Wow... 4 million in PAL? That's really damn low... I think.
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3DS surpasses Gamecube lifetime sales
- Thread starter Skiesofwonder
- Start date
Wow... 4 million in PAL? That's really damn low... I think.
Did Nintendo really make more profit than Sony during those years?
sixteen-bit
Member
Wii outsold NES?
Justin Timberlake
Member
Its nuts that a console as good as the gamecube sold that poorly.
Nintendo designs their systems so they can profit much sooner than Sony or Microsoft do.
And even if GCN weren't profitable, they still had GBA.
Quite handily.
Yep. NES sold 61 million IIRC. Wii is currently in the upper 90s range.
Dion Blaster
Member
i don't think so.
i think it was the N64/PS1 era where Nintendo made more money than Sony. the sales difference was lower.
Sapphire Dreams
Member
Gamecube was my favorite Nintendo console *sniffs*
People forget how niche gaming was until the PS2 generation.
shinshoryuken
Member
I bought a gamecube back in the days just for viewtiful joe and resident evil 4.
worth every penny...
worth every penny...
Jaded Alyx
Member
I had close to 50 GameCube games I believe :x
Gamer @ Heart
Member
Yeah. People are exaggerating.
Most importantly for Nintendo, they still managed to make a couple billion or so through its life.
That said, compared to the PS2, i can understand that impression.
AkimbO_Arcana
Banned
SM3DL and Kid Icarus Uprising alone make 3DS a godly console.
They did. My question was a bit rhetorical.
The gaming market growing explains a bit of the difference between Wii and NES. But most of the difference is because NES sold very little ouside of Japan and USA.
m.i.s.
Banned
It is low - by any metric.
Again, according to Wiki, PS2 sold 48 million in Europe alone (as of May 2008).
The GCN just launched too late. A year-and-a-half after PS2 in both Japan and Europe and a year later than the PS2 in USA. Of-course, PS2 came on the back of the biggest videogame success to date and Sony was the first company to crack not just the Japanese and American markets but also the European market too - an industry first. No videogame company had done that up to that point. And By that time, SCE had sewn up virtually all third party support. Everyone was developing for PS2. Euro companies, UK companies, American companies, Japanese companies. Everyone. By the time GCN launched, companies wouldn't even give GCN a second look.
I'd have to dig out the figures and I don't think there's any breakdown between profits made on GBA and GCN. There's also Pokemon of-course (and related merchandising which in itself is worth billions).
Magicpaint
Member
Why are people acting surprised about GC sales? It's common knowledge that all the sales went PS2's way.
SkyMasterson
Member
It's on a faster pace sales wise than the DS was at.
Portugeezer
Member
Ahhh, Gamecube was so awesome.
Magicpaint
Member
True. Nintendo hadn't been that much of a factor in Europe until Wii/DS generation.
sixteen-bit
Member
Wii + NES < PS1 + PS2, right?
Is pretty much the reason why Nintendo releases consoles like the Wii and Wii U
Aquamarine
Member
The DS / Wii were the first consoles released under Iwata's leadership. Yamauchi retired in May 2002, not even a year after the GC and GBA came out.
That also may have something to do with it.
axisofweevils
Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
Inevitable Iwata quote:
"I do not intend to declare how many Wii we will be selling today, but Wii will be a failure if it cannot sell far more than GameCube did. In fact, we shouldn't continue this business if our only target is to outsell GameCube. Naturally, we are making efforts so that Wii will show a far greater result than GameCube."
http://www.1up.com/news/iwata-wii-doesn-outsell-gamecube
grimshawish
Banned
Oh wow. Iwata da man.
Subliminal
Member
Yeah, but the 3ds doesn't have a handle. How am I supposed to carry that around?!
Wrist strap.
Also, in regards to the GC's library compared to the 3DS's over the same period of time: honestly, Metroid Prime alone would make me put the GC above the 3DS there. 3DS has had some great stuff, but a good chunk are ported titles, and the biggest exception is multiplatform and outright better on Vita (Virtue's Last Reward).
It depends on how old you are. I don't know anyone that had a GameCube.
grandjedi6
Master of the Google Search
RE4 came too late in the system life cycle to be much help. Its more like Melee, the promise of Zelda, and its absurdly low price point ($99) is what helped save it in America.
terrisus
Member
Still disappointed that never came over to the US. That and Homeland.
That said, the disconnect between how many people think the Gamecube was an amazing system (I enjoyed mine very much as well), and the lower sales (granted still proftable, but much lower overall sales), should give a pretty obvious reason why Nintendo chose to go down a different path for the Wii.
The Horror the horror
Banned
It's a shame that it was the GC that compelled Nintendo to slow their brakes in the console arms race. The relative failure of that console essentially forced Nintendo to re-evaluate their approach in the hardware business across both platforms. Had the Gamecube been more successful, I wonder the type and power of hardware Nintendo would have presented on subsequent consoles.
Snowden's Secret
Banned
QFT. I had a circle of "gamer" friends about 20 deep, all of whom had Gamecubes, about half of which had PS2s, half Dreamcasts, and none had X-Boxes. My younger cousins all mostly had PS2. It was so weird learning that wasn't indicative of the market in the least.
No one had a chance against Sony back then, PS2 was a phenomenon.
PS3 outsold NES
:Motorbass
Member
I love my 3DS but man, I don't even know what games to look forward to apart from Nintendo. My Gamecube Library was just so diverse... From a good Godzilla Fighting game to Freedom Fighters to Final Fantasy:CC. Where are the good new games? I'm sad.
The Horror the horror
Banned
In Japan.