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"Strange..."

In my never-ending quest to find, hold and use a GameCube controller, I travelled to Leeds today. However, I still couldnít find one. Anywhere. Strange, that.

Stranger still though, is the apparent lack of anything to do with the GameCube at all. I am right in thinking that itís going to be released in March? Thatís 5 months away, yes? But still, thereís no sign that it even exists in G*me, Electronics Bout*que or V*rgin. Hell, the guy in Dixons didnít even know what the hell I was going on about, and the checkout bloke at G*me could only tell me it was made by Nintendo, and still there were 2 people standing behind me with GT3 bundles in their grip and parents twisted round their little finger.

So, am I missing something here? I mean, People were raving about the PS2 back in March 2000 at the Jap launch. Well, the Jap launch of the GC has been and gone but still the public are virtually unaware.

In my eyes, there are two possibilities as to why this is going on:

1. Nintendo are failing in their duty. They are supposed to make console and get people to buy them. At the moment, theyíre only doing half that. The N64ís advertisement campaign was virtually non-existent, and the only advert I can actually remember is the Zelda one, which was utter pants anyway. It seems to me that Nintendo donít actually want to win this war, because theyíre just not trying. Apart from the magazines, thereís nothing to let the public know that the GameCube even exists, never mind what itís all about. Also, it appears the public donít care either. Everyone was dying to hear more news on the PlayStationís successor, but not so with the GameCube apparently.

2. Nintendo are failing full stop. One of my regular hangouts in Leeds is a place called Just Men Barbers. I know the owner and he puts a little web design business my way. Now, that shop is very, very busy. It takes 5-10 minutes to cut someoneís hair and thereís always a queue. Being called Just Men as well, all the customers are lads, and by lads I mean proper lads, the kind who go to footy matches, get ratted on Saturday night and rarely get home before 10pm, whatever the day. Those kind of lads. Iíve always found it fascinating, though, how every single one of the guys who came in owned a PlayStation 2. Also, the subject of ìHow far have you got on GT3/ISS/Red Factionî always crops up. Itís obvious that this is standard barbershop banter that goes on. Thereís nothing ìchildishî or ìgeekyî about it. However, in all the years Iíve gone there (about 5 then), theyíve never talked about Nintendo machines, only PlayStations. I think that Nintendo have given up on the older market, and are sticking to the <18 range. The problem is, you donít get the media attention that Sony do, and consequently, if the machine was right for >18 gamers, they wouldnít be aware of it. As far as the publicís concerned, Nintendo donít have a 128bit console and they donít care either. Nintendo are going to have a big, big problem beating Sony, and my honest opinion is that theyíre not going to, even if the GameCube is a better console, because Nintendo have totally the wrong image and the wrong sort of people like them.

The impending release of the GameCube is having no impact on the world at all (In Leeds, at least) and the poor launch in Japan only backs me up. Nintendo need to get their butts in gear and let the public know they exist, and if they donít do it within the next couple of months, theyíre going to get beaten to a bloody pulp by Sony.

http://cubemedia.ign.com/media/news/image/events/gcn_tvad.mov.

So Nintendo fans dissed Sony for seriously over-hyping their machine, and now Sony fans are slating Nintendo for not boasting enough...

Anyway, Nintendo don't need to get people hyped yet.
It's a good 6 months until the launch and I'm sure they're saving their advertising bugdet for a serious post-christmas bombardment!

I think that Nintendo prefer to win people by good games rather than over exadurated tech details.

Turbonutter wrote:
> Honestly, go to Leeds and see. It is a very "with it" city, but
> there's absolutely NOTHING. There's somehting wrong there.

er-no: The
> companies are either being bought or going multi-format. There's not many that
> are actually "leaving" sony.

Nope. Just preferring the other companies.

Grix Thraves wrote:
> That's not what I said Turbo. I said that MGS2 had been game of the year for two
> years. That's true. I made fun of that fact.

I'm happy with what I use, so
> why can't you be happy with what you use? Stop being such an annoying p***k.


Sorry if I'm being annoying, I was just injecting a little life into this forum.

Honestly, go to Leeds and see. It is a very "with it" city, but there's absolutely NOTHING. There's somehting wrong there.

er-no: The companies are either being bought or going multi-format. There's not many that are actually "leaving" sony.

In Birmingham (where I live) there are GameCube advertisements in EVERY (well practically) games store, saying:

Nintendo's Next-gen consoles coming soon.

or

Pre-order your GameCube HERE NOW!!! etc.

....Leeds can't be too 'with it' then can they...:-D

Turbo, mate, where do you get all this information from?

You are actually blind to what is happening to Sony?

Its not just about them, all the companies around them, that make their games are leaving to work on the Box or Cube.

You can hold your head as high as you want for as many people to see, but its no good if you are blind.

That's not what I said Turbo. I said that MGS2 had been game of the year for two years. That's true. I made fun of that fact.

I'm happy with what I use, so why can't you be happy with what you use? Stop being such an annoying.

And still.... er-no's post deconstructs all of Turbo's post to nothing...

... this post sucked man. It was just you, making waffle up and posting it. Next time use your brain and some actual statistics.

The Japanese figures are here if anyone's interested :-)

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/5534/toptenDengeki.htm


Look at FFX :-D