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[Kallor]

No appeal. No internet play (yes it could do it..)

Nintendo did a terrible job of letting people know the Gamecube was the most powerful (or close to) system that gen.

They took their biggest franchises and added some gimmick and that might have scared away long time fans.

The amazing Rare games that sold the n64 were no longer there (n64 would have sold 15-20 million tops without them)

and PS2.

Mario and Zelda don't sell systems like people think they do. Wii U is going to find that out soon.

 

[DJ_Lae]

Yeah, it was definitely a number of things that caused the problem. Mini discs being (significantly) smaller than DVDs, the bizarre purple used in all early advertising, one controller button down from the PS2 and Xbox (and no clicky sticks), as well as the Playstation brand riding high from the previous generation and Nintendo still limping along after the N64.

I still love my Gamecube, though. Well, I loaned it to my sister, but still.

 

[Metallix87]

Didn't help that most of the GC sequels to the N64's first party killer apps were hogwash compared to their last-gen predecessors.

Such as? I found each entry to be better: Mario Sunshine was better than Mario 64, F-Zero GX trounced F-Zero X, Wind Waker was superior to Ocarina of Time and at least on par with Majora's Mask, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat was a far superior product to Donkey Kong 64, etc.

The only real example of a N64 game that was superior to it's Gamecube follow-ups was Star Fox 64.

 

[jmdajr]

Xbox would not be anywhere it is right now if it weren't for Halo. It's hard to underestimate how much of an impact that game had. So many people I know just bought the Xbox to play that one game. The first thing people wanted to see at a friend's house was always Halo.

Gamecube didn't have anything like that. PS2 didn't either but it didn't matter since it was so successful already.

Yup. Halo TV adapter is what it was. The Halo parties were really pretty fucking awesome.

 

[Pitmonkey]

They failed to grow with the industry in terms of marketing their product to a more mature audience IMO. The PS1 allowed players to "grow up" with "mature" (I hate that term) games from the SNES era, the PS2 was a natural progression from that. With the N64, it started the downward spiral that stereotyped Nintendo as "kiddie." With the Gamecube, regardless of games available for it, when you start out advertising a Indigo purple console it's not going to erase that stereotype and I think players took notice.

So in short, mini-DVD's didn't cause too much of an issue (the size variation from a N64 cartridge to a CD was in the 100X's, not 10 btw), console internet gaming was irrelevant at the time, and it was marketing and failure to fix third-party relationships early enough that led to the failure that was the Gamecube. Oddly enough, it seems Nintendo is still suffering from the same old habits.

P.S - I know someone will say they "loved" the Indigo Gamecube. Good for you, it was a dumb move on there part. If they pushed the Black Gamecube from the start the initial image of the console would have been taken more seriously.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Perception problem was huge. Nowadays, there is a nostalgic charm about stuff like Mario and Zelda, where it is seemingly more "okay" older teens and college age kids to play Mario Kart or NSMB. When the Gamecube hit, though, it was shunned as "kiddy". This was especially hurtful because of the generational shift that was going on at the time. Western, more "adult" themed games like GTA and Halo were becoming the faces of the industry. The GC being a little purple box with a handle did not help that in retrospect.

The problem with people who say this is that you forget that the N64 actually did make some real inroads with that older audience. Goldeneye wasn't one of the best-selling games of that entire generation (7+ million sold) for no reason, for instance... but with the GC, Microsoft entered the industry and took that part of Nintendo's American N64 base away, and Nintendo was too focused on Sony and building relationships in Japan to seemingly either notice or do much of anything to try to stop their collapse in the US, and going from over 20 million to 12 million is a big collapse! But it was MS responsible for most of that collapse, I would say, not Sony. (Remember that in comparison, in North America Nintendo went from 23 million SNESes to 20 million N64s. Much less of a decline.)

Such as? I found each entry to be better: Mario Sunshine was better than Mario 64, F-Zero GX trounced F-Zero X, Wind Waker was superior to Ocarina of Time and at least on par with Majora's Mask, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat was a far superior product to Donkey Kong 64, etc.

The only real example of a N64 game that was superior to it's Gamecube follow-ups was Star Fox 64.

A lot of people would disagree with you on most of those. And yes, I also thought that most GC games weren't as good as their N64 predecessors... there were a few that were as good, such as F-Zero or Smash Bros., but most weren't.

 

[jmdajr]

P.S - I know someone will say they "loved" the Indigo Gamecube. Good for you, it was a dumb move on there part. If they pushed the Black Gamecube from the start the initial image of the console would have been taken more seriously.

I bought the black one for 199.99. I just wanted to play RE Remake. Well, and the GBA adpater too!

Anyhow, I think everyone pretty much has it covered why it wasn't what it could have been, and why we are where we are now.

 

[AstroNut325]

Yup. Halo TV adapter is what it was. The Halo parties were really pretty fucking awesome.

I really really wish my friends and I had the "Share" button back when Halo 1 released! Some of the best multiplayer rounds ever.

 

[Brickhunt]

I think we can all agree that there is no way GC could have surpassed Playstation, and I think Nintendo's main mistake was aim for taking the crown from the PlayStation brand and when it was clear they could not do it, give up too early. Allowing Xbox to gain momentum.

Also, I give more credit to the smaller capacity optical discs. I do think it really strained Nintendo's relation with 3rd parties. It may not be so bad as cartridges, but it is still annoying. Having to work with smaller capacity it's one thing, but when the competition does offer bigger space, I do say developers would rather work with more disk space than less.

And no DVD Playback repealed consumers who, while wanted a gaming console, at least they wanted a convenient function. I do think that, in 2002, DVD playback was an desired function by the average consumer.

I don't think the name was wrong, but the choice of color really caused a bad taste in the mouths of gamers. It was a time where gaming was getting even more mainstream and appeal to more demographies, I don't think purple is an appealing choice even among kids.

 

[Coolwhip]

Mainly teens and 'nerds' were playing videogames back then. Gamecube wasnt cool enough for dem kids. The same will happen again now, teens buying videogame consoles but this time the rest playing mobile games.

 

[Xun]

People really think the lack of online hurt the Cube? It was barely worth talking about on the PS2, and I certainly don't think it had any impact on popularity.

 

[Pitmonkey]

I bought the black one for 199.99. I just wanted to play RE Remake. Well, and the GBA adpater too!

Anyhow, I think everyone pretty much has it covered why it wasn't would it could have been, and why we are where we are now.

I still have my launch day black Gamecube! Best looking console, bare none.

 

[Shig]

Using discs that couldn't hold as much data as the competitors was certainly a very strange decision. You would have thought they'd have learned a lesson with N64, where the limitations of cartridges vs. CDs was a huge factor in developers bailing on them, but nope.

 

[HolyBaikal]

Well, being up against the PlayStation 2 with its library would kill anything.

Nintendo hasn't been great at grabbing 3rd party support since the 16-bit days. So it stood no chance there.

What also didn't help, was that it could not play DVDs. It was strictly a gaming device, and a strictly gaming device with a tiny library. Few households had the desire to invest into this.

 

[awa64]

Oh, and Nintendo let RARE go when Nintendo/RARE should've been sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

Nintendo didn't "let Rare go." Rare's owners sold their 51% stake in Rare to Microsoft without talking to Nintendo; Nintendo's options were "sell their 49% stake to Microsoft" and "hold onto a functionally-worthless stake in a company controlled by a direct competitor."

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Purple lunchbox, weird-ass controller, Luigi ghostbuster, Mario with a squirt gun, cartoon Zelda, no DVD playback, etc... It was a great system, but just felt out of place at the time.

 

[Screamapillar]

You guys asking for the reasons behind the GameCube not achieving the success SNES or even that of N64 need to see this. Iwata was in fact in charge of GameCube development prior to being named CEO in 2002.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZCsKm4Ctvo

 

[Rikkun]

Really someone bothered for the color of something you have to keep under your tv?

...

I think the main problems were the awkward discs that made piracy a problem (I'm sure here in Italy nobody bought it because of this) and lack of third party games.

 

[sp3000]

People really think the lack of online hurt the Cube? It was barely worth talking about on the PS2, and I certainly don't think it had any impact on popularity.

Xbox online was really something else back then. I would argue it was even superior to the online games of PC at that time and Xbox 360 games today. The community was much more mature and smaller than it is now and no party chat. Almost everyone had voice chat and communicated. Playing Rainbow Six and Mechassault online for the first time was really something else that neither the PS2 or GC was able to match.

 

[jmdajr]

People really think the lack of online hurt the Cube? It was barely worth talking about on the PS2, and I certainly don't think it had any impact on popularity.

Yeah even though Xbox made some big leaps, I don't know how much of that market it could have taken away. Perhaps just the percentage around when Halo2 was out. I think no one wanted a GC by that point, while Xbox was really hitting it's stride, especially with online play.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Nintendo didn't "let Rare go." Rare's owners sold their 51% stake in Rare to Microsoft without talking to Nintendo; Nintendo's options were "sell their 49% stake to Microsoft" and "hold onto a functionally-worthless stake in a company controlled by a direct competitor."

Except that is not what happened at all. The Stampers wanted out and wanted Nintendo to buy up their shares, to own 100% of the company. Nintendo passed, and then the Stampers went shopping it around to MS and Activision.

 

[segasonic]

It was purple and had a handle.

 

[Pitmonkey]

Really someone bothered for the color of something you have to keep under your tv?

People take their entertainment systems very seriously. Especially 20-35 year old males who were a very large portion of both the PS2 and Xbox user base. How a console looks is VERY important.

 

[kittens]

I think there were three things that killed it for me:

1. Huge droughts between games.
2. No must have multiplayer FPS.
3. No online.

It ended up having an amazing library, but it was too little and too slow at the time.

People really think the lack of online hurt the Cube? It was barely worth talking about on the PS2, and I certainly don't think it had any impact on popularity.

Being able to play Halo online was the sole reason I sold my Gamecube and bought an Xbox.

 

[BlackJace]

Sign me up with perception issues.

 

[WiiredShawn]

What happened to purple being a color of royalty?


But yeah, perception was one of the 'Cube's biggest problems. Smaller disc size, lack of DVD playback when DVD was starting to catch on, and Nintendo's push for expensive connectivity set-ups (even though awesome when done properly) didn't help, either.

 

[Justin Timberlake]

Great games, including some of the all-time best (Melee, RE4, Prime 1 & 2, Wind Waker, F-Zero GX, etc)
Best controller ever
Extremely powerful, and at a cheap pricepoint

And yet

All the mass market cared about was that it was purple and had a handle. Oh, and you can't shoot hookers and steal cars cause it didn't have GTA.

Good job, gamers. Now we're stuck with the Wii and Wii-U.

 

[Meelow]

The Gamecube was unfortunately doomed due to the mini disks and lack of online and "purple lunchbox".

They basically needed to be just like the Xbox and get all the "mature" games back then.

Apart from that, the console was pretty damn good.

Expect the Xbox really didn't do much better than GameCube, it sold 2 million more.

The reason they both of them (and Dreamcast) failed was because of how huge the PS2 was, nothing could stop it.

And online didn't really do much, PS2 only had a few online games (and you had to buy the expansion for it) and it didn't effect the PS2 at all, online really wasn't worth talking about until last gen with the 360.

 

[jmdajr]

What happened to purple being a color of royalty?


But yeah, perception was one of the 'Cube's biggest problems. Smaller disc size, lack of DVD playback when DVD was starting to catch on, and Nintendo's push for expensive connectivity set-ups (even though awesome when done properly) didn't help, either.

I don't know anyone whoever successful did this.

 

[awa64]

Except that is not what happened at all. The Stampers wanted out and wanted Nintendo to buy up their shares, to own 100% of the company. Nintendo passed, and then the Stampers went shopping it around to MS and Activision.

I'd always heard it that they shopped it around to MS and Activision without talking to Nintendo about it when they wanted out, but I'm seeing reports contradicting that online. Color me corrected.

 

[RedSwirl]

They needed a massive fuck up on Sony's part basically. The Gamecube and Xbox launched just as the PS2 picked up Steam and had the awesome end of 2001 lineup. It also seemed like the Goldeneye audience jumped over to Xbox for Halo.

Which begs the question: Had Nintendo came out with a "Gamecube 2" this generation instead of the Wii, could they have taken advantage of Sony's massive fuck-up in the beginning of this generation?

Let's say that in 2006 Nintendo launched a console that was comparable to the other two, with a standard controller, an easy development environment, and decent online infrastructure (not XBL level but serviceable) at a $299 or $349 price, how well would it have done up against a $599 PS3? Would developers have still chosen to work through the difficulties of Cell instead of Nintendo's (supposedly easier) development environment?

I think that at the very least they could have pulled ahead of Sony in terms of sales in Japan, and maybe gained even more of the ground with Japanese third parties that they had reclaimed during the GCN years. Maybe eventually come in second behind Microsoft. Just throwin' some shit out there.

Part of the reason the PS3 was able to turn back around this generation was because third parties kind of forced it to. Companies like EA and Ubisoft needed Sony to succeed so they toughed it out and learned the Cell architecture while Sony did some major course corrections. BUT, with a "Gamecube 2" does anyone think Nintendo could have taken advantage of those first two or three years when Sony was weak?

 

[jmdajr]

Expect the Xbox really didn't do much better than GameCube, it sold 2 million more.

The reason they both of them (and Dreamcast) failed was because of how huge the PS2 was, nothing could stop it.

No one is saying it straight up failed.

The Atari jaguar and 3do failed.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Expect the Xbox really didn't do much better than GameCube, it sold 2 million more.

The reason they both of them (and Dreamcast) failed was because of how huge the PS2 was, nothing could stop it.

The Xbox did what MS wanted it to do though, got their foot in the door, and gave them something to build off of. A lot of what the original XBOX really brought into the console landscape (a greater focus on western developed games, more PC centric devs and games, online play) is what they used to build the 360 into a monster success and shaped the way the industry is now. The Gamecube, on the other hand, caused Nintendo to basically call a mulligan and completely change their business strategy just to survive.

I'd always heard it that they shopped it around to MS and Activision without talking to Nintendo about it when they wanted out, but I'm seeing reports contradicting that online. Color me corrected.

Don't know if we know for sure, but everything I read from back then was that Nintendo was offered the chance to fully buy out Rare and passed.

 

[Ty4on]

I still have my launch day black Gamecube! Best looking console, bare none.

Love that you have all the worst selling Nintendo consoles on display, I guess your portable of choice is the GBA Micro and Virtual Boy

Spoiler

I'm not very different. Getting my Vita soon and can't wait to lay my hands on top of a Dreamcast

 

[JohnsonUT]

Why does everyone mention the purple so much? Wasn't a black one available at launch too? I know I got a black one in the first December. Was purple advertised as the main color? I cannot remember.

 

[kittens]

I got so sick of Nintendo pushing GBA / GC connectivity back in the day. I was never interested in it.

 

[jmdajr]

I got so sick of Nintendo pushing GBA / GC connectivity back in the day. I was never interested in it.

I did like this though.

That's how I played all the Castlevania games.

 

[kittens]

I did like this though.

http://www.planetgamecube.com/media/gen001284.jpg[IMG]

That's how I played all the Castlevania games.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, that thing is awesome. Though I'm fine playing all my GBA games on my GBA SP (which I still do several times a week).

 

[Pitmonkey]

Why does everyone mention the purple so much? Wasn't a black one available at launch too? I know I got a black one in the first December. Was purple advertised as the main color? I cannot remember.

Yeah, but no one knew about it. Nintendo pushed purple, and no 12-16 year old boy wants to hand is friends a purple controller. No 20-35 year old man wants to display a purple box in their entertainment center.

 

[Pociask]

I don't know anyone whoever successful did this.

And then they passed on doing this with the far more successful DS and Wii, even though both systems were capable of "talking" to each other. And then they built an entire system around the concept with the Wii U, without making the 3DS an optional controller for the Wii U.

 

[Justin Timberlake]

Whats interesting about form factor arguments against the Gamecube is just how amazingly well built it was

In fact, it may be the most well-designed console of all time in terms of durability, power, and portability.

It had comparable power to the Xbox and was less than half the size. It didn't have a brick for a power adaptor. Hell, it was smaller than the PS2 and leagues ahead of it in power.

Durability? Its godlike. You can throw it down a 10-story building and it will dust itself off and get back to work. Shit, even the mini discs are reliable: their small size reduces the chances of scratches.

Beast console. Ahead of its time.

 

[ToxicAdam]

Nintendo's lineup of games was not strong with JRPGs, realistic sports games and mature games. That's a huge swath of neglected gamers right there that put a priority on those titles. It was a problem with the N64 (to a lesser extent) and only got worse with the Gamecube. All the other minor factors that people list (console shape/color, controller, etc) are inconsequential in comparison.


Honestly, I don't know how Nintendo could have corrected it. They needed third parties to fill in those holes and they just didn't have the wherewithall or history to make that happen. They had to eat the shit sandwich they spent the past decade making for themselves. Kind of the same way Sega did with the Dreamcast. It wasn't that the DC was a bad machine, it was just all the shitty choices that Sega did up to that point that had already sealed it's fate.

 

[Beer Monkey]

I did like this though.

That's how I played all the Castlevania games.

I had a CRT HDTV projector and that damned white on-screen Gameboy logo made me fear burn-in, hence I never got it.

As far as the rest of this thread, LEAGUES beyond the PS2 in power? Mario Sunshine was better than Mario 64? Best controller ever? Yeah, perceptions vary.

 

[jmdajr]

Ahead of its time.

this wasn't a bad little controller either.

First I ever had of it's kind.

 

[JordanLMiller]

According to the thread I should've been waaay more concerned about online back then. None of my friends had an online console until the 360.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

I bought the damn $50 Broadband adapter just for PSO and never used it again. PSO back in the day was good times though.

 

[Jailer of Hope]

Meh. I loved the Gamecube. Thanks to PSO I clocked more online time on it than the Xbox or PS2 combined. Didn't it end up that the GC pulled in more profits than the PS2 (during the period that the GC was still available)? I mean its arguable that that doesn't mean a thing because PS2's marketshare attracted a lot of development but I think a ridiculous amount of GC games still hold up.

 

[Baconsammy]

People like playing movies on disc. Gamecube couldn't do it. PS2 could. People love third party games. PS2 and Xbox had them. Gamecube not so much. Nintendo's entire business plan appears to revolve around "Lets see if we can catch lightning in a bottle". Horrible way to run a business. It results in high highs and lots of low lows. And purple lunchbox.

Look at those asymmetrical sticks. Beautiful.

 

[JordanN]

Expect the Xbox really didn't do much better than GameCube, it sold 2 million more.

The reason they both of them (and Dreamcast) failed was because of how huge the PS2 was, nothing could stop it.

And online didn't really do much, PS2 only had a few online games (and you had to buy the expansion for it) and it didn't effect the PS2 at all, online really wasn't worth talking about until last gen with the 360.

Xbox was still more successful though. It represented something the Gamecube would of been better off had the two traded places.

As for online, there where some games cancelled for Gamecube because of no online. Miniscule, but still a issue.

 

[Meelow]

No one is saying it straight up failed.

The Atari jaguar and 3do failed.

Failed compared to the PS2 I mean.

Xbox was still more successful though. It represented something the Gamecube would of been much better off had the two traded places.

As for online, there where some games cancelled for Gamecube because of no online. Miniscule, but still a issue.

The Xbox may of been more successful but they both couldn't take the heat of the PS2.

As for online games getting cancelled I do find that weird, because the GameCube did have online support (PSO), as well as another game, weird that they didn't try it or maybe they cancelled it because the expansion was hard to find.