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"Do we really want Gamecube to 'succeed' commercially?"

There seems to be a lot of speculation around about Gamecube losing ground as far as sales are concerned, and I'm sure it is true listening to comments made about the Gamecube by many people in my local games shop.

But whilst I'm not naive enough to think that commercial success doesn't matter at all to Nintendo, I don't particularly think that it matters whether the Gamecube is a huge success or not. As long as Nintendo make enough money to ensure that good, innovative games continue to be made for the 'Cube, then why should we care whether it sells more units than the PS2 or X-box? Personally, it's this smaller user-base that the Gamecube (and the N64 before it) had that makes owning a Nintendo machine feel that little bit special - a bit like being part of an exlusive club.

As such, I wouldn't want the Gamecube to be as dominating as the PS2. I'm not putting PS2 owner down by saying this, but I meet a lot of people who own a PS2 simply because they don't know much about the Gamecube or X-box. A lot of non-gaming people seem to call all games consoles 'Playstations' because they don't realise the differences between the consoles (in the same way that all vacuum cleaners have become 'Hoovers' to some people).

I'm happy for the Gamecube to be in third place in the 'console war'. It doesn't matter one bit. It is still a good machine with some excellent, exclusive games. I just feel sorry for people who may miss out on some of the excellent games the Gamecube has to offer.

Cheers,

Paul Harries
A very wet and windy Aberystwyth.

Capcom 5..?

European sales will increase once some games actually get released for the Cube!

I mean, there really isn't much out there which makes it worth buying it for. K, well not entirely true. But in the past few months (erm... since last Nov), there hasn't been much released on it, which has made people go "Oooo this looks interesting!" or "I've heard about this game, let's get a Gamecube to play it." This should all change soon (March-May), when some games actually get released on the Cube that will make Joe-Public take notice of the Cube. Games like Metroid, Resi Zero, Zelda will help Cube sales quite a bit. And then later in the year with titles such as 1080, F-Zero, Mario Kart, erm.... gahh sure there was some more... erm... can't think at the mo, but there was a decent list of games finally coming out on the Cube this year! Oh yer, new Mario game. Not that Europe will see that till next year tho. Oh well!

:)

The fact is - the GameCube IS doing well comercially. In Japan, it's outselling the X-Box by a mile - and though the PS2 is quite ahead of it, it's doing excellently with around 30,000 units per week, on average. In the USA, Nintendo were pleased to announce that their console recently overtook the X-Box in terms of weekly sales before Christmas, with the releases of AAA titles such as Resident Evil Zero and Metroid Prime.

In fact, the only region it's doing poorly in is the UK - and because we're the public of that region, we tend to hear quite a bit about it. But if you look at the sales of Europe as a whole - then things don't seem so bad. Yes, the GameCube is third in Europe - but only just. So in terms of unit sales you really shouldn't be worried about Nintendo. And the UK and USA releases of Zelda WILL sell consoles, just like Final Fantasy will.

There are other sources of income for Nintendo too. On top of unit sales, there's game sales - and remember a little thing called the Game Boy Advance? That rakes in the cash, along with it's games and Nintendo can expect to be rolling in it by the time the SP and Pokemon are released.

So don't worry - Nintendo certainly aren't leading, but have more than enough success and money to keep producing great, original games.

Microchips wrote:
> PS2:
>
> -Amazing Sound
> -Incredible graphics and Gameplay
> -Watch DVD's and listen to CD's
> -Expandable through USB ports
> -Backwards compatability.
>
> Xbox:
>
> -More grpahics power than any other console
> -Watch DVD's
> -Advanced sound
> -Put music into your games
>
> and then we come to Gamecube:
>
> -Dedicated games console, supurb graphics
> -Features 4 player ports (So does Xbox, but meh)
> -Massive choice of games (Oh come on...)
> -Two slots for memory cards
>
> It's blatatntly obvious what console they're trying to sell...

Blatently?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the above a fair comparison? They say good things about all consoles. And I'm not really sure what you're getting at with those bracketed comments in the GCN overeview..

I doubt it... lol u think?

Oh... And I remember seeing a letter-or-two in NGC from a guy called Paul Harries, from Aberyswyth too... Was that you?

I don't really care about the GameCube's commercial success either. Even if it does sometimes get to me when other people write it off just because it isn't selling as well as their PS2's or X-Box's are, world-wide.

If anything, I think that Nintendo being in SONY's position today would be a bad thing for the company, with all the pressures and demands to deliver the types of cheap and un-original short-lived games that SONY's developers seem to be able to deliver on a more-than-regular basis.

Any Super Mario or Legend of Zelda game is always well-worth the wait!

I'm just happy for Nintendo to continue with what they are doing, by bringing us the quality games we desire, when they are fully-finished and ready to be released.
But I also think they need to give us more of what they hide-away in Japan; like Fire Emblen and Animal Crossing, for example.
Then people would see that there is a lot more to Nintendo than just Mario and Zelda.

Interesting concept, not needing to be a commercially successful console.

I guess while games continue to be of the current standard, we don't need ninty to be doing any better in sales.
While if they were up with PS2 I'm sure we could expect to see far more absolutely crap games on the shelves.
But then again, so long as we get just as many good ones, and can tell the difference, I don't see that as a problem...

Hmmm....

DD
A last night it snowed, shame it didn't settle, but snow is rare enough round here anyway, Aberystwyth

Microchips wrote:
> It's blatatntly obvious what console they're trying to sell...

Indeed, and it's economical folly. The Nintendo console is cheapest, and in theory the easiest to sell as a result. By plugging the cheapest product, they sell a greater number of units and make a net gain in total revenue.

Commercial success does determine how long a console and its accessories stay on the shelves which makes it one of the company's highest objectives. Though it shouldn't be their only goal...if you focus on the advertising too much you forget to concentrate on the real issues such as the games themselves, and the peripherals used to play them on.

Nintendo doesn't advertise much, it tends to use the resources to make their products better instead. This can have its own drawback though, because if potential customers do not somehow get to know of the products then they'll never buy them.

So my theory? It isn't the customers that have the say in making Nintendo succeed commercially...its Nintendo themselves. The bigger successes in Japan and America is most likely down to the fact those countries have advertised the products more.