i use to collect consoles etc etc... anyway.. I lived in a family friendly area with lots of young kids....during blockbusters gamerushes inception and until sometime in 2005 I use to push out gamecubes on a regular basis. plus, anytime a used one came in, i generally had it resold within a week or 2......BUT, then the xbox 360 happened.... followed by the other 7th gen consoles.. gamecube had its time.. perhaps not the market share, but it entertained many... the few exclusives were good, but it just didnt have some of the popular titles that the mass market wanted to play at that time (GTA being a big one), so it didnt appeal to the masses.... xbox/ps2 did.. hmmmm... Luigis Mansion... damn i loved that game... oh.. on a side note.. thanks netflix... we peeps at blockbuster saw the writing on the wall for a long time... it definitely was a slow painful lead up to a quick money killshot..
