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GameCube Really And Truly For Sale

Posted by timothy on from the if-you-care dept.

Several readers have submitted the news that the GameCube is now officially for sale. With the GameCube and Xbox newly on offer, and the still-amazing PlayStation2 still hanging on, and dirt-cheap, high-power PCs on every corner, it looks like the predicted deaths of both console and PC are still some ways off. On the whole, I'd rather have the Mandrake Gaming edition (mentioned previously) than a new console.

7 of 343 comments (clear)

  1. me too! by Lord+Omlette · · Score: 5, Funny

    I enjoy playing Pikmin on Mandrake gaming edition! I especially enjoy playing networked Super Monkey Ball on Mandrake gaming edition vs. people in the same room as me.

    --
    [o]_O
  2. I dunno about that. by trilucid · · Score: 5, Insightful


    "GameCube and Xbox newly on offer, and the still-amazing PlayStation2 still hanging on, and dirt-cheap, high-power PCs on every corner, it looks like the predicted deaths of both console and PC are still some ways off."

    Actually, in my mind at least, that's actually an indication of the problem(s) to come for hardware companies. The fact that high-powered systems are everywhere you look means the market will become saturated with "more of the same" at some point.

    Already, PC hardware manufacturers are facing vanishingly small profit margins (except for Apple, which always makes it a point to sell their stuff at a price that actually makes some money). Yeah, I know all the stuff about various tech leaders making sweeping statements about "never needing more than 640K of memory" and such, but we really are headed for a "meaningful speed" cap on this.

    The gaming market will probably be the last of the hardware sectors to really feel the crunch in this respect, because new games always drive hardware to the limits (unlike business apps, which run fine on my old P2-266). One could say that companies like Microsoft drive hardware with new (arguably bloated) OSes that require bigger & badder computers to run well, but even that has to stop at some point.

    Basically, there will be a point soon where even gaming consoles will all be "fast enough", which will mean bad news for hardware manufacturers until the "Next Big Thing" emerges to max out even cutting-edge stuff. Will it be "true virtual reality"? Who knows? I for one will be interested to see...

    1. Re:I dunno about that. by dimator · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Basically, there will be a point soon where even gaming consoles will all be "fast enough"

      ...except that it has never been about hardware performance. If it was strictly about polygons and mip-mapping, then the PS1 would not have been competition for the N64, because PS1 games all looked like shit. It's about fun games, and blockbuster titles like MGS1, Gran Turismo, Zelda, Mario, etc., make or break a system, which is why console makers love to see "exclusively for XXX" so they can have an advantage over console YYY.

      --
      python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
  3. come on by nomadic · · Score: 5, Insightful


    On the whole, I'd rather have the Mandrake Gaming edition (mentioned previously) than a new console.

    No you wouldn't. Come on, admit it.

  4. Re:what makes the game cube so great? by dimator · · Score: 5, Funny

    I personally don't see whats so great about packing a bunch of old systems into one.

    Huh? Did you read something that lead you to believe the gamecube is an amalgamation of NES, SNES, N64?

    Im not much of a gammer but even if i were i won't spend $300 on the game cube.

    That's good, because it's $200. Add a game, $250.

    --
    python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
  5. Re:PS2 still rules. by Richard5mith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I hate Gran Turismo. But anyway...

    No DVD in the GameCube allows them to be $100 cheaper than both the PS2 and the Xbox. That sounds like a good first reason for not having it. Secondly, they're marketing it as a GAMES machine, not a home-entertainment centre for your living room. And thirdly, Playstation 2 got off to a dreadful start in Japan because a ton of people bought them just as a cheap DVD player (which was somewhat of a rare thing in Japan at the time). That means they didn't buy games, the companies who created PS2 launch titles lost a fortune (like Namco) and Sony lost money too, because of course they make money from the game sales.

    Thats your other reason for no DVD in the GC. And also the reason why most Japanese developers are now happy to create games for all three consoles, instead of putting all their eggs in one basket and getting burnt again (like they did with the PS2, losing them money and killing the Dreamcast).

  6. Linux != Gaming by EchoMirage · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On the whole, I'd rather have the Mandrake Gaming edition (mentioned previously) than a new console.

    This is humping Linux for Linux' sake, but of course, it's FUD. Linux is not a gaming platform - we've seen a plethora of evidence for this. The Linux gaming companies can't turn sustained profits, games get released months (sometimes years) after their other-platform counterparts, and support is sketchy, at best.

    Timothy saying he'd rather have M:GE instead of a GameCube would be like me saying I'd rather use my bicycle to travel from LA to Boston instead of taking a plane. Sure they both serve essentially the same function, but one is more practical in an exponentially more obvious way.

    If you're going to parade Linux around, at least do so intelligently in markets where it actually has the edge.