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Is GameCube a success/failure compared to the N64?

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I think it is definitely a failure. The N64 at least had a robust first party catalog. With the Gamecube, it's exactly the opposite, the first party titles looking more derivative and uninteresting by the day. The Gamecube is a stale failure.
 
Nintendo would probably spin this that profit = success..

But as has already been pointed out... with a year of life left to go, maybe more, maybe less - the Gamecube is about 15 million short of N64s userbase. Titles like Mario and Zelda sold 10 and 8 millions respectively. However, the Wind Waker's sales are in line with sales of Majora's Mask, A Link to the Past and other Zelda titles barre Ocarina of Time. Mario Sunshine displayed far less than Mario's usual pulling power, no doubt about it.

However, the performance of non-first-partySoftware on Gamecube may actually be greater than on N64. They definately have a lot more third party publishers on board, and a lot more third party games selling (even though it's obviously not enough). That's all a crapload more in royalties. I think they may have even themselves made more games themselves or with partners than they did last generation. Then you factor in things like the pad sales, memory cards (which have probably sold better for them this gen thanks to the lack of carts), wavebirds, gameboy players, bongos and soon - microphones. It could be as big a business, but driven in a different way. I'd be really interested to see some numbers really come the end of the generation. Perhaps they'll say something at E3 about the Gamecube business, and it's upcoming closure.
 
In terms of what I look for in a system, a success... I couldn't stand the N64... aside from maybe 6 games - Mario, the Zeldas, Smash Bros, Mischief Makers, and Sin and Punishment, I didn't find much at all to like about the N64... while the GC has some games I really loved - Ikaruga, TOS, Baten Kaitos, Skies of Arcadia, Smash Melee, Wario Ware Inc, Metroid Prime 1 and 2... and I even liked SMS a bit. So I'd totally go with Cube...
 
I have to say that on the whole I had more enjoyment with my Nintendo 64 for the 3 years I kept it. I never bought more then Zelda and Mario and also didn't buy a single peripheral, instead I bought a playstation after the 1st year and put most of my disposable income into it.

The Gamecube, I bought in April 2002 and it's barely been used. The games I do own were fun to play through but it hasn't done anything to wow me like the N64 managed. I do think wind waker is 10 times the game OOT was though.
 
My opinion is that it's a failure.
What's the most important thing on a Nintendo system ? Nintendo games, of course.
GC Nintendo games aren't as good as its N64 counterparts...Perhaps it has pretty good 3rd party support compared to N64 (although that's just the opinion of some...no Konami has been a disaster for it ) but without Nintendo pulling AAA games that's worthless.
Just my opinion.
 
I dunno. I enjoyed the N64 alot more than I do my GameCube nowdays. The games back then were more inspiring for me. Tge hours i had playing jetfoce gemini,the turok series,all star baseball,mario64 and pilot wings,beetle adventure racing,even the pc games like doom and quake 64 were really great at the time.

The Cubes been holding steady as a console for Nintendo franchises and there salot better third party support now,but the games just don't have that razzle dazzle like I enjoyed in the N64 days. Theyre good,just not magicaly jaw dropping experiences like the N64 days were.

The system has delivered for the hardcore fanbase. But then the mainstream dictates mass success. For that reason I'd lean towards a failure label for the GameCube,and unless they plan to delay the next system for some time-I don't think the Cubes going to outsell the N64.
 
Angelus said:
The system has delivered for the hardcore fanbase. But then the mainstream dictates mass success. For that reason I'd lean towards a failure label for the GameCube,and unless they plan to delay the next system for some time-I don't think the Cubes going to outsell the N64.
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They may have different sales trajectory. N64 sales were high at first and dead in its last two years , just enjoying a small boost with Pokemon at the end. GC could be smaller all along and almost reach similar level.

They predict (hope ?) 20M by March, which may lead to 25M+ at its end in two years.

Nintendo fell short with the N64 (with only Rare alone to support the system with zero impact on sales). If they push the Gc with Zelda2 and more, they could make the Gc sell more, at least higher than the xbox, which will be dead at Xenon lauch next year.
 
I think it's a clear failure for gamers considering how significant 1st party software was on the N64. From a business standpoint, things are more complicated.

I don't care how great your 1st party games are, without some kind of 3rd party support you are essentially a niche. The GC broke through that, even though support is receding now as the generation prepares to end. Hopefully, Nintendo's new policy of farming out franchise to key 3rd parties will bear them fruit in the next generation. It's a pretty clever way of building relationships further and clearing the table for Nintendo own groups. If these relationships continue into the next round of consoles, then it would be difficult to really call the GC a complete failure.
 
I think, more than anything, it has to do with the mentality that most people that play games now a days have. If it's not blood and guts, the chance of someone buying it goes down drastically. People just aren't as willing to try new things as they once were:(
 
It depends on which way you look at it. I think in terms of general third party relations: Yes. GameCube put out more software than N64 in more fronts, but I think GC's more conforming hardware meant it played host to less unique third party titles than N64 did, since they either possible on the direct competition or ported like most of the Capcom Five.

There was a good post in the 3rd party N64 thread about where things changed with respect to this:

A Black Falcon said:
As for what happened between the N64 and Gamecube, there were several factors.

1) Microsoft's entry into making consoles was huge. Microsoft's most important release was Halo, and with that they won over shooter fans, both those previously PC-only and those who had loved Goldeneye. Nintendo didn't, or couldn't, match it. MS also pushed the mostly PC-focused Western development base to also support their console, and publishers, starting to struggle because PC-only sales weren't keeping up with the rising costs of development, listened. Over the course of the '00s this badly damaged the US PC game development base, but was a big boost to console development. Nintendo ended up mostly missing out on this, as a lot of games either were for Xbox, or were on the PS360 and not Wii.

2) The two leaders of NoA from the '90s, Howard Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa, retired, and Satoru Iwata decided to take over NoA himself after they left. Instead of trying to hold on to the N64's hard-won success with core Western gamers, Iwata made a doomed effort to match Sony in Japan, and gave up on core Western audiences in favor of Japanese partnerships. That was great, but Nintendo needed both, not one or the other. He made some bad decisions, most notably to drop Rare, and failed to come up with ideas to counter Halo, letting MS take the Western 'core' audience away from Nintendo.

Iwata also separated from their three second-party studios (Rare, Left Field, and Silicon Knights). I've already said how bad a decision selling off Rare was, both here and here. The two American first party studios Lincoln started, NST and Retro, did survive, though both reduced in size eventually -- NST's console team was gotten rid of in the early Wii years leaving only its handheld and other staff (who did Virtual Console work among other things, I believe?), and Retro reduced to only one game at a time, and dropped some staff as a result, early in its life. Of course Metroid Prime is absolutely amazing, but Nintendo needed Rare too!

3) As a result of #1, mostly, and maybe a bit of #2, the GC failed to sell in the US as well as the N64 had. Third parties started out supporting the system reasonably well, but as sales failed to match expectations, by 2003 most Western third parties dramatically cut back on GC support. From that point on the system only got more family-friendly games and the occasional major title, with very few major exclusives or ports. Nintendo's response to this was the less-powerful Wii, and we all know how that went for Nintendo and third parties -- the GC-era losses became permanent, and Nintendo now has entirely lost the core Western base, both developers and fans, at a time when they are absolutely vital for success. And on top of that, as casuals switched from the DS or Wii over to smartphones Nintendo lost a lot of sales.
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And this post was insightful:

TreasureHunterG said:
N64's western support is a great counter argument to anyone claiming that N64's third-party support was non-existant and the machine was ignored, which isn't true. This is true, if you look solely in the East, but not really in the West.

Every single major western third-party at the time supported the machine considerably with many exclusive titles. This was a key reason for why N64 had a solid userbase in the US market and, for a consistent time, was selling head-on against PSX. N64 sold almost the same as SNES in US.

Too bad, after Iwata's management decided to shut down the whole western development division and stripped away NoA and NoE's authonomy, the western support went shrinking time after time.
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215px-BlastFromThePast.jpg
 
Wow 2004.

Hey ya'll, you know that funny orange guy on The Apprentice, well uh he's going to try and run for president in 12 years. DO NOT LET HIM DO THIS. Trust me, it's for all of our good.
 
It may be a commercial failure but Smash Bros and Mariokart on the GC took up two summers of my early teen years, and that made my friends purchase of a GC worth it. I'm glad I didn't buy it.
 
RE4 and that new mature Zelda they showed at E3 are both going to be HUGE, don't write the Cube off just yet. I don't think it's even hit its stride yet.
 
I began reading and saw people discussing WW wondering why people talk about that when there's so many other better games on GC!
For the question? Yeah it really is, look up the sales number. Unless the market shrunk significantly around 2000 Nintendo lost a bunch of customers.

Oh and btw buy Nintendo stock around 2005 and Apple stock too, you'll thank me later ;)
 
Toadthemushroom said:
It depends on which way you look at it. I think in terms of general third party relations: Yes. GameCube put out more software than N64 in more fronts, but I think GC's more conforming hardware meant it played host to less unique third party titles than N64 did, since they either possible on the direct competition or ported like most of the Capcom Five.

There was a good post in the 3rd party N64 thread about where things changed with respect to this:



And this post was insightful:
Click to expand...

How the fuck did you even find this thread?
 
Being completely serious here, is necro-bumping allowed now? I always thought it wasn't allowed, but it seems to go without reprimand every time.

Not pointing at you specifically, bumper.
 
Mael said:
I began reading and saw people discussing WW wondering why people talk about that when there's so many other better games on GC!
For the question? Yeah it really is, look up the sales number. Unless the market shrunk significantly around 2000 Nintendo lost a bunch of customers.

Oh and btw buy Nintendo stock around 2005 and Apple stock too, you'll thank me later ;)
Click to expand...

The market shrunk so significantly that the PS2 ended up selling only 160 million units.
 
Ultimadrago said:
Being completely serious here, is necro-bumping allowed now? I always thought it wasn't allowed, but it seems to go without reprimand every time.
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Sometimes necro bumping is an honest mistake or sometimes a really funny hindsight joke and the mods can make it last at least a while because the topic can still be relevant
 
Toadthemushroom said:
It depends on which way you look at it. I think in terms of general third party relations: Yes. GameCube put out more software than N64 in more fronts, but I think GC's more conforming hardware meant it played host to less unique third party titles than N64 did, since they either possible on the direct competition or ported like most of the Capcom Five.

There was a good post in the 3rd party N64 thread about where things changed with respect to this:



And this post was insightful:
Click to expand...

Damn must be a powerful dark ritual you are preparing if you need to raise such an old corpse :D
 
Why would you bump this? lol How'd you even find this thread?!

Also, I think that 1 Doom thread prob has the greatest bump history, like 15 years old and gets bumped every 2 to 3 years lol
 
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