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Gamecube Hits US Early

Posted by Hemos on from the get-it-while-you-can dept.

semaj writes "It looks like retailers are being told they can sell them as they come in instead of waiting for the November 18 offical release date. PlanetGameCube has the story. Go!" So, anyone want to get us a review unit or two?

22 of 584 comments (clear)

  1. WEll... by shpoffo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    looks liek i know where i'm going on my lunch break......

    -shpoffo

  2. Very clever... by Bill+the+Cat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...of Nintendo, in the attempt to get a jump on the xbox.

    Of course, they might have been planning this all along.

    I wonder what other interesting marketing tricks msft and nintendo have in store for each other.

    1. Re:Very clever... by Cutriss · · Score: 5, Interesting

      ...of Nintendo, in the attempt to get a jump on the xbox. Of course, they might have been planning this all along. I wonder what other interesting marketing tricks msft and nintendo have in store for each other.

      Well, while it doesn't explain why Xbox games are already on the shelf, it does explain why GameCube games were shipping rather early. My local MallWart has Super Monkey Ball, Wave Race, Luigi's Mansion, and Rogue Leader in stock right now, and has had them for a week already.

      It seems like a really good way to counter all the Xbox hype - Xbox launches with what seems to be half of its original units (~350K), and the GameCube strikes by launching four days early and with DOUBLE the number of units. Too bad it couldn't launch with double the number of games, but as far as that goes, it can work both ways.

      If your console launches by itself with 20 games, then the perception is that you're launching with that many games because ten or fifteen suck titles will make the other five or ten look REALLY good. Launching against a competitor, however...Launching with more games seems to display market confidence.

      I'm worried. I'm no fanboy, but I want Nintendo to win here because I think Microsoft has tainted enough marketspace as it is...

      --
      "Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
    2. Re:Very clever... by Boone^ · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Well, while it doesn't explain why Xbox games are already on the shelf, it does explain why GameCube games were shipping rather early.

      The PS2 launch was painful not only for the lack of hardware, but for the intermittant lack of software too. Those wanting Madden 2001 with their PS2 couldn't get one on opening day because they were in relatively short supply. No one thought that 80% of PS2 owners also wanted to be Madden 2001 owners. So, MS and Nintendo are planning on solving this by having the software out there first so the only thing people need to worry about is grabbing the hardware. Besides, if there is a shortage, already owning DoA3 will keep you from buying a Gamecube instead out of frustration.

      I'm not sure I care who wins, but I'm not going to attempt to make a statement like you are. I'll probably get an XBox because MS seems willing to put their weight (and $$) behind it. The Console Wars of 2002 are all about the games. If you want Nintendo to win, it should be because they've got better games, not because they're not Microsoft.

    3. Re:Very clever... by L-Train8 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't think this was as calculated as you imagine. The launch date is Sunday, but because of the work week, initial shipments are going to be at stores on Friday. Retailers don't want to wait, and Nintendo wants to keep on the good side of retailers. Not all retailers will get shipments on Friday, and the ones that do may not receive their full alotment of units. Depending on individual retailers and their pre-order schemes, some may want to claim they have GameCube first, others may want to wait until Sunday so they can guarantee everyone with a pre-order gets their unit.

      The available games (with the exception of Rogue Squadron) have been out in Japanese version since early September. Except for language localization, they have been done for months. Rouge is a third party game, and originally, Factor 5 was told to have it ready be a certain date or it would not be on the shelves for launch. Then the launch slipped from the 5th to the 18th, but they were already on a schedule to meet the original deadline. Since the games were ready, it makes sense to have them on the shelves a few days early, to avoid any last minute problems.

      I don't think the holiday season is going to make or break either console. Demand is going to exceed supply until next year for both. The PS2 has sold over 10 million units. Neither Nintendo nor Microsoft will be able to ship more than 1.5 million units this year.

      --

      Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
  3. not around here by egomaniac · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I called all around, and not a single retailer had any idea what I was talking about. They all planned to stick to the 18th, and found it amusing that I was even asking if they would be selling early.

    This seems to be the case pretty much everywhere, as I've been surfing Usenet and various message boards trying to find out where these alleged stores are. As far as I can tell, they don't exist -- not one person has posted credible information about a store selling GameCubes *anywhere*. Not one.

    I have a feeling the date will get broken, but it hasn't been so far. I would love to be proven wrong -- if anybody knows of a store in the SF Bay Area which is selling GameCubes, speak up!

    --
    ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
  4. Re:Metriod & Luigi's Castle! by Uttles · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I went to a cube club and played a few. My favorite was Star Wars, I'm a big fan of the movies and the game was just unbeleivable. I also like the Madden Football series, and as expected Madden 2002 kicks ass. All of the games look really good, I didn't play the others all that much. There was a huge line for Luigi's Mansion and SSBM. All in all, this thing rocks.

    --

    ~ now you know
  5. Even if you can't buy yet... by SpotBug · · Score: 2, Interesting


    ... at my local Wal-Mart they had a GameCube "kiosk" going (xbox, too). You couldn't buy one (they probably didn't even have them), but you could see what it was like. The kid at the controls was playing Mario-whatever - it looked really good. Nobody was messing with the xbox controller, so I took it over. Lots of demos listed. Of course I immediately went to Halo. There's so many buttons on the damn controller, I couldn't figure out how to get it to start playing the game so I figured it was just a movie-type demo (preview) and I ended up trying the Oddworld demo instead (not bad). Later, while I was at the mall, at an Electronics Boutique, I watched some kid playing Halo (doh!). He didn't know what he was doing (at least he figured out how to start it!), but it didn't matter. It was fantastic. Just comparing Halo to Mario-whatever, xbox wins, hands-down.

    --
    cygnuhchur
  6. Exactly... by Da+VinMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wish I could mod you up instead.

    This is exactly the path we'll be adopting. We bought a Nintendo 64 which my wife is perfectly happy with (when she gets the time to play it anyway). I would have to talk her into buying a new console. But, why the hell would I buy one? The PC *is* a better gaming platform (expecially with my Athlon 1.2Ghz + GeForce 2 GTS rig + CABLE connection + ad nauseum). So that means I don't want a new console, my wife isn't ready for one, and our children are too young still to even care (if they ever do).

    I love the look of Halo and other games coming out, but they're just not worth the $$$ of new hardware. Also, it seems wasteful to buy yet another console while we've still got a perfectly good and under-utilized one already. Combine that with a decent PC and no console for us.

    Also - Is is just me, or are there just too many damn games coming out (PC and otherwise)???!!! I mean, I barely have time to finish the games I already have. I can ill afford the time spent on new ones. Maybe I should just crawl under a rock until I finish the ones I have. When I come out again, there should be a whole new lineup about 2 generations in quality further along.

    Now, if Halo comes out in regular PC format, I may just jump at that. But that's the last one. Really..

    I'm serious.

    Really.

    --
    Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
  7. The Future of the XPlayGameBoxStationCubes by BigJimSlade · · Score: 2, Interesting
    With the price of PC hardware falling (I speced out a Ghz Athlon machine for a friend with a 486[!] for around $500 on Pricewatch), are systems that cost $200-$300 for a base system really going to be worth it to people? Especially considering games are more and more brought out on every major platform (Sega's new strategy), will we see a phaseout of stand alone consoles (or at least a price drop to make them more appealing to people spending a little more to get a full blown computer)?

    Maybe this is more of an Ask Slashdot question...

  8. It's so hard to choose .. by dda · · Score: 3, Interesting
    To spend money in a new gaming machine is always dangerous, even with a famous company such as Nintendo.
    • Even if the hardware is good :
    • you don't know if the development will be good (remember the first PS2 games),
    • you don't know if its presence on the market will be sufficient to have a good game offer
    I'd rather prefer to wait some weeks after its diffusion to know if it's good enough to spend my money in (of course if everybody is doing like that it will never happen :)) I think we can trust Nintendo, but having to see if the PS2 was good enough for me, I've bought one, and don't find it uselful to have two consoles of the "same" generation.
    Maybe I'm paranoid or "geeky-minded" enough, but at least I'm really happy with my choices doing it this way.
  9. Street Dating Explained From the Inside by shadowcabbit · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The word at EB is that if we break street date on ANY new product (not just GCN, but MGS2, X-Box, or the like) we (the company, and most likely the individual store) get fined $100K. The reason for this is that when you spend millions on an ad crusade fixated on one date and the (game/machine/widget) comes out early, the campaign is immediately wasted. (Nintendo/Microsoft/Konami) doesn't want their entire ad budget to go down the toilet all at once, so they impose these fines. It may be strongarm tactics, but hell, it's not like it's price fixing or something worse. I say if they want to build suspense-- and that's exactly the reason for street dates-- then let them.
    Besides, it's not like there're really going to be any left for walk-in sales anyway...

    --
    "Why Subscribe?" Good question...
    1. Re:Street Dating Explained From the Inside by brer_rabbit · · Score: 3, Interesting

      From my experience at a music/video store, product usually gets to the store ~1 week before release. If a distributor finds you stocking your shelves with it early they'll often "punish" you by not sending the merchandise early next time, perhaps waiting until the release date or slightly after to send you the new merchandise.

    2. Re:Street Dating Explained From the Inside by Kingfox · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Entirely correct, as a fellow EB employee (at least on the weekends). The list of 'street dates' for DVDs in particular is religiously held to. While most game companies allow EB to sell a game that ships early, consoles and DVDs are kept in back locked up. Hell, people can pick up their GCN and X-Box games, and have been able to buy them for days... it's just the console that's been sitting in the back.

      I've had customers offer me bribes to get various things (like the Godfather DVD set) early.

      Also, your point about having none left is entirely correct. We 'sold out' of GCN weeks ago, and 'sold out' of X-Box preorders months ago. The same thing happened with the PS2 last year, and DC before that... people never seem to learn that they need to preorder these things. The only way to really get an X-Box now is to camp out at a store that doesn't take preorders Wednesday night, or pay a fortune on EBay.

      In reference to your other post, our GM is buying us a few cases of Red Bull for Thursday. Encourage your GM to do the same!

  10. Re:Nintendo's games are horrible by spideyct · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Its just you.

    Nintendo has consistently shown that they know how to make great games. Their first party games always have the best gameplay dynamics and replay value. Resident Evil is a great example of a horrible "game" with great graphics and shock value. When you watch it, it looks cool. When you play it, it feels like you are playing Dragon's Lair from a past decade.

    Get over the bright colors and cute characters and actually play one of the Mario games, or Waverace, or any other Nintendo 1st party game. You will never play any other game with such tight control and attention to design.

  11. Re:Nintendo's games are horrible by Krilomir · · Score: 2, Interesting
    ...Maybe it's because I'm older than 12. But do gorwn adults actually enjoy playing all of the damned Mario/Luigi, and Pokemon games that are produced for Nintendo? ..... On the other hand, PS2 has some incredible graphic, violent, adult games like Resident Evil: Codename Veronica and Silent Hill II....

    Maybe your prefer violent games because you want to look cool and grownup. You're right that a lot of nintendo games look childish, and they are. It actually makes them playable by people at all ages. It's all about gameplay, and some violent games like those you mentioned aren't always very fun to play. Still, teenagers like you play them because they're adults' games and it's cool to play them. I know a lot of adults who play nintendo-games, myself being one of them.

    To answer your question: there are also some non-kiddie games comming out for the GC, Metroid being one of them. Now, if Square made some cool RPGs for gamecube, maybe even I would buy one :)

  12. Re:Nintendo's games are horrible by NineNine · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No, I disagree. For my wife and I, games aren't all about gameplay. If they were, then I'd have a Gameboy with a few pixellated colors moving rapidly around the screen. I actually enjoy a good story, good characters, good scenery, etc. What's the story behind Mario Kart, or hell, Mario*? I guess that the Nintendo games tend to be more pure hand-eye-coordination than have any real depth to them. Or look at the Pokemon stuff. From what I can tell, it's a massive list of made up anime characters that have numerical characteristics. Where's the fun in that? That's the kind of things that younger kids generally go for. I'm just really curoius as to how many grown men really enjoy Nintendo. Or maybe it's just a geek thing, I don't know.

  13. PS2, X-Box, and Gamecube (oh my). by smack_attack · · Score: 5, Interesting

    First off, let me tell you that I am biased, I have a PS2 and about 15 games (and about 30 or so PS1 games). That said, I am not looking to buy either a X-Box or Gamecube.

    Ok, now that I have that off my chest, I would like to declare the current state of affairs in the gaming world:

    The lineup.
    - PS2 has already won among those 16+ (adult gamers).

    - Nintendo will always win with kids under 16 because it's their parents who buy it for them. Nintendo is going to trounce X-Box in X-mas sales.

    - MS has a place, but it's a shame that for now it's going to be last. X-box reminds me of Nader, because you know he's not going to win, but he's going to take votes away from someone else. in this case, taking sales away from PS2. X-Box is the other console geared at 16+ crowds.

    For the sake of brevity, I'm going to leave Gamecube out of the rest of this discussion, Nintendo knows their target audience and how to market to them, bravo for them, they aren't going out of business anytime soon. X-Box however has a LONG road to travel, uphill, in snow. The PS2 is already beginning to release 2nd generation titles and is slated to release additional hardware/mods to their console soon (I believe it was Q1 2002, if anyone knows the exact timing, let me know). X-Box has still yet to prove itself as a worthy contendor to any console.

    Christmas shoppers and Terrorists.
    Another blow to the X-Box is also their strong selling point, games geared towards adults. Well, a year ago, many parents might have turned a blind eye to video game violence that their kids ingested, but now we have evil terrorists and we have to protect the children. Chalk that round up to Gamecube and their family oriented games.

    The conclusion.
    Gamecube will take the sales lead this season, with *gasp* X-Box right behind them. Sales of games for PS2 will be astronomical though as many buyers are now asking for titles instead of units.

    --

    Hammer of Truth
  14. Re:Gamecube Vs. Xbox.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The "bitness" of processors doesn't really mean much in terms of overall processing power.

    For example, the CPU in the Playstation2 is 300mhz and the graphics chip ~150mhz. The internal bus (inside the two processors) is 4096bits. The problem is that the overall PS2 bus is only 128bits, so you have a bottleneck which restricts performance. Dispite this, creative programming has shown that the PS2 is still very powerful and quite capable of delivering high-quality graphcs with only 4megs of video ram.

    The Xbox CPU (which is a tweaked Pentium3 733) is faster than its 128bit counterpart (namely the GameCube's 128bit 485Mhz Gekko CPU) due to one factor: BRUTE FORCE.

    One cpu is Risc and the other Cisc. While the P3's Cisc archetecture isn't nearly as efficient as the Gekko's Risc, it's been so heavily optimized over the last 20 years that it still performs quite well.

    Also keep in mind that the Xbox has a 233mhz GeForce graphics chip.. while the GameCube has a 162mhz ATI "Flipper" chip (which is similar to the ATI Radeon). Benchmarks and software have proven that the GeForce is superior is most every way to the Radeon.

    Thus one could surmise that the Xbox is indeed more powerful than the GameCube. However, the same could be said that both are more powerful than the PS2, yet PS2 games continue to get more and more impressive as the programmers push the hardware.

    My feeling is this... we're going to see the performance limitations of the Xbox and GameCube much sooner in their lifespans than the PS2. Yes, the GC and Xbox will show their superiority (over PS2) in a year or so.. but I feel that you aren't going to see the big improvements from first, to second, to third generation software on GC and Xbox that has been witnessed on PS2.

    In the end, however, all the benchmarks and numbers don't mean jack if the games suck.

    Don't judge each console soely on numbers.. buy the one that has the games you like most.

  15. Re:Gamecube Vs. Xbox.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Gamecube's CPU is only 64-bit, not 128-bit, but has a 128-bit wide internal bus to allow all internal processing units full access to the RAM simultaneously, so you can claim 128-bit.

    Gamecube's CPU also has single-cycle execution of all functions, meaning that every cycle, one instruction is being finished. The Pentium 3, on the other hand, does not have guaranteed cycle-execution, and typically can have 12 or more cycles.

    It's like people touting off horsepower for a cars performance. Well, a Semi truck has more horsepower than my friends RX-7, but I'd wager that the RX-7 can beat a stock tractor-trailer truck in a drag race.

    Now, someone else said that the Art-X GPU in the Gamecube is similar to the ATI Raedon. BZT! It was designed by Art-X, which was later purchased by ATI. It has zero, nada, nothing in common, since Art-X had no knowledge of the internals of the Raedon. I've used Art-X's PC chipset before, it's not great IMHO, but it did have more features than GeForce *and* Raedon.

    (and can someone please sue nVidia for false advertising that they created the concept of a GPU, as the Atari Jaguar had a GPU a full 3 years before the nVidia company was even formed!)

  16. Current Battle and Brief Lookof the Video Game War by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Remember the Sega Saturn?

    The system that failed primarily due to being difficult to program for? Funny how Sony beat the Saturn and will now fall pray to the same defeat.

    The PS2 is hard to program for, the XBox and Gamecube are both easy. How much you want to bet that games are now made for XBox and/or Gamecube and then ported to the PS2, meaning no more heavy duty PS2 games like Metal Gear.

    I also fine it funny that a lot of MS bashers are pro X-Box. I was actually a little X-Box until I saw the Gamecube in action, that and their new approach towards older gamers (if u think they are still kids only, you haven't bothered to check out their advertising or their line up).
    Let's also take in account MS near snubbing of the Japanese market and with MS's problems in the UK, they are going to have a tough enough time as it is and no company can win with only the American market.

    Nintendo's only major fault so far has been a disinterest in 3rd party development (a key to the PS longevity), this has also been MS strong point so far. Nintendo has smartly been going after the older market and with Sega doing a lot on the Gamecube (Phantasy Star Online will probably be the first online game of the three systems), my bet is Nintendo won't be going anywhere anytime soon. If they can capture both a younger market and older market (why can't a game system do both?) they will most definately win this battle.

    Competition is great and gaming will become better and cheaper (funny how MS doesn't take this approach with their software as easily as it does here). I also notice MS taking more of the low road in anti-marketing, mentioning that the football in their football game has more video memory then all of gamecube (whatever), and really trashing the PS2.

    Only downside is there has never been 2 systems successfully competiting at once.

    In dealing with the major video battles...

    We had Atari, Intellivision and the not as successful Coleco. (which was still a great system :)

    We had Nintendo and Sega for 8 bits (good time for gamers :)

    Then we had SNES, Genesis and the short lived TurboGraphix.

    Atari Jaguar also came out at some point in here and failed miserably.

    Then we had the PS, Saturn and N64 and came along the short lived 3D0.

    At this time 3D0 kicked out early, and Sega was starting to hurt.

    We then had the Dreamcast and PS2 (sega folds).

    And now at this moment we have XBox, GC, and PS2.

    Highly doubt that 3 can survive (most have the same games anyway), there just isn't enough market share. The PS2 and XBox are both leaning towards 'home entertainment' to get more audience, but it just isn't going to happen anytime soon. XBox is going for hardcore gamers, but most hardcore gamers I know use their PC and will continue to do so.

    I'm going Gamecube since I know Nintendo isn't going to go anywhere soon and I know their games are quality and going to continue to be so. I fear that PS2 and Xbox are more in neck and neck and I don't feel they will both survive (especially since they are going for the same specific market)...

    Anyway it turns out though, it's going to be fun to watch :) Let's just hope it doesn't end up like the post Atari years...

  17. Re:Why I am buying an Xbox by Gizzmonic · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Face it - SCEA and Nintendo America could really care less if there are really cool titles in the US.

    This is one of the best arguments in favor of buying an X-Box I've heard. The Dreamcast is the only platform where publishers had the balls to release some of the way-out Japanese games in the US (Samba de Amigo, Bangaioh, Rival Schools etc).

    The DC was doing very well in the US and Europe (sold more units on launch than the Saturn did in its entire run) but sales were sluggish in Japan.

    Although the US and Europe were bringing in all the money, SEGA of Japan was very tight with SEGA of America's purse strings (they were only allowed to do big ad campaigns for 'major games' like Shenmue and Sonic Adventure 2.)

    They also wasted a ton of money on licensing Ferarri F355 Challenge for the US market because it was a Yu Suzuki game, although it was such a rigid simulation it was doomed to failure in the US, and everyone knew it. Games like Jet Set Radio, Samba De Amigo, and Phantasy Star Online didn't get the ad space they needed to reach a respectable audience. AFAIK, the only reason SEGA's so chummy with Microso~1 is for free advertising.

    So...I hate Microso~1, and I won't be buying an X-box, but it would be nice to have a competitor to Sony and Nintendo that would put pressure on Japanese companies to bring more games over.

    --
    (-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)